Tekram Technology DC-820B manual

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Table of contents for the manual

  • Page 1

    1 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter DC-820B Mirroring + Caching EISA Fast SCSI Host Adapter Acknowledgements of the following trademarks: Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. Adaptec, ASPI, and AHA 1540/1542 are registered trademarks of Adaptec. Novell and NetWare are trademarks of Novell, Inc. Sytos Plus is a registered trademark of [...]

  • Page 2

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 2 FCC Compliance Statement: This equipment has been tested and found to comply with limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in residential installations. This equipment generates, uses, and can ra[...]

  • Page 3

    3 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter . DOS - Sec 0.1: A:> INSTALL . NetWare - Chap 3 . UNIX - Chap 4 Re-boot the system & Play!!! YY Install Driver? . Install the cache DRAM - Sec 1.4 . Set your SCSI HDD's ID to 0 and 1 (if avail- able) . Plug the adapter onto your system & Cabling . Power on the SCSI device(s) & then the system Qui[...]

  • Page 4

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 4 T able of Contents Chapter 0 INTRODUCTION ....................................................... 6 0.1 Easy DOS Driver Installation Software (INSTALL.EXE) ............................... 7 Chapter 1 HARDWARE SETUP ............................................... 12 1.1 Board Layout and Jumper Setting ...............[...]

  • Page 5

    5 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter Appendix A. Technical Specification ....................................... 50 Appendix B. Product Support Form ........................................ 52 Appendix C. General Troubleshooting Tips ............................. 54[...]

  • Page 6

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 6 Chapter 0 Introduction The DC-820B is an intelligent multi-tasking SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) bus to EISA bus host adapter. Up to six DC-820B adapters can be installed in one system with each adapter supporting up to seven SCSI devices. In addition, the DC-820B offers hardware-based disk mirroring under [...]

  • Page 7

    7 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter All versions of MS-DOS support two hard disk drives without adding device drivers. If MS-DOS 5.0 is used, the DC-820B BIOS can handle up to eight devices, including fixed disk and removable media, by enabling the DOS 5 Support enable/disable option during the ECU (EISA Configuration Utility) setup process. The drive[...]

  • Page 8

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 8 more than one adapter co-existing in the system, then you must select which adapter you want to work with. The System has the following Host Adapter(s) 1 DC-820B HA#0 Base 330H DMA 5 IRQ 11 ID 7 2). This screen provides the information of the SCSI devices controlled by the chosen adapter (HA#0). After selecting, mor[...]

  • Page 9

    9 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 3) The following screen provides you the information about how many SCSI devices installed in the system and requires you to answer if to install the driver(s) or not: The next following screen requires you to specify the directory pathname for the device drivers: If your system has CD-ROM device(s) and want to inst[...]

  • Page 10

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 10 And then you go on to assign the first drive letter for the CD-ROM drive(s) used by the MSCDEX.EXE. In this case, Drive: F is reserved to the first CD-ROM drive. 4) . After confirmation, this installation program will modify both the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. 5). After all these are done, re-boot the syste[...]

  • Page 11

    11 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter[...]

  • Page 12

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 12 Chapter 1 HARDW ARE SETUP Before plugging the DC-820B into your system, make sure all jumpers on the card are correctly set according to instructions outlined in section 1.1. Also take care that the SCSI ID number (0-6) of each SCSI device is set properly for the host adapter (ID 7) (if necessary, check the user ma[...]

  • Page 13

    13 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter Warning: Do not power-down the system while this LED is still active. Doing so may result in loss of data as the contents of the cache buffer have not been completely written to the disk. Mirroring Beeper (JP2) JP2 is used to issue the warning beep through a speaker when an error occurs during the process of disk m[...]

  • Page 14

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 14 external cables, respectively. As in the above case, remove the terminators from all devices connected in between. Store the terminators in a safe place for future use, if necessary. 1.3 Cable Connection (CN1, CN2, & CN3) There are three connectors on your DC-820B: CN1, CN2, and CN3. External SCSI drive(s) conn[...]

  • Page 15

    15 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter installed, you can only install the SCSI drive with SCSI ID 0 as drive D:. If two IDE/ST506/ESDI drives already exist, no SCSI drives can be installed as C: or D:. When no IDE/ST506/ESDI drive exists, two SCSI drives with SCSI ID’s 0 and 1 can be installed as drives C: and D:, respectively. When in the DOS enviro[...]

  • Page 16

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 16 1. Set I/O port address as 330H. 2. Set the SCSI ID as 0 and 1 for fixed disk drives. 3. Device drivers are needed for other SCSI devices, such as removable cartridge, re-writable optical disk (MO), tape streamer, DAT, and CD- ROM. 4. If the DC-820B coexists with an AHA 1540/1542 adapter, you must set the I/O port [...]

  • Page 17

    17 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 1.6.1 DC-820B Adapter Hardware Options This field allows you to select the Interrupt level, Adapter BIOS address, I/O port address, and DMA channel. Since most options in this category are Adaptec-compatible, some enhanced options will be pointed out specifically. Interrupt level selection: IRQ 11 - default. This o[...]

  • Page 18

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 18 BIOS INT 13H. Device drivers have no effect if this Disabled option is chosen. * WARNING (if coexists with IDE HDD) * IRQ14 is used by the Primary IDE IRQ Channel & IRQ15 is used by the Secondary IDE IRQ Channel Host Adapter BIOS ADDRESS: DC000H - default. This option selects the starting address of the 16KB me[...]

  • Page 19

    19 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter SCSI ID 7. These scanning rules apply to an environment with multiple adapters or devices. DMA Channel Definition: DMA 5 - default. This option is a pseudo- function for Adaptec compatibility. Since some software packages do require a DMA channel, there are four channels available: DMA 5/6/7/0. If you need to choos[...]

  • Page 20

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 20 Cache Size 1MB 4MB 16MB DOS/Windows 4KB/line 16KB/line 16KB/line NetWare 4KB/line 16KB/line 16KB/line UNIX 4KB/line 8KB/line 16KB/line Cache DRAM test: Suppressed/Simplified/Full test. Suppressed test is the default option and would just skip the test on cache DRAM to save time for system boot-up. Full test on cach[...]

  • Page 21

    21 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter Device Case 0 Case 1 Case 2 IDE HDD 0 none drive C: drive C: IDE HDD 1 none none drive D: SCSI device 0 (SCSI ID = 0) drive C: drive D: (*) SCSI device 1 (SCSI ID = 1) drive D: (*) (*) *: Not recognized by BIOS INT 13H, if existing. Can only be controlled by device driver. Case0: No IDE drive exists. You must set t[...]

  • Page 22

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 22 F:, and so on. The following demonstrates the case of one IDE adapter with two IDE HDD drives and two DC-820Bs with seven SCSI drives. Also, refer to the I/O port definition for more scanning details. IDE DC-820B DC-820B (I/O port 330H) (I/O port 230H) ================================================= C: E: (SCSI I[...]

  • Page 23

    23 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter Power ON delay for SCSI devices: 30 - 120 seconds. The 30 seconds power-on delay default is applicable to most drives. Since some slower drives may fail to respond within the default power-on delay duration, you may extend this time duration in order to give sufficient time for start-up. Controller Terminator: Ther[...]

  • Page 24

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 24 Cacheable device: Yes/No. This option is only valid for fixed disk, remov- able cartridge, re-writable optical disk (MO) and Floptical. The removable media device with Yes option must insert the media before the system boot- up for caching algorithm to work properly. When the No option is chosen, both the data tran[...]

  • Page 25

    25 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter Mirrored to SCSI ID: NO/1-7. This disk mirroring function is implemented by the DC-820B’s firmware and works for all operating systems. This option needs two and only two drives and is selected from the slave drive’s point of view . The SCSI ID number you choose stands for the master drive that you want to mirr[...]

  • Page 26

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 26 1.7 TOOLBME.EXE Utility & Disk Mirroring Initialization TOOLBME.EXE is a utility program performing the functions of Low-Level Format, Disk Copy, Disk Compare, and Mirroring Initialization. Since it is a DOS-formatted utility, you have to execute it either under DOS or from a bootable DOS diskette for Non-DOS e[...]

  • Page 27

    27 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter This screen gives us the information about the adapter-0 has five SCSI devices (ID ranging from 0 to 4) and the FUJITSU M2614S/MAXTOR LXT-200S joined as a mirror pair. Low level format utility: Since most of the SCSI drives are already pre- formatted when shipped from their manufacturers, you can skip this section [...]

  • Page 28

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 28 always duplicates the Master Disk to the Backup Disk ( slave ). If one of the Mirror-Pair drives is malfunctioning, you can try to adjust the proper Mas- ter-Backup relation by selecting the Mirrored to SCSI ID in the ECU and then execute this module to put things in order. Followed by the Mirrored to SCSI ID setti[...]

  • Page 29

    29 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter If both the Master and Backup Disk drives are new or contain useless data, you may key in Y instead to proceed the initialization:[...]

  • Page 30

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 30 Disk image copy utility: This module copies the data from the Source Disk to the Target Disk on a drive-to-drive basis. Still, you have to set the copy- pair drives, one to Source Disk and the other to Target Disk , by pressing the <Space Bar>. Disk image compare utility: This module compares the data of the [...]

  • Page 31

    31 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter Adapter Error Log utility: This module provides the I/O error log informa- tion for the devices controlled by the DC-820B(s). When this module is selected, the screen will display the information of I/O port address corre- sponding to each adapter, which is an Adaptec adapter or its compatible. You may then further[...]

  • Page 32

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 32 Chapter 2 ASPI Driver for DOS This chapter describes the ASPI (Advanced SCSI Programming Interface) driver installation for DOS and some other useful utility programs under this ASPI environment: 1. The ASPI driver, ASPIBME.SYS , provides the basic communication interface for the host adapter device driver and DOS [...]

  • Page 33

    33 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 2.1 Installing the ASPI Driver With ASPI driver, ASPIBME.SYS, installed, you are able to run or install the following drivers and utilities: n TFDISK.EXE: Disk partition utility in this diskette n DISKDRV.SYS: Disk driver in this diskette n AFDISK.EXE: Disk partition utility from Adaptec n ASPIDISK.SYS: Disk driver[...]

  • Page 34

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 34 drives) reserved with the driver within 16. This option is important for removable media devices. If you do not reserve enough logical drives for your removable media, it may cause some of the logical drives to go unrecog- nized. To install, add a line after ASPI driver in the CONFIG.SYS: device=c:aspiaspibme.sys[...]

  • Page 35

    35 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter Drive A: Floppy drive Drive B: Floppy drive Drive C: Adapter 0, SCSI ID 0 (BIOS INT 13H controlled HDD) Drive D: Adapter 0, SCSI ID 1 (BIOS INT 13H controlled HDD) Drive E: Adapter 0, SCSI ID 4, Primary DOS (MO) Drive F: Adapter 0, SCSI ID 4, Extended DOS logical drive (MO) Drive G: Adapter 0, SCSI ID 4, Extended D[...]

  • Page 36

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 36 2.3 Disk Partition Utility TFDISK.EXE is a DOS-compatible disk partition program for modifying or creating a partition table. Valid DOS partitions can be created by DOS FDISK for drives controlled by BIOS INT 13H or TFDISK.EXE for drives controlled by device driver. To run this program, you have to install ASPI dri[...]

  • Page 37

    37 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter Special translation method This method partitions the drive to work with other Tekram adapters. Heads = 8/16/32/48 Sectors = 26/32/48/63/64/128/192 Cylinders = xxx depends on drive’s capacity (The head # and Sector # will be calculated automatically, and can not be modified manually.) Mylex translation method Thi[...]

  • Page 38

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 38 Usable: Means this drive is all right to work with. 2.5 Installing the CD-ROM Driver ASPICD.EXE is a driver for CD-ROM and CD-Changer devices. Besides that, you still need one more execution file, mscdex.exe, which can be acquired from Microsoft. The following shows the driver installation: n Add a line after ASPI [...]

  • Page 39

    39 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter[...]

  • Page 40

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 40 Chapter 3 NetW are Drivers The DC-820B supports drivers for NetWare V3.10/3.11/3.12/SFT-III/4.00/ 4.01 under separate directories to support fixed disks, removable media, and tape subsystems. <NetWare.40X> This directory supports drivers for NetWare V4.00/4.01: n NV40XBME.DSK supports SCSI devices, such as Fi[...]

  • Page 41

    41 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter n BELOW16.DSK is the memory allocator routine for buffer below 16 megabyte under NetWare V3.10. This file will be auto-loaded during installation. The similar function is default supported under NetWare V3.11. 3.1 ASPI drivers for NetW are A). This sub-section explains major installation procedures for V4.00/4.01: [...]

  • Page 42

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 42 choosing the I/O slot number, the screen will display information about the configuration of the adapter selected: Host Adapter = DC820B I/O Port Address = 330 (Hex) Interrupt Level = 11 Adapter SCSI ID = 7 Slot Number = 5 In case that two or more DC-820Bs are present, you have to load the same driver by typing “[...]

  • Page 43

    43 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter Somehow the operating system must be informed of the change and new disk geometry be passed on in order that the new file system is recognized. For proper installation, be sure to follow the procedure below when using removable media devices. [Mounting a file system] To mount a file system on removable media, inser[...]

  • Page 44

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 44 1. Select Disk Information 2. Select the corresponding drive with removable media 3. Move the inverted cursor bar to the item Removable Drive Mount Status : and choose dismount to dismount the device 4. Media ejection is now possible. 3.2 Duplexing Both Mirroring and Duplexing are referred to as mirroring in the Ne[...]

  • Page 45

    45 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter[...]

  • Page 46

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 46 Chapter 4 UNIX LOCK/UNLOCK Driver Packages This chapter introduces the installation procedures of UNIX LOCK/UNLOCK support for removable media devices. It is especially important for removable media devices that employ the caching capability supported by the DC-820B. 4.1. SCO UNIX V .3.2.2 This SCO UNIX driver is i[...]

  • Page 47

    47 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter The procedure is the same as ISC UNIX V3.2 (refer to Sec 4.2). Removable media support This driver supports removable media like the Magneto-Optical drive. Upon successful installation, two utility files rmount and rumount will be found under /etc to replace original “mount” and “umount” commands. These two[...]

  • Page 48

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 48 Driver Removal To remove the driver, follow these procedures: 1. At the prompt, type removepkg 2. Type the corresponding number of: “EISASC Lock/Unlock Driver Package” 3. Press <Enter> to remove the driver 4. Press <Enter> to reboot Removable Media Support This driver supports removable media like M[...]

  • Page 49

    49 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter[...]

  • Page 50

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 50 Appendix A: T echnical Specifications Performance n Cache DRAM sizes: Not-Installed/1MB/4MB/16MB n Hardware Disk mirroring support n High speed 32-bit bus master, burst data transfer up to 33 MB/sec n Fully support SCSI-I and Fast SCSI-II protocols n AHA 1540/1542 series compatible n Compatible with major operating[...]

  • Page 51

    51 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter Functional n Enhanced SCSI I/O protocol: Multi-threaded & Multi-tasking support, Enhanced mailbox structure breaking 16MB bus master addressing limit, and Scatter/Gather data transfer support n EISA Auto-configuration support n Easy DOS driver installation software (INSTALL.EXE) helps you in- stall the needed d[...]

  • Page 52

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 52 Appendix B: Product Support Form The following information should be provided to your supplier in writing to obtain technical support assistance: 0. Ever try General Troubleshooting Tips in Appendix C and without suc- cess? Yes? ____ No? ____ 1. DC-820B Information n Serial # : ________________________ n Purchase D[...]

  • Page 53

    53 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter n Other SCSI device(s) : 1. _____________________ 2. _____________________ 3. _____________________ 4. _____________________ 3. System Software Configuration (please list the version) n Operating System : _____________________ n Application Program : _____________________ 4. Detailed description of error messages a[...]

  • Page 54

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 54 Appendix C: General T roubleshooting T ips Most controller errors are traceable to external factors, such as conflicts with other installed cards, bad or incorrectly configured drives, loose cables, or other installation errors. A device list concerning the limitations, such as cannot work with 10MB/sec SCSI synchr[...]

  • Page 55

    55 EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 2. No BIOS message from DC-820B appears on the screen: n ROM address conflicting with other I/O card(s) -> check the ROM addresses of all the I/O cards and make sure none are conflicting n VGA card with “Fast Address Decode” option enabled -> this may cause all I/O cards that employ 8-bit ROM BIOS, DC-820[...]

  • Page 56

    EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter 56 This is also a common measure used by other caching adapters, such as Mylex, to improve the performance. Of course, if you turn the cache off, i.e., set the "Cacheable device" option to "No", and you'll find things are back to they used to be. 9. Wait for about 30 seconds during power up of[...]