Re: SCSI woes, again.

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

In article <11AUG199422503858@vax2.concordia.ca>,
Mitchell Spector <spector@vax2.concordia.ca> wrote:
> In article dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson) writes...
> >
> >In article <9AUG199416170288@vax2.concordia.ca>,
> >Mitchell Spector <spector@vax2.concordia.ca> wrote:
> >> 
> >> 	Usually, somewhere on the old non-DMA Apple SCSI cards, is a marking
> >> indicating what hardware revision it is (rev A, B or C).
> > 
> >I wasn't aware of there being any hardware revisions - I have an
> >original card (shipped with Rev A ROM) which was later upgraded to a
> >Rev C ROM.
> 
> 	Doesn't the revision (A, B or C) refer hardware updates, and not
> firmware in the case of the original Apple SCSI card? At least it would
> seem this way, as the card I owned for a short period of time was clearly
> marked 'Rev. A'. Also had a 1986 copyright stamped nearby.

Same here.  The A/B/C "revision" _definitely_ refers to the ROM.  I
have never heard of a revised version of the card being released, and
as evidenced in my case, the revision C ROM works fine in the original
version of the card.  If there ever were any hardware changes, they
would have been for unrelated reasons (e.g. to fix compatibility with
the IIgs, as in the case of a minor revision to the ProFile interface
card, but as I said, I'm not aware of any such revisions to the
original Apple SCSI card).


I can't help much with your RamFast.

It should be safe to leave it in the computer without any SCSI devices
connected.  Even if you don't boot from it, ProDOS-8 will poll it to
locate any online devices, which might cause a pause while the RamFast
scans the bus.  I'm not sure what GS/OS will do - it will probably
generate a device driver for the card if you haven't installed the
RamFast drivers on your system disk.  (The RamFast doesn't identify
itself as a SCSI card, so GS/OS won't print up the "SCSI Card requires
a device driver" warning, as it does with an Apple SCSI card when you
haven't installed SCSI.MANAGER on your system disk.)
-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand