RIGHT. FROM THE START RIGHT. FROM THE START RIGHT. FROM THE START RIGHT. FROM THE START RIGHT. FROM THE START RIGHT. FROM THE START RIGHT. FROM THE START Eagle/Roadrunner Configuration Information RIGHT. FROM THE START RIGHT. FROM THE START RIGHT. FROM THE START RIGHT. FROM THE START RIGHT. FROM THE START RIGHT. FROM THE START RIGHT. FROM THE START PDI-03500-50 Rev.
1995 Alpha Microsystems REVISIONS INCORPORATED REVISION A00 A01 B00 DATE July 1995 August 1995 December 1995 Eagle/Roadrunner Configuration Information To re-order this document, request part number PDI-03500-50. The information contained in this manual is believed to be accurate and reliable. However, no responsibility for the accuracy, completeness or use of this information is assumed by Alpha Microsystems. This document was written and illustrated by Jack Chardi and Dan Twaddell.
Eagle/Roadrunner Configuration Information Page i TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2.0 ENTERING THE PIC FOR THE SCSI DISPATCHER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2.1 Configuring Your AMOS32.INI File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2.2 READ-AHEAD AND WRITE BUFFERING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3.0 READ AHEAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Eagle/Roadrunner Configuration Information Page 1 1.0INTRODUCTION Basic instructions on how to use your computer are located in the Eagle Series Computer Owner’s Manual. The Eagle Computer Service Manual contains information on accessing your computer, configuring your computer’s hardware, installing peripherals, etc. This document contains software and peripheral configuration information unique to computers (like your Eagle), which use an AM-172 or AM-174 Roadrunner board.
Page 2 Eagle/Roadrunner Configuration Information Once you enter the product installation code (PIC), the product overlay file is forever modified and will not accept a new PIC. This can be a problem if you happen to enter an incorrect PIC. As a safeguard, make a copy of the dispatcher overlay file before you do the SSD encodement. Type: LOG SYS: RETURN COPY SCZDSP.SAV=SCZDSP.OVR RETURN By saving an unmodified version of the overlay file, you will be able to re-enter the PIC if necessary.
Eagle/Roadrunner Configuration Information Page 3 :T ; System Type/Users: Eagle 040/1 ; System Drive Type: 540MB SCSI ; Drive Control/Dvr: RR SCSI/SCZRR.DVR ; AMOS Monitor Type: AMOS32 2.2C PR8/95 (PIC) ; JOBS 5 ; JOBALC JOB1 ;JOB2 ;JOBALC SPOOLA,SPOOLB,SPOOLC,SPOOLD ; per parallel ports ; Increased QUEUE block allocation QUEUE 2000 ; LOAD LOAD.LIT LOAD DEL.LIT LOAD SYSMSG.USA LOAD TRMDEF.
Page 4 Eagle/Roadrunner Configuration Information AMOS32.INI File (cont.) ; LOAD SYSTEM.LIT SYSTEM SYSMSG.USA SYSTEM DCACHE.SYS/N/M/U 300K ;SYSTEM DVR:DSK/N 100K 60 Write buffering enable statement SYSTEM CMDLIN.SYS SYSTEM SCNWLD.SYS SYSTEM QFLOCK.SYS SYSTEM TRM.DVR[1,6] SYSTEM STR.DVR[1,6] ; streaming tape driver ;SYSTEM FLP.DVR[1,6] ; 3-1/2" floppy driver ;SYSTEM MIN.DVR[1,6] ; 5-1/4" floppy driver ;SYSTEM EGP.DVR[1,6] ; parallel port driver - Eagle 100/200 ;SYSTEM EPP.
Eagle/Roadrunner Configuration Information Page 5 To avoid unnecessary problems, never directly modify your AMOS32.INI file. Always create a test file; type: COPY TEST.INI=AMOS32.INI RETURN Once you have created your test file, you make modifications to it and then test those modifications using the MONTST command. For example: LOG OPR: RETURN MONTST AMOS32.MON,TEST.INI RETURN 2.
Page 6 Eagle/Roadrunner Configuration Information 3.0READ AHEAD The Roadrunner’s SCSI disk driver, SCZRR.DVR, is able to perform read-ahead directly into AMOS disk cache. When any program attempts to read a physical block from a disk, the SCZRR driver will also read up to an additional seven sequential blocks from the disk drive and store these read-ahead blocks in the cache. This read-ahead scheme works very well when jobs on the system are doing a large number of sequential reads.
Eagle/Roadrunner Configuration Information Page 7 If you wish to disable or change the number of read-ahead blocks, simply use the FIXLOG program to generate a new disk driver and if the disk driver is for the DSK: device, don’t forget to use MONGEN and embed the new driver into the system monitor. The generic Roadrunner SCSI disk driver (SCZRR.DVR) is set for seven read-ahead blocks. 4.
Page 8 Eagle/Roadrunner Configuration Information Therefore, you must weigh the potential for data loss (which is always there) versus the dramatic performance increase seen when using write buffering. If you are worried about the reliability of write buffering, it may be worth keeping in mind that the AM-520 disk controller has always used write buffering on a track-by-track basis (not quite as efficiently as the Roadrunner write buffering scheme however). The SMARTDRV programs used since MS-DOS 5.
Eagle/Roadrunner Configuration Information Page 9 This would set up 100KB of write buffering for the DSK devices and 100KB of write buffering for the SUB device. All three drives would have their write buffers flushed every minute (or sooner if the drives are not busy with read requests). 5.0FINAL NOTES Both read-ahead and write buffering schemes used on the Roadrunner hardware dramatically improve system performance in our lab tests.
APPENDIX A ROADRUNNER SCSI BUS COMPATIBILITY All peripherals shipped as part of a factory integrated Eagle computer are Roadrunner compatible. However, you should be aware of the following information: 1.Your bootable hard disk drive and any secondary hard disk drives (if applicable) are fully configured for Roadrunner operation. 2.
Page A-2 Appendix A A.1.1Tandberg 1/4" Streaming Tape Drives In order to warm boot from a Tandberg tape drive, it must be set to a higher numerical SCSI ID (1 through 6) than any other tape device connected to the SCSI bus. 1.In order to be Roadrunner compatible, the AM-625 Tandberg 150MB tape drive must have firmware at revision -06:00 or later. You can use the SCSI.LIT program (included in AMOS 2.2C and 1.4C operating system releases) to determine the firmware revision of your tape drive.
Roadrunner SCSI Bus Compatibility Page A-3 3.AM-627 1GB, AM-628 2GB, and newer models of the AM-626 525MB Tandberg SCSI tape drives also require a firmware update to be SCSI-2 compatible. However, these drives use a flash ROM for their firmware which can be updated without removing the drive from the computer.
Page A-4 Appendix A A.1.2AM-645 8mm Magnetic Tape Subsystem In order for the Exabyte tape drive to work with the Roadrunner hardware, new firmware must be installed in the drive. The updated firmware is available from Alpha Micro under part number PDB-00645-90. Once the new firmware is installed, the Exabyte tape drive will operate in SCSI-1 mode only. The ability to span tapes is not supported on the Exabyte tape drive. A.1.
Roadrunner SCSI Bus Compatibility Page A-5 A.1.5SCSI Hard Disk Drives Maxtor LXT, MXT, and 7000 series SCSI disk drives supplied by Alpha Micro are supported for use on the Roadrunner’s SCSI port. Also, in order to be compatible with the Roadrunner hardware, your Maxtor MXT SCSI-2 compatible disk drive must have a sticker indicating it has special 6F+ firmware or it must be using 1.5 or later production firmware.
Page A-6 Appendix A BAIL LOCKS CONFIGURATION A SI SC (PRA-00222-00) EXTERNAL SCSI BUS TERMINATOR CONFIGURATION B SI SC MAC821 #4 SCREW AND WASHER External Terminator Installation The above illustration shows two different types of external SCSI connectors: 1.Configuration"A" shows an extended external SCSI connector and bail locks for holding the terminator in place. This configuration is used on almost all of Alpha Micro’s currently available product.
Roadrunner SCSI Bus Compatibility Page A-7 A.2.1Termination Procedure (Without External Terminator) 1.All AMOS based computers (with or without Roadrunner upgrades) with one SCSI hard disk drive must have that hard disk drive installed with its terminators installed. 2.
Page A-8 Appendix A AMOS computers using the 50-pin SASI bus, which includes non-SCSI-2 enhanced AM-1000, AM-1200, AM-1400, AM-1600, AM-2000, AM-2000M, AM-3000, and AM-3000M computers, require that one of the internally mounted peripherals be configured to supply termination power to the SCSI bus. A.3.1SCSI-2 Bus Termination Power Guidelines Use these guidelines for supplying termination power to AM-4000 computers, Roadrunner enhanced computers, AM-540 enhanced AM-3000M computers, etc: 1.
Roadrunner SCSI Bus Compatibility Page A-9 3.If a computer does not have a SCSI disk drive, but does have one or more SCSI magnetic tape or CD-ROM drives, then one of these devices will be configured to supply termination power. 4.If a computer with one or more SCSI peripherals is cabled to a subsystem with additional SCSI devices, one SCSI device in the host computer would normally be configured to supply termination power for the bus.
APPENDIX B ROADRUNNER AM-174 PROGRAMMING INFORMATION B.1ROADRUNNER AM-174 PROGRAMMING INFORMATION The MC68040 processor used on the AM-174 Roadrunner board contains more internal instruction cache (4096 bytes) than earlier MC68030-based processors. Increased internal cache is one of the features which contributes to the improved performance of the Roadrunner 040 board; however, if your software does not properly manage this instruction cache, it could be adversely affected.
Page B-2 Appendix B B.1.2What You Must Do... The only sure way to address this issue is to flush the instruction cache after loading instructions into memory, but before executing those instructions. Because the method by which you flush the cache is different on the various 680x0 processors, you will need to add code specific to the 68040. You must be certain to handle the different processors individually. Failure to do so may result in inadvertently disabling certain processor features.
Roadrunner AM-174 Programming Information Page B-3 In versions of M68 appearing in earlier AMOS releases, the instructions MOVECD7,CACR and CINVA were not implemented. With the release of AMOS 2.2C, which includes M682.0(181), these instructions are now supported. Examples of their use are shown above. B.1.3One More Caution The 68040 also has internal registers called Transparent Translation Registers (also present on the 68030) that you must be sure not to modify.
Page B-4 Appendix B From the AMOS prompt, you can type: COMPAT COMPAT.DAT RETURN or you can add this same command into your system initialization command file. If you simply enter the command: COMPAT RETURN you will get a display showing the list of programs that have been selected for the special cache control.
