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Re: TechRef 4 Apple HS SCSI ?
In article <1992.678.uupcb@yob.com>,
Jeff Brielmaier <jeff.brielmaier@yob.com> wrote:
> I need to find a copy of the Technical Reference manual for the Apple High
> Speed SCSI card.
>
> I am writing their partitioning software to allow for creation of >4
> partitions on a drive (132meg per drive is not enough :)
>
> Any leads on where I can find a copy ?
A word of warning: this is not an easy task.
The book you want is called the "Apple II High-Speed SCSI Card
Reference". It is available from:
Byte Works, Inc.
8000 Wagon Mound Drive N.W.
Albuquerque, NM 87120
U.S.A.
Phone (505)898-8183
E-Mail MikeW50@aol.com
The ByteWorks product code is ADPA-10.
This manual gives you basic information on using the card at a low
level, including all of the SmartPort calls. It does not cover
the partitioning mechanism (see the GS/OS Device Driver Reference or
Inside Mac volumes 4 and 5 for details on this).
It also doesn't explain how you can access the partition table. The
only way I've found to do this is to use the Generic SCSI call, and do
direct SCSI read and write operations, accessing the first few
physical blocks on the disk.
To use this call, you will also need documentation on the SCSI command
set, as covered in the ANSI SCSI standard (SCSI-1 is sufficient for
this, but you could use the draft SCSI-2 standard which is freely
available).
If you have any technical questions or would like more details about
the manual, feel free to E-Mail me. I have the SCSI standard here, as
well as the HS SCSI reference and the other documentation I mentioned
above. I haven't done much with the Generic SCSI command, but I have
used it once as an exercise to see whether I could read the partition
map.
An important note: the Generic SCSI call is only available on the
High-Speed card. There is a more complicated mechanism provided on
the original Apple SCSI card, which allows one special call to be
patched into the card. I think this requires a lot of detailed
technical information about the original card, which is not provided
in the technical reference. I have never tried to use this mechanism.
--
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand