Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!van-bc!rthurlow
From: rthurlow@van-bc.UUCP (Rob Thurlow)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Adaptec controller boards
Keywords: Hard disks, controllers
Message-ID: <2312@van-bc.UUCP>
Date: 11 Mar 89 06:36:52 GMT
References: <36500062@iuvax> <15539@cup.portal.com> <404@ultb.UUCP>
Reply-To: rthurlow@van-bc.UUCP (Rob Thurlow)
Organization: Wimsey Associates, Vancouver, BC.
Lines: 37

In article <404@ultb.UUCP> clf3678@ultb.UUCP (C.L. Freemesser (709ITP)) writes:
>Let's see if we can get this straight.
>
>The Adaptek 4000 and 4000A are the MFM controllers.
>The Adaptek 4070 and 4070A are the RLL controllers.
>
>I THINK the A is just a revision of the older 4000/4070.

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please, people, check your facts!  This thread could result in a lot of
people buying the wrong card.  I quote from the Adaptec "ACB-4000 Series
User's Manual":

   "The ACB-4000A Controller ... supports SCSI features and controls two
   Winchester drives.  The ACB-4000A also supports both hard-sectored and
   soft-sectored removable drives, as well as all ST506/412 type fixed
   drives.  The ACB-4000A was previously known as two separate products, the
   ACB-4000 and the ACB-4010.  It is fully compatible with these products."

The inescapable conclusion I come to after reading that is that the Adaptec
4000 (no 'A') is NOT complete, and that you would need the 4010 as well to
get a working system.  If this is wrong, someone with a 4000 (no 'A') should
break their silence and put us straight about the differences.  DO NOT BUY
AN ADAPTEC 4000 unless you know how it differs from the 4000A, because the
4000A is the one people are running.

Buy an Adaptec 4000A for MFM and a 4070 for RLL; that *works* (I have the
former sitting directly in front of me).  There does not appear to have ever
been an Adaptec 4070.  This "I THINK" crap is just going to cause trouble;
if you don't have it, BTFM or CTFM so that you can RTFM.
-- 
"There was something fishy about the butler.  I think he was a
 Pisces, probably working for scale."   - Nick Danger
Robert Thurlow              {uunet,ubc-cs}!van-bc!rthurlow
Vancouver, BC, Canada       or rthurlow@van-bc.UUCP
In the heart of Kitsilano   or rthurlow@wimsey.bc.ca