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From: raymond@gem.stack.urc.tue.nl (Raymond Nijssen)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: WD-1006 RLL controller problem, so do I
Message-ID: <124@gem.stack.urc.tue.nl>
Date: 3 Jan 91 13:57:02 GMT
References: <40441@nigel.ee.udel.edu>
Organization: Stack, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
Lines: 22

D98E%DDATHD21.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu (Peter Lautenschlaeger) writes:
>> I've been working on bringing up MINIX 1.5 with Bruce Evans' 386
>> enhancements on my new DTK 386sx with a WD-1006 RLL controller and
>> 120Mb Seagate RLL drive.  Occasionally, but often enough to
>> be annoying, the machine locks up during a hard disk access
>> with my process (be it cp, fsck, or anything else) waiting on
>> FS, FS waiting on WINCHester, and the IDLE task just racks up
>> time.
> I have the same problem on NEAT 20Mhz 286 machine, this seems to
> me a common problem. I dimly remember having heard of timing problems
> with this controller. But I can't remember the answer.

Fortunately, this is not a common problem. The problem Peter refers to
does only occur if you (1) use 2 harddisks and (2) your OS uses overlapped
seeks, i.e. letting one drive seek while transferring data on the other one.

Since you don't have 2 drives, and Minix doesn't support overlapped seeks
(like ISC), this infamous WD1006 bug is not likely to be your problem.
BTW, I have indications that WD1006 chips without the word 'PROTO' on them
do not have this problem. Maybe someone else might comment on this.

-Raymond