Subject: Re: About the QBus EIDE interface...
To: Lord Isildur <mrfusion@argonath.vaxpower.org>
From: Cthulhu <cthulhu@flashnet.it>
List: port-vax
Date: 01/26/2002 15:22:43
On Wed, Jan 23, 2002 at 02:43:28PM -0500, Lord Isildur wrote:

> this sounds really kludgy.. It could be done, but it's really ugly, and it
> then brings a PC along for the ride, with all its own problems. If one is

But that would cheap, easy to build, easy to upgrade.

> gonna go that route, it is much cleaner to just netboot and use the other
> machine as an nfs server or something. plus, you can do that right now,
> and dont need to do anything else for it.

Not all VAXen have an ethernet card!

> A better solution is what's already being discussed: an MSCP server on a
> Qbus card. While i'd personally prefer SCSI to IDE, the ability to put any

Oh, but I meant that the PC driver emulated an MSCP controller!

You want to build a whole Qbus card, with CPU and all the logic. I was
just thinking a way to use the CPU and the software we already have:
PCs.

	[ Oh, now think about this: a QBus to Ethernet convertor. That
	is, not an ethernet card, but something that would be able to
	encapsulate all QBus signal into ethernet frames, in bot ways.
	On the other side, a "more common" host which can emulate with
	software anything we can emulate: MSCP, SCSI, DSSI, up to
	serial, printer and maybe video card! 
	Uh?
	Ok, no more white dust before posting. ]

BTW, I once said around on the web a site with an interface that claimed
to be able to do IDE -> SCSI conversion (using IDE disk on SCSI host).
They wanted a lot of money...

> while some of us, myself included, are lucky enough to have a sufficient
> supply of the CMD, emulex, and few other qbus/scsi cards, most of the users
> here and elsewhere probably arent. 

That's me! :(

> gave some problems from the uda.. i think there are probably still some bugs
> to be worked out of the mscp code there. It's definitely good enough to 
> start with, though,i think.

See what I mean? :)
We already have an MSCP emulator, and it runs on Windows/Unix.

> (Now, something that i am personally really interested in is DSSI/SCSI 
> converters... *grin*)

Indeed. :)

	farneticatamente,
	    Cthulhu

-- 

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