It's true; memory (the human kind) becomes less reliable with age. I seem to remember having an 8-bit ISA SCSI card back in the day. I still have the Corel SCSI driver disks for it.
Am I dreaming? Or did such a thing exist?
Of course, the Future Domain TMC-850 for example.
OK, so it wasn't a dream. Those things go for silly money. Any others?
My Rodime / NCR5380
wrote:My Rodime / NCR5380
Nice. Is it bootable? What drivers do you use with it?
Couldn't say - never tested it beyond checking it enumerated at POST. If you're interested I can check it out - I have some 50-pin DEC, Compaq, Quantum & Seagate drives I could try.
Thanks for the offer but no need to do that, I was just curious.
The context for this is: I found three Teac SD-340 SCSI drives in a box last night. Made me think again about maybe keeping the XT clone MB I have and making a working system with it. Problem is, I don't have any 8-bit hard drive controllers of any type here. I got MFM and SCSI drives from the day, but no 8-bit ISA controllers. I'm pretty sure I used to have them, but maybe not. I only dipped a toe into the 8-bit PC/XT world briefly; it did not present a compelling improvement over what my CP/M-80 machines did.
There's a nice list of such cards in that post:
http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?530 … 8001#post458001
Kiełbasa smakuje najlepiej, gdy przysmażysz ją laserem!
Superb, thank you!
EDIT: those are all unobtanium or priced very dear...
So I've been loooking around since my last post, and indeed, bootable 8-bit ISA SCSI cards are as rare as hen's teeth, and priced to match when available. Is this a case of small numbers of them to begin with? Many of them still being used? Collectors cornering the market?
I have no immediate or future use for the Future Domain and Seagate cards mentioned in my linked post above. Send me a PM with your address, and they're yours.
Wow - thank you! PM sent.
Not sure about bootable, but I have seen tons of 8 bit SCSI controllers on ebay for dirty cheap. Both external ports and internal headers.
There's more to a good SCSI controller than just having external headers. A lot of those cards were just designed to be used with scanners.
You want one with a BIOS that allows you to boot. It should support large drives, and it should have decent drivers that let you run stuff like CD-ROM drives.
I have yet to see an 8-bit SCSI controller better than TMC 850 with v8.x BIOS, though there are others that come close.
"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium
I think I have a bootable 8Bit SCSI-Controller...but I think I did not have made fotos of it
https://www.flickr.com/photos/94839221@N05/al … 157657710688635
hm 🙁
Retro-Gamer 😀 ...on different machines
wrote:I think I have a bootable 8Bit SCSI-Controller...
hm 🙁
My question is answered - its the collectors hoarding 😀
AC is right - all those cheapo cards on eBay have no BIOS chip, no internal header, and are for scanners.
It used to be possible to get the TMC 850MEX cards for next to nothing, like five or ten bucks. Those are the stripped down models that don't have the socket for the BIOS, but you could solder the hardware on and save a lot of money. If you see one of those, go for it. Unfortunately, I think others have already figured it out.
I think some of the future domain 16-bit cards can also work in 8-bit slots, but I've never tried so you'll have to read up on it.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/SCSI-ISA-APPLE-SCHED … BMAAOSwi0FcYCGQ
"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium
Also have some 8-bit cards, but only 1 with a BIOS. Dont think its a problem, you should be able to put the BIOS on e.g. a network card to boot from it - if you find the correct image.
The card with BIOS is a Seagate ST-01. Those are okay if you want to use hard drives (BIOS v3.3.1 or later required to run non seagate drives), but they don't have ASPI drivers so CD-ROM is not going to happen.
You can try a SCSI BIOS on an NIC with those other cards. It's worth a shot, but seems like a pain in the arse. I *think* the TI chips on those cards might be the same ones used on the future domain cards (even though they have VLSI chips). I think there was some of cross licensing agreement to produce those SCSI ICs. The ones on the Seagate cards are special though. They ordered a batch with some registers reversed which makes them incompatible with the TMC 850 drivers.
"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium
I do not have an 8-bit ISA NIC here, so that option is out.
I just discovered a possible roadblock to using an XT clone for this system, and may have to go to a 386. If that's the case, I won't need an 8-bit card. Am putting it on hold while I research the hardware/software requirements more thoroughly.
