Re: I did a test on a DEC AlphaStation 600 and the SCSI driver seems borked

[Jason Thorpe <thorpej%me.com@localhost>]

> On Feb 17, 2026, at 3:20 PM, Dennis Clarke <dclarke%blastwave.org@localhost> wrote:
> 
> On 2/17/26 7:34 AM, Jason Thorpe wrote:
>>> On Feb 17, 2026, at 7:27 AM, Jason Thorpe <thorpej%me.com@localhost> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Tsunami / Typhoon / Titan have 4 DMA windows in addition to the Monster Window, and this is how they’re used on NetBSD today:
>> Oh, I forgot to mention, this configuration gets the snot beat out of it on jklos’s DS25:
>>     https://dmesgd.nycbug.org/dmesgd?do=view&id=7447
>> ..which is used to do NetBSD/alpha pkgsrc bulk builds.  But his machine has Adaptec SCSI controllers, not QLogic.
> 
> At great risk of showing how little I know about the Alpha hardware I must ask a few questions :
> 
>    1) can I take a circa 1998 - 2002 era Adaptec controller and just
>         slap it into a slot on my DEC AlphaStation 600 ?

Yes, but your SRM (firmware) might not have a driver for it, and if not, it won’t be able to boot from it.  I would put the chances of an AlphaStation 600 SRM having an Adaptec driver at approximately 0.0002%.

>    2) I also have multiple Symbios logic type HBA controllers, would
>         those be accepted ?

If they’re the 53c810 (NCR / Symbios SIOP) family, then yes, that should pretty much work out of the box on ~every PCI Alpha, including booting from it, since that’s the SCSI controller that was installed on them in the early days.

    https://dmesgd.nycbug.org/dmesgd?do=view&id=6150

>    3) Just about any decent network card from that era such as 3COM
>         or similar ?

NetBSD will be able to use it (well, should, anyway; I’ve tested many on Alpha, but not all).  But you won’t be able to network boot from it unless it’s real Tulip-based interface (or some other one that SRM supports natively; I’ve booted my AXPpci33 from the DEC Etherworks ISA network board because, well, it’s a DEC Etherworks ISA board :-)

> I am looking to sidestep this problem entirely with an Adaptec for a while. At the very least I would have an alternative way to boot and
> run and build a new "NetBSD-current" while *also* having the original
> controller still in there. The best of both worlds would be multiple
> SCSI disks from multiple controllers across multiple PCI slots. That
> would be ideal.

You will probably not be able to boot from the Adaptec SCSI on an AlphaStation 600.  A 53c810 / 53c825 or similar board would almost certainly work, though.

-- thorpej