On Mon, Mar 18, 2019 at 7:16 PM Charles Dickman via cctalk < [email protected]> wrote:
> What is the experience with the SCSI2SD with old computers? It looks to be > SCSI-1 and SCSI-2 compatible and I see a lot of reports of usage on this > list. I am curious about how well it works and which version to get. > > Versions up to 5 seem to be GPLed and reasonably available. V6 does not > seem to have schematics or boards open sourced and I haven't seen a > supplier for them. The web page lists some sources, but they don't have the > V6 available. > > It looks like the V6 is not open because someone used the design without > following the GPL. > > V6 claims synchronous transfers, but I don't think most of my hardware > supports it. That consists of VAXstations and qbus scsi cards. If I was > after speed I wouldn't be using old hardware, but the speed has to be > consistent with the era. > > Chuck > I've been using the V5 boards in a variety of systems for a few years now -- VAX (micro-and-otherwise), PDP-11 (via the usual Emulex and CMD controllers), Sun-2 and Sun-3 workstations, HP/Apollo 400 systems, a Symbolics XL1200, various old Macintosh systems and probably some other things I've forgotten. At LCM+L we're using them in our VAX-11/785 and 730, and we're using a V6 in our 7000-640. I've had very few issues and the developer has been very responsive to bug reports (though I'll admit it's been a couple of years since I've had to report one). The V5 is plenty fast for most vintage gear, I don't think they come close to hitting the max throughput. That's what I'd recommend for the systems you're talking about. - Josh
