Re: Another CMS question

[shopwood@socs.uts.EDU.AU (Scott Glenn Hopwood)]

CMS - The mysteries explained.

The CMS hard drive: is a SCSI drive. It is a standard SCSI device and can
	be used with other SCSI devices. That's the easy part out of the way.

The CMS SCSI card: is a SCSI interface card which works best with ONE
	hard disk attached with not more than TWO partitions of 32MBs each.

The CMS SCSI card uses jumper blocks on the card itself to determine
hard disk size, partition sizes, partition starting points, scsi IDs etc.

Once a hard disk has been formatted with the CMS SCSI card/software, it
CAN NOT be recognised by other SCSI cards (Apple/RamFAST) without being
re-formatted. ie. taking your hard disk to a non-CMS owning friend's
place is not going to be a pleasant experience.

Obviously, with so many jumpers on the card, software and manuals are
pretty much essential if you plan to change your settings or add devices.

There is also a complication factor here: there were three CMS ROMs
released (9th Nov 87, Sep/Oct 89, 1st Mar 90). Each ROM was accompanied
by software and a manual. The jumper settings for each ROM revision are
NOT CONSISTENT!!! Make sure you get the right software and manual for
the version of the ROM you have. This will save you a lot of heartache!

The first ROM will only (as memory serves) handle one device with a maximum
of two partitions. Maximum partition size 32MB.

The second ROM was a little more flexible (memory fails me here) but it
added an unfriendly feature (reseek to track 0 in times of non-use) which
caused programs to fail.

The third ROM allows multiple devices (SCSI max = 7) with  multiple partitions
 to be connected at one time. Maximum partition size 32MB. The down side to
 this is that only two partitions could be accessed at any one time. If you
 wanted another partition you had to switch it in at boot time.
 
If anyone wants more specific answers, I'll be happy to help.

If anyone is at a complete loss for software and manuals, contact me
with your request and I'll see what I can do.

If anyone wants to get a new ROM version burnt, try contacting CMS directly.
They probably will deny all knowledge....

I have all three ROMs, manuals, and software.
This doesnt make me an expert, or a Kwik franchise :)

Regards,
Andrew Roughan
t

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Andrew Roughan
Apple // Sub-editor, Applecations Magazine, Apple Users' Group, Sydney, OZ!
shopwood@socs.uts.edu.au      OR     chalice@cad0.arch.unsw.edu.au