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From: terry@spcvxb.spc.edu (Terry Kennedy, Operations Mgr.)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec
Subject: Re: hard drives for q-bus
Message-ID: <1991Apr16.055810.1249@spcvxb.spc.edu>
Date: 16 Apr 91 05:58:10 GMT
References: <1991Apr11.114144.79@ulkyvx.bitnet> <1991Apr15.190345.5198@ni.umd.edu>
Organization: St. Peter's College, US
Lines: 21

In article <1991Apr15.190345.5198@ni.umd.edu>, mike@UC780.UMD.EDU (Mike Santangelo) writes:

> Well, the DEC RQDX3 uses MFM & ST506 connections, but the drive types
> for 2 drives (RD53 and RD54, dunno about RD52) are hardcoded in ROM
> on the board.  These are really just off-she-shelf ST506 hard disks
> from QUANTUM and MAXTOR (well, DEC tweaked the motor power control on
> one I beleive to let it ramp up to speed more slowly to ease the power
> supply).

  Just to set the record straight - the RQDX3 writes the drive geometry
information to the disk when it is first formatted. After that, the disk-
resident copy is used. The RQDX3 can support user-defined geometries as
well, but you need to be _very_ familiar with the way DEC does MSCP.

  The RD54 is a modified Maxtor XT-2190, the 53 is a modified Micropolis
1325, the 52 is either a Quantum Q540 or an Atasi 3046, but _never_ an
Evotek 5540 [That's an in joke], and the 51 is an ST-412.

	Terry Kennedy		Operations Manager, Academic Computing
	terry@spcvxa.bitnet	St. Peter's College, US
	terry@spcvxa.spc.edu	(201) 915-9381