Adriano Camargo Rodrigues da Cunha wrote:
Hi Adriano,
First congrats on the new Uzix! It seems incredibly promising!
Now it's about SCSI devices. I think KonamiMan, Manuel and
Eric Boon are the right people to answer them... :)
I don't know much about the technical details of the Novaxis, but I do konw
something about the usage of it. Most of it I leared from Maico Arts though.
The partition table of Gouda/Novaxis/Fudeba SCSI interfaces
are standard? A decoding routine for MegaSCSI partition table will
work on a Novaxis partition table?
Can someone send me the *physical* sector 0 of a SCSI HD
connected to a Novaxis interface?
According to Maico and others they are not standard at all. A pc with
Windows can read only the first partition of the Novaxis partitions, Maico
told me. But with the NFDISK 1.2 program (to create the partitions (maybe
you should download and disassemble it...?)) you can create 3 types of
partition tables:
FAT12 (Old MSX)
FAT12 (Old PC)
Extended
I think the Extended one is needed if you want to use more than 6
partitions. But please fill me in on the details! I have no idea what the
exact difference is between those types.
If one would like to use the extended partition (i.e. use more than 6
partitions per SCSI device) it should be turned on in the BIOS setup menu.
2) SCSI IDs
See Nestor's info. You have to remember the ID's indeed, but it's not a big
problem. If you have more than one SCSI device on the Novaxis, you have to
turn on the optoin Multiple HDD support in the BIOS setup menu. IT will
then scan the SCSI bus for all devices. When finished, it lists the ID
numbers and the manufacturers strings and stuff. The computer will boot
from the partition which is setup (in the BIOS menu) as the Target ID. IF
you turn Multiple HDD support off, it will just look for a device on this
Target ID. The first partition of the device on the Target ID SCSI bus is
selected as drive A: in MSX-DOS.
If you want to select a partion, you will indeed have to remember the SCSI
ID. E.g.: I want to select partition 12 of my harddisk on SCSI ID 5 to
MSX-DOS drive F:
MAP32 F 5 12
where MAP32 (or MAP) is the partition selection program again.
I use this program very often, since as we know in DOS we can have only 8
drives, so I have only 6 partitions visible at any time. Great and logical
that Uzix breaks this limit.
3) Novaxis
---
How many people you know that own a Novaxis interface? Do
they have the latest BIOS (1.50) installed?
It's one of the most popular SCSI interfaces in the NL, next to MegaSCSI
(which is a lot more expensive) and BERT (or MK, which is a lot slower).
With the Novaxis you can get at least 108kB/S on a normal MSX2 and I got
248kB/s on 8MHz MSX2. Turbo-R is even faster and as Marcel Delorme showed,
optimizing the BIOS can improve this even. I am talking about sector
reading, btw.
Anybody knows what the LUN parameter (Logical UNit) means for
the Novaxis interface? Is it important? The docs I have say that LUN
is usually 0. Can I use LUN allways equal to 0?
I have no idea.
Maybe Geert de Boom (of former MSX Club Gouda) has some contacts? I have
his e-mail adres somewhere IIIRC it was [EMAIL PROTECTED], but I might be
wrong, so please don't spam this address...
Good luck and I really hope to install Uzix 2 on my MSX with Novaxis i/f soon!
UZIX RULES!
--
Grtjs, Manuel
PS: MSX 4EVER! (Questions? See http://www.faq.msxnet.org/)
PPS: Visit my homepage: http://bilderbeek.cjb.net/
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