Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc:16542 comp.periphs:1026
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!steinmetz!davidsen
From: davidsen@steinmetz.ge.com (William E. Davidsen Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.periphs
Subject: Re: TECHNICAL DETAILS: Perstor RLL controllers
Message-ID: <11294@steinmetz.ge.com>
Date: 20 Jun 88 14:27:52 GMT
References: <243@octopus.UUCP> <288@bby-bc.UUCP>
Reply-To: davidsen@crdos1.UUCP (bill davidsen)
Organization: General Electric CRD, Schenectady, NY
Lines: 22

In article <288@bby-bc.UUCP> john@bby-bc.UUCP (john) writes:

| What does the controller look like to the operating system - does it
| pretend to have twice as many tracks (or heads) or does software have
| to know there are up to 34 sectors/track?  I realize they probably
| provide software for dos but it would be real nice to be able to
| drop it into an AT unix box and have work (I know - probably too much
| to hope for).

  Well, Xenix/386 (and 286, I'm told) asks for the heads tracks *and
sectors* when installing. The heads and tracks can be configured to
non-standard types, I would bet money (the price of the PS180
controller) that the sectors can be changed, too.

  I have some serious questions on how well UNIX handles sectors going
bad when the system is running. What I've seen indicates that most AT
versions don't handle it at all well... backups are guns; better to have
one and not need it, than to need one and not have it.
-- 
	bill davidsen		(wedu@ge-crd.arpa)
  {uunet | philabs | seismo}!steinmetz!crdos1!davidsen
"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me