|
|
| Home > FAQ on different themes > acorn > faq > |
Comp.Sys.Acorn.FAQ part 4 of 4 |
Section 2 of 2 - Prev - Next
RPC700 2x Sony CDU50E IDE Acorn none RPC700 2x Cuma. Bravo SLCD Cumana Unplug CDFSAtapi RPC700 4x Sony CDU-76E IDE Acorn none RPC700 4x Panasonic CR504B SCSI-C Morley none RPC700 4x Mitsumi FX400 IDE Acorn none RPC700 4x NEC CDR-273 IDE Acorn only works in 2x RPC700 6x NEC CDR-1300A IDE Acorn only works in 2x RPC700SA 6x NEC CDR-1300A IDE Acorn only works in 2x RPC700 8x Goldstar GCD-R580B IDE Acorn possible clash with some h.d. RPC700SA 12x Teac CD-512E IDE Acorn none RPC700SA 8x Toshiba XM-56028 IDE Acorn none Problem Drives -------------- Many drives don't work with the standard drivers found in RiscOS. This is usually due to differences between the implementation of ATAPI in the drives. Third party drivers (soft-loadable modules) are available (eg from EESOX) and some IDE and SCSI cards come with new drivers built in. CD ROM Equivalents ------------------ Manuf Model Manuf Model Apple CD300 Sony CDU-8003A Rev. 1.9a Cumana ProTeus Panasonic PD2000Floppy disk ----------- Computer Type Size Manuf. Model Interface Interface Special type manuf Requirements ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- A310 5.25" 19Mb QUME HF24DR G05 SCSI-U Morley none A5000 Zip 100MB Iomega ZIP 100 SCSI Oak none A5000 Zip 100MB Iomega ZIP 100 SCSI Lingenuity no LL format * This scsi card will initialise a partition but won't low-level format RPC600 Zip 100MB Iomega ZIP 100 SCSI-2 Alsystems none RPC700 Zip 100MB Iomega ZIP 100 SCSI-2 Alsystems none Note: Powertec supports DOS format for Zip drives RPC700 Zip 100MB Iomega ZIP 100 SCSI-U Morley none * The parallel port Zip drive can now be used with the Acorn driver, but requires driver software. This is available from Argo or Partis Computing. If your scsi software does not support zip drives, see the Tape Streamer section for details. * The write-protection feature of Zip discs is not at present available via any of the scsi drivers. It is fully supported by the parallel port driver. Tape streamers -------------- Computer Size Type Manuf. Model Interface Interface Special type manuf Requirements ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- A5000 230MB magopt Fujitsu M2512A SCSI-2 CUMANA none A540 230MB magopt Fuji 2512A SCSI Oak none A540 230MB magopt Fuji 2512A SCSI-16 AAD none RPC600 230MB magopt Fuji 2512A SCSI Acorn !magopt RPC600 230MB magopt Fuji 2512A SCSI Oak none RPC600 230MB magopt Fuji 2512A SCSI QD-16 none RPC600 525MB qic ? ? SCSI-2 cumana Settings: tapebackgrounding off, tapemaxtransfer 1, tapebuffer 16k, scsidisconnect 6 on and *unplug DMAManager RPC600 2.3G 8mm Exabyte EXB 8200 SCSI-2 Cumana !tapefs RPC700SA 230kb/s Settings: tapebackgrounding off, tapemaxtransfer 64kb, tapebuffer 512kb. RPC700 1.3G DAT HP - SCSI-C Morley none RPC700 1G DAT WangDAT 1300 SCSI Cumana Settings: Backgrounding off, disconnect off, and set drive to SCSI-1 standard (because tapefs=scsi1?) Tape equivalents ---------------- Some data tapes are identical to consumer AV products. Most manufacturers don't recommend use of the cheaper tapes for data storage but they do work. DDS or 4mm tape is equivalent to DAT (Digital Audio Tape). A two-hour tape is the same as a 60m, and you can get three hours of audio on a 90m. 8mm tape is equivalent to Video-8. Currently I have no information on tape sizes or merits of using standard or Hi8. Configuration ------------- You may need to tweak the options to make your device work properly. Different drives have different requirements, so experimentation might be necessary. Zip drives require a different setup from the other backup devices. Some users report nothing more than running their scsi config software to identify the drive to the system, the drive appearing as a hard disc. Others are using MagFS. To set up Magfs: Download Magfs from Hensa. Set the MO$SCSI in the Run file of !MagOpt to to match the scsi id of the drive. Insert a blank disk and run MO-form. Enter 4 or 5 at first request. Enter N at second request for a low level format. Run !Magopt. Some magopt users are running tapefs. Don't know why. Software for tape streamers can be obtained from the following sources: tapefs is in ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/mirrors/hensa/micros/arch/riscos/a/a050 magfs is in ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/mirrors/hensa/micros/arch/riscos/d/d160 tar is in ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/mirrors/hensa/micros/arch/riscos/a/a052 It has been found that the released version of tar won't handle image files (archives, for example). A patched version is available which will cope with these can be found at ftp://ftp.comlab.ox.ac.uk:/tmp/Robin.Watts/Tar_hack Modems ------ Computer Modem Protocol Manuf Model Interface Interface Interface Special speed blockdriver manuf Best speed Reqs ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- A310 9600 - Pace MicroLin internal Acorn 19k2 none A310 14.4K V32bis Escom 14400 sp_dual Atomwide 57600 RO3.1 A410/1 28.8K V34 USR Sportster internal Acorn 9600 none A410/1 28.8K V34 USR Sportster sp_dual MK2 TSP 115200 none A5000 28800 V.34 Zoom V.34 sp_dualpc mk2 TSP 115200 none A5000 14400 V.32b USR Courier sp_dualpc mk2 TSP 57600 none A5000 14400 V.32b USR Courier internalpc Acorn 38400 none A5000 14400 V.32b Pace MicroLinfx sp_dualpc m2 TSP 57600 none A3000 14400 V.32b USR Courier internal Acorn 19200 none RPC600 36.6K V34 MR Modem internal Acorn 115200 none RPC600 28.8K V34 USR Sportster internal Acorn 115200 none RPC600 14.4K - - LineLink internal Acorn 57600 none May need to cut an internal cable to fix flow control if the modem is wired for use with a MAC RPC700 28.8K V34 USR Sportster internal Acorn 115200 none setup string: ATB0&M4&H1&R2&I0&K3&B1&N0&S1&Y1&D2&C1V1Q0X4&A3E1F1M1 RPC700 14.4K V32b CreatiX SG144 internalPC Acorn 115200 none RPC700SA 14.4K V32b CreatiX SG144 internalPC Acorn 115200 none Note: If you have a Sportster 28.8 with revision dates earlier than 04/28/95 / 03/31/95, and you are having difficulties such as low speed operation or line drop-outs, USR have a return-to-base upgrade which is free of charge. Printers -------- Computer Printer DPI Manuf. Model Interface Interfc !Printers Special type type manuf version Reqs ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- A410 Inkjet 720 Epson Stylus-Col-I Parallel Acorn 1.28c none A410 Dotmat 360 Citizen Swift 24 Parallel Acorn 1.28c none RPC600 Inkjet 720 Epson Sty.Col.500 Parallel Acorn 1.54 PDF:Nov'96 RPC700 Inkjet 720 Epson Stylus-Col-I Parallel Acorn 1.52 rel3 none RPC700SA Inkjet 300 HP DJ 500 C Par/Ser Acorn 1.28 RPC700SA Inkjet 300 HP DJ 500 C Par/Ser Acorn 1.54 Acorns Rompatch Third party drivers ------------------- Computer Concepts' Turbo Drivers are available for popular printers. This software is optimised for speed although Acorn's own drivers have recently been upgraded and the benefits are not as great as they were. The Turbo drivers give greater control over the output and background printing actually works, however the output quality can be worse with dithered graphics. Optical Scanners ---------------- Computer Manuf. Model Scanner Interface Interface Special type type manuf Requirements ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- RPC600 HP Scanjet IIcx flatbed SCSI-2 Cumana David Pilling's Twain RPC600 Epson GT 9500 flatbed SCSI-2 Powertec David Pilling's Twain Computer notes -------------- The A3xx and A4xx machines are all similar, and comments about one of these machines should apply to any other, provided it is running with the latest OS and/or chip set. Similarly, the A4 is a miniature A5000, and the RPC700 is a slightly enhanced RPC600. StrongARM equipped RiscPCs might have difficulties with interfaces that work on the non-SA computers. A3xx computers have no on-board disc interface; A4xx have on-board mfm. The A3000 has no interface, the A4, A3020, A4000, A5000, A7000, Stork and RPC models all have IDE. Interface notes --------------- In theory the fastest interfaces are the ones with DMA. These cards perform at their best on RiscPCs in slot 0 or 1. The data rate will be limited by the slowest part of the system, so when upgrading, budget for a new drive in addition to the interface. The Alsystems Powertec card is a SCSI-2 DMA device with a top speed of around 4.5MB/s. This speed will increase with later software/firmware releases. The Yellowstone RapIDE32 card is a fast IDE interface using DMA which will give a significant improvement over the standard interface in a RiscPC. Both Yellowstone and Alsystems are developing rival products. The Morley SCSI-1 interface is either cached or uncached. The maximum speeds of these are uncached: 2MB/s, cached: 4MB/s. These cards do not use DMA. Currently the Morley software cannot cope with partitions > 512 MB and the "Free" window is broken under RiscOS 3.6. New firmware is rumoured for the Morley card. The TSP/AAD is the former 'Arxe Alpha Dual', which was produced by The Serial Port, but which is now discontinued. It provides 16-bit non-DMA SCSI-1 and a high density floppy interface. Versions of Risc OS older than 3.6 can only cope with drives < 512 MB. Larger drives can be used if formatted to this size. Some filing systems allow large drives to be partitioned, ie split into 2 or more sections, each up to 512MB in size. The new limit for RiscOS 3.6 is 4GB, which is already looking too small. An important new development for scsi card owners is the Alsystems PowerRom. This is a firmware upgrade for many existing cards, including Cumana, Castle, Lingenuity, Morley, Acorn, Vti, HCCS and Oak. The upgrade provides all the features present in the Powertec card, subject to hardware limitations, which will include compatibility with large partitions and devices such as Zip drives. The PowerRom will eventually be able to replace IDE card firmware too. Which SCSI have I got? ---------------------- To determine the scsi version number of a device, run the following program: ON ERROR REPORT:PRINT " at ";ERL:END DIM buffer% 16 INPUT "Enter device number";device% SYS "SCSI_Initialise",2,device%,buffer% SCSI%=(buffer%?2) AND %111 PRINT "Version is ";SCSI% END This will give you zero if the device is not present. How big is a Megabyte ? ----------------------- Some manufacturers quote Megabytes as 1000K. This is of course totally incorrect but they like to cheat with numbers, so to get the real size, multiply by 1000/1024. Further Information ------------------- IDE hard discs IDE hard discs are listed separately in the Acorn FAQ. Jumper settings and configuration --------------------------------- Jumper settings are often a problem, and it's rare to get a manual with a drive these days. Some manufacturers have web sites, most of these have detailed information on their current models including jumper settings, and some have databases covering older devices. Although sometimes biased towards PCs, the information can be extremely useful. Manufacturer - Web site ----------------------- Seagate - http://www.seagate.com/ Quantum - http://www.quantum.com/">http://www.quantum.com/ Maxtor - http://www.maxtor.com/ Syquest - http://www.syquest.com/ Micropolis - http://www.micropolis.com/ Fujitsu - http://www.fujitsu.com/ Iomega - http://www.iomega.com/ Panasonic - http://www.panasonic.com/ Toshiba - http://www.toshiba.com/ Sony - http://www.sony.com/ NEC - http://www.nec.com/ Mitsumi - http://www.mitsumi.com/ US Robotics - http://www.usr.com/ Hayes - http://www.hayes.com/ Zoom - http://www.zoom.com/ Motorola - http://www.motorola.com/ Pace - http://www.pace.co.uk/ Epson - http://www.epson.com/ Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the list. If you have any corrections or suggestions, please contact me. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q11.5) What specification memory can I use with my RiscPC? RAM for the RiscPC, while a standard 72pin SIMM, must be bought with a degree of care to avoid potential damage to your machine. EDO RAM, while it will work, is not advised as it may have different power requirements that could be detrimental to your machine. The RAM required is 70ns (or faster), 72pin, square array (equal number of bits used for row and column addressing), non-parity RAM that supports 'fast page mode' and 'CAS before RAS' refresh. Devices that contain more than 16 memory chips (8 on each side) is not recommended as they may have power requirements above and beyond what the computer can safely supply. Consequently SIMM 'stackers' and 30 to 72pin adaptors are also not advised. For the more technically inclined out there maximum loads possible are:- Address 128pF WE 140pF CAS or RAS 59pF Data bus 29pF Finally, in the maintainers experience anyway, Hitachi parts seem to be fine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 12: Common Questions about the FAQ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q12.1) Why do I get the FAQ twice? There are two ways this can happen. The first, and most common way, is when you see two copies of the FAQ, one set posted to comp.sys.acorn.announce and the other set posted to comp.sys.acorn.misc. This occurrence is caused by your news handling software being broken. The FAQ is, if you check the newsgroups line when it is posted, crossposted to both of these groups. This means it is actually posted just the once and with all good news handling software you will read the post exactly once. Given that this is supposed to be standard behaviour for newsreaders I refuse to stop cross-posting purely because people are seeing the posts twice. Quite simply it isn't my problem and I will need other justification before I stop cross-posting. The second way it can occur is when you see two copies of the FAQ in the same group. Careful checking of your newsbase should reveal that one copy is about 30 to 32 days older than the other. This comes about because I use the Expires: header to ensure that a copy of the FAQ is always present in all well configured newsbases. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q12.2) Why does the full FAQ have to be posted? Simply because of the wide distribution that the FAQ has. Every time the FAQ gets posted it gets automatically archived into various FAQ databases, propagates on ancillary networks only loosely connected to the net (BBSes in particular) and reaches a wide variety of people whose skills at navigating the net vary considerably. Occasionally it gets copied onto CD ROMs, Magazine discs and extracts get used in various publications from time to time. All this just from the posted copy of the FAQ. Given this wide reaching nature and the general idea of an FAQ being to reduce network traffic by providing the answers to common questions immediately then I see clear justification for continuing to post the full FAQ. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q12.3) Isn't the FAQ overly long? In a word, no. To be slightly less terse it is worthwhile doing a comparison of the c.s.a FAQ with other newsgroup's FAQs. For this task I used a 'snapshot' CD ROM of the rtfm.mit.edu FAQ archive that was taken in March 1995. Here are a few sample sizes:- FAQ Size in bytes --- ------------- comp.sys.acorn (as posted 6th Jan 1999) 176,678 soc.feminism (resources list) 239,256 comp.sys.amiga (introduction) 167,632 comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware 318,882 comp.sys.apollo 162,638 As can be seen by the above table the size of the FAQ is neither overly large nor is it particularly uncommon. This FAQ has grown by about 60K over the last three years (not too bad IMHO!). Having said that, this table was compiled in 1995 by Philip Banks, so the other FAQs are likely to have grown in size too. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q12.4) If I find something wrong or am unhappy with the FAQ, what do I do? Email me first about it. I mean it. Generally errors or bad information that has crept into the FAQ has been through circumstances beyond my control. Often a lot of the information I am provided with I simply can not check directly myself. So I accept a lot of what I am given on trust and generally try to exercise care with what I include into the FAQ. If, after getting a reply back from me, you are still unhappy then by all means grumble about it on the newsgroups. But I want the chance to explain things first. I take a very dim view to people posting complaints to the newsgroups, first, about the FAQ, especially ones that imply or impugn improper conduct on my part. I tend to view such posts as attempts to publicly force my hand and make me do whatever said poster wants done to the FAQ. Thanks go to all the people who have contributed corrections and additions to the list. Without this help this list would be a hell of a lot buggier (spot the programmer... :-) ) than it is... If you have any additions, corrections or suggestions for the FAQ, please contact me. Being the maintainer of this FAQ I reserve the right to be wrong, incorrect, slow, out of date and generally how I please with the FAQ List. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Comp.Sys.Acorn FAQ ---------------------------------- End of part 4 of 4 - This FAQ is maintained by Paul Vigay (csa-faq-NOSPAM@vigay.com) Please email me with any queries/amendments or problems. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 2 of 2 - Prev - Next
| Back to category faq - Use Smart Search |
| Home - Smart Search - About the project - Feedback |
© allanswers.org | Terms of use