Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnewsj!paulm
From: paulm@cbnewsj.att.com (paul.j.maioriello)
Subject: 2090/st-506 revisited
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 90 03:57:21 GMT
Message-ID: <1990Oct18.035721.2305@cbnewsj.att.com>
Keywords: Thanks Dave!!
Lines: 43


Thanks to suggestions from Dave Haynie, I have gotten the 2090 with
a CDC WREN st-506 drive to work fairly reliably in my a3000 (it's not
perfect yet).

The procedure to follow is:

1. run NoFastMem
2. run BindDrivers (Binddrivers works every time now)
3. Mount your partitions

In order to get it to work, it seems you have to get the 32 bit memory
out of the way.  My first attempt at doing this was to
use the value 2 for the BufMemType parameter in the mountlist file.
What I want would like to try doing next is to
re-enable the 32 bit memory after the partions are mounted.  If I do this
now, all the problems come back.  Looking through the 3000 documentation,
page 7-52 tells about all the stuff you can put in your mountlists file.
It seems to me that a key value is what you put in the Mask parameter.
THe description states "Address Mask to specify memory range that DMA
transfers can use".  It seems to me that tweaking this parameter is how
you can keep DMAs into 32 bit memory from happening.  THe problem is I
have no idea what value to use.  None of the mountlist examples I have
seen even include this parameter yet it seems like it might actually
be just what is needed to solve this problem.

So, am I on the right track here, or what?  Right now, I have to choose
between my drives OR my memory.  Maybe I'm greedy, but I want BOTH
(simultaneously even)!!!

By the way, given the continually falling costs of st-506 drives, they
make great backup devices.  I currently have the interface cables hanging
out of the back of the 3000.  When I want to make a backup of the internal
SCSI, I just wheel up a 506 hook it up, mount it, and copy away.  It's
fairly fast, and in a pinch you can still use it for on-line storage.


Thanks in advance for any help.



Paul M.
lzatt!pjm