Tekram Technology DC-820B User Manual
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 Sytron Corporation.
ARCserve/Solo are registered trademarks of Cheyenne Corporation.
MS-DOS, Xenix, Windows, and Microsoft are registered trademarks of Microsoft
Corporation.
SCO Unix and SCO Xenix are registered trademarks of Santa Cruz Operation Inc.
ISC is a registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories, Inc.
USL is a registered trademark of Interative Systems Corporation.
Unix is a registered trademark of America Telephone and Telegraph Company Bell
Laboratories.
OS/2 is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.
NCR is a registered trademark of National Cash Register Corporation.
Mylex is a registered trademark of Mylex Corporation.
Music Box is a trademark and Trantor a registered trademark of Trantor Systems, Ltd.
(other trademarks shown are the property of their respective owners)
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EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter
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 radiate
radio frequency energy, and if not installed and used in accordance with the
instructions, may cause harmful interface to radio communications. However,
there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation.
If this equipment does cause interference to radio or television equipment
reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on, the
user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the
following measures:
. Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna
. Move the equipment away from the receiver
. Plug the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which
the receiver is connected
. Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/television technician for addi-
tional suggestions
Only equipment certified to comply with Class B should be attached to this
equipment, and must have shielded interface cables.
The FCC requires the user to be notified that any change or modifications to
the equipment by the user not expressly approved by the grantee or
manufacturer could void the user's authority to operate such equipment.
Each DC-820B is equipped with an FCC compliance label which shows only
the FCC Identification number: FCC ID: KHADC-820B
This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC rule. Operation is subjected to
the following two conditions: 1). this device may not cause harmful interference
and 2). this device must accept any interference received, including interference
that may cause undesired operation.
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EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter
Quick Installation Guide
. 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
Enter the mainboard's CMOS setup & set
the Drive C:/D: to Non-installed for SCSI
HDDs.
(Shadow Adapter's ROM BIOS for
optimal performance)
CONFIG the
system for the
first time or Set
Adapter/Device
Options?
Yes
No
Install
Driver?
No
Re-boot the system
&
Play!!!
. ECU - Sec 1.6
. DOS - Sec 0.1:
Yes
A:> INSTALL
. NetWare - Chap 3
. UNIX - Chap 4
YY
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EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter
Table 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 ......................................................... 12
1.2 Checking the Terminators on the SCSI Bus ............................................ 13
1.3 Cable Connection (CN1, CN2, & CN3) .................................................... 14
1.4 Cache DRAM Installation ...................................................................... 14
1.5 Powering Up and Entering the System CMOS BIOS Setup ....................... 14
1.6 Running the ECU . ............................................................................... 15
1.6.1 DC-820B Adapter Hardware Options ................................ ...................................................17
1.6.2 DC-820B Adapter Firmware Options ............................... ....................................................19
1.6.3 DC-820B SCSI Device Options ................................. ............................................................23
1.7 TOOLBME.EXE Utility & Disk Mirroring Initialization ................................ 26
Chapter 2 ASPI DRIVER FOR DOS ..........................................32
2.1 Installing the ASPI Driver ...................................................................... 33
2.2 Installing the DISKDRV.SYS Driver ........................................................ 33
2.3 Disk Partition Utility............................................................................. 36
2.4 CHKDRIVE.EXE Utility .......................................................................... 37
2.5 Installing the CD-ROM Driver ................................................................ 38
2.6 Installing Tape Streamer (DAT) ............................................................. 38
Chapter 3 NetWare Drivers ..................................................... 40
3.1 ASPI Drivers for NetWare ..................................................................... 41
3.2 Duplexing Utility .................................................................................. 44
Chapter 4 UNIX LOCK/UNLOCK Driver Packages .................... 46
4.1 SCO UNIX V3.2.2 ................................................................................. 46
4.2 ISC UNIX V3.2 ..................................................................................... 47
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EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter
Appendix A. Technical Specification....................................... 50
Appendix B. Product Support Form........................................ 52
Appendix C. General Troubleshooting Tips............................. 54
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EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter
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 all operating systems in order to further safeguard your valuable data.
Another feature, the Disconnect/Reconnect, minimizes the performance downgrade during multi-tasking operations.
The DC-820B effectively reduces disk access times by way of its on-board
co-processor which handles most of the disk access chores to relieve the
burden of the mainboard’s CPU. Through its multi-tasking support, the DC820B manages the SCSI sub-system efficiently and smoothly. The on-board
cache facilitates increased DTR (Data Transfer Rate) and markedly reduces
direct read/write accesses to the storage subsystem, thus prolonging the
lifetime of your drives. This feature applies to fixed disks or removable
media devices, such as removable cartridge, MO (Magneto-Optical) and
Floptical drives.
The DC-820B is both I/O register and command compatible with the AHA
1540/1542 series, and able to run with built-in Adaptec drivers. The following are the operating systems that allow you to do so:
n MS-DOS (through BIOS INT 13H) n Windows 3.X/NT
n OS/2 1.31/2.X n SCO UNIX V3.2.X
n SCO ODT V1.X/2.0 n SCO XENIX V2.3.X
n ISC UNIX V3.2 n AT&T UNIX SVR4.X
n USL UNIX SVR 4.2 n Sunsoft NextStep V3.1
n Solaris OS V2.1 n QNX V2.15
n PICK 5.2.4 n Banyan VINES(R) 5.00
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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 driver diskettes shipped along with your DC-820B include ASPI (Ad-
vanced SCSI Programming Interface) drivers for DOS, NetWare drivers,
and UNIX LOCK/UNLOCK utility for removable media devices. Also, the
DC-820B comes with a utility program (TOOLBME.EXE) which provides
low-level format, mirroring initialization, and disk image copy/compare
functions. By implementing the ASPI drivers for DOS, the DC-820B recognizes devices formatted by other adapters, such as Adaptec and Mylex, or
formats devices that will be recognized by other makers’ host adapters.
A software program, INSTALL.EXE, is included in the driver diskette to
ease the DOS driver installation. Further details can be found in the next
section.
0.1 Easy DOS Driver Installation Software (INST ALL.EXE)
The DOS driver diskette provides an INSTALL.EXE file to ease the driver
installation for your SCSI devices. The driver installation will be neces-
sary if: 1. more than two HDDs installed and without DOS 5 Support
enabled (sec.1.6.2) or 2. SCSI device(s) other than HDD installed. This
software program provides you the information about the adapter and your
SCSI devices. After choosing the device(s) which you want to install with the
driver(s), this program will update the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT
files. Further information about drivers and step-by-step installation procedures can be found in the Chapter 2 ASPI DRIVER FOR DOS.
The following screens display the procedures of this software:
1). Firstly, this screen shows the information about adapter number (HA#0),
I/O port address (Base 330H), DMA channel (DMA 5), interrupt level (IRQ
11), and SCSI ID (ID 7). In this case, there is only one adapter available. If
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EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter
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, more detailed information about each device can also be
found. For example, we select the Fujitsu drive:
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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 install the driver, another
screen will pop up and require you to assign the pathname for MSCDEX.EXE.
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EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter
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 system and the driver(s) will then be
auto-loaded.
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EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter
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EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter
Chapter 1
HARDWARE 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 manuals for the
respective devices). Correct cable connections and termination are also necessary for the adapters to function flawlessly. Refer to the following section,
Board Layout and Jumper Setting, for the exact location and setting of
jumpers.
1.1 Board Layout and Jumper Setting
The following figure illustrates the jumper and connector locations for the
DC-820B.
TO SPKER
TO LED
JP1
1
JP2
1
TO FLOPPY DISK DRIVE
CN3
1
Floppy Enable
CPU
82355
DC-820B
BMIC
ASIC
1
FDC
JP3
CN2
11
FIRMWARE.1
FIRMWARE.2
BIOS
TO SCSI DISK DRIVE
Fast
SCSI-II
Chip
82355
BMIC
Active
Termin ator
Active
Termin ator
CN1
Connector
DC-820B
SCSI Device Activity LED Indicator (JP1)
JP1 is used to indicate the activity of SCSI devices controlled by the DC820B and should be connected to the cable leading to HDD LED on the front
panel of your system case. This LED also flashes some diagnostics codes
right after power-up. Refer to Appendix C for more details.
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External
SCSI
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 mirroring. It can be connected to the SPEAKER in
the front panel of your system or to another speaker complying with the same
specification of the system’s SPEAKER.
Floppy Enable/Disable (JP3)
JP3 is shorted to enable the floppy controller of the DC-820B. Note that only
one floppy controller can be enabled in the system. If another floppy controller in the system cannot be disabled, then JP3 should be left open (floppy
controller disabled).
1.2 Checking the T erminators on the SCSI Bus
In order to stabilize the SCSI bus only two sets of resistor array terminators
should be installed — one at each end. Since DC-820B equips with Active
Terminators on board and can be selected to Enable or Disable by entering
the ECU utility of your mainboard, you don't need to open your cabinet to do
the adjustment (refer to Sec. 1.6.2 for Controller Terminator option). The
following explains the terminators installation:
1. Only internal devices are connected to the DC-820B: Leave terminators
mounted on both the host adapter (i.e., Enable) and the last device connected
to the internal SCSI cable. Remove the terminators on all devices connected
in between.
2. Only external devices are connected to the DC-820B: Leave terminators
mounted on both the host adapter (i.e., Enable) and the last device connected
to the external SCSI cable. Remove the terminators on all devices connected
in between.
3. Both internal and external devices are connected to the DC-820B: Remove terminators on the host adapter (i.e., Disable) and leave the other sets
of terminators mounted on the last devices connected to the internal and
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EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter
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) connector (CN1): This 50-pin high density SCSI-2
connector is for connecting external SCSI devices.
Internal SCSI drive(s) connector (CN2): The 50-pin flat cable should connect
to CN2 with its colored stripe, normally red, aligning with Pin 1 of CN2.
Floppy interface connector (CN3): The 34-pin flat cable should be connected
to CN3 with its colored edge, normally red, aligning with Pin 1 of CN3.
Note that improper cable connections may damage both the drives and host
adapter.
1.4 Cache DRAM Installation
The DC-820B features four SIMM sockets, arranged as one single memory
bank. 256KB/1MB/4MB fast page mode SIMMs are required, with a minimum access time of 80ns or faster. All four SIMM sockets must be installed
with SIMMs of same size, thus three cache sizes are available: 1MB, 4MB,
and 16MB. Also, you are allowed to leave all the SIMM banks empty, i.e.,
Not-Installed or 0MB, if you don't intend to add any Cache DRAM for the
time being.
1.5 Powering Up and Entering the System CMOS BIOS Setup
When the DC-820B is inserted in an available EISA bus master slot and the
jumpers and cables are properly set, first turn on the power of your external
SCSI devices and then the main system power.
When installing a SCSI drive as drive C: (or D:), set the CMOS HDD drive
type as not-installed. Note that IDE (Intelligent Drive Electronics)/ST506/
ESDI (Enhanced Small Device Interface) drives always take precedence over
SCSI drives. That means if one IDE/ST506/ESDI drive has already been
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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 environment with the DOS 5 Support enable/disable option
enabled, the above limitations do not apply. Refer to the next section for
further details on this feature.
For the best performance, enable the Advanced CMOS ROM shadowing
option in order to speed up the DC-820B’s operation. This can be done in
most system BIOSes by enabling the shadowing of the adapter ROM location in upper memory (between C8000h and DFFFh) corresponding to the
DC-820B’s BIOS ROM address. If more than one DC-820B is installed in
the system, only one of them needs to be enabled and shadowed as each host
adapter’s ROM commands are identical. Any of the installed adapters’
addresses may be selected — which offers some flexibility when optimizing
utilization of UMBs (Upper Memory Blocks) with DOS 5 or third party
memory managers. When finished, save the setup information and re-boot the
system.
1.6 Running the ECU
The DC-820B requires you to run the EISA Configuration Utility (ECU) for
setting the proper Interrupt level, Adapter BIOS address, I/O port address,
Direct Memory Access (DMA) channel, and other firmware options. It also
supports the DOS 5.0 option to handle up to eight drives. SCSI device
options, such as Cacheable, Parity Checking, Synchronous Negotiation, Disconnect/Reconnect, Mirroring, and maximum transfer rate, can also be set in
this utility. Before running this program, copy !TRM0820B.CFG and
TRM0820B.OVL (or ACF20SU.EXE, in case of AMI ECU) from the
diskette shipped along with your DC-820B to the ECU diskette provided
with the mainboard. Also, make sure that the interrupt levels and addresses
of every I/O adapter in your system are different from each other.
For optimum compatibility with the AHA 1540/1542 series, the following
guidelines are recommended. In this way, you can use the Adaptec device
drivers that are built into the operating systems:
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EISA Fast SCSI Caching Adapter
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 CDROM.
4. If the DC-820B coexists with an AHA 1540/1542 adapter, you must set
the I/O port address as 330H for Adaptec’s adapter and choose an I/O
port other than 330H for this DC-820B. More information can be referenced in the following sections.
For DOS3.3/4.0/5.0/6.0 environments, the DOS 5 support enable/disable
option provides you an opportunity to enhance some functions:
1. The limitations for both the I/O port 330H and SCSI ID starting from 0
no longer exist.
2. As for DOS 5.0/6.0, the DC-820B can control up to 8 devices through
DC-820B’s BIOS, such as fixed disk and removable media devices.
To run the
MCS ECU, type CF. Choose the DC-820B EISA SCSI Host
Adapter to select the desired options. There are three fields providing assorted options for Hardware, Firmware, and SCSI devices. As for the AMI
ECU, type CFG to set the options for Hardware and Firmware , and then run
the utility ACF20SU.EXE for SCSI device option setting, if necessary.
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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 option selects the host
adapter interrupt channel. Note that no other adapters may use the same
level. When you run out of available interrupts, you may enable the DOS 5
support enable/disable option (refer to next subsection) and choose the
Interrupt level selection as Disabled. This Disabled option is only valid for
DOS environments and all the SCSI devices have to be directly controlled by
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