Re: Need RRD45-AA CDROM Drive

From: Lord Isildur (isildur_at_andrew.cmu.edu)
Date: 10/08/04

  • Next message: Jack Pea***: "Re: Need RRD45-AA CDROM Drive" 
    Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 11:55:59 -0400

    actually, this is not nearly as much of an issue as many people make it
    out to be. the machines themselves don't mind at all. More than anything else,
    it was the scripts that did OS installation that would make life difficult
    (but not impossible) if you tried to install on a disk that didn't have DEC
    firmware. it's certainly not impossible though. In almost a dozen alphas i
    might have one DEC disk left spinning (not like they died, but more like
    a 2 gig disk is kind of small these days), and i've not had any troubles
    installing vms or dux on non-DEC disks, in DEC3000's, AS255's, AS200s, AS500s,
    and miata boxes. same deal for a handful of VAXstations and a couple PMAXen.
    the VMS was 7, the dux was 3.2 and 4.0x, the ultrix was 4.4, and of course
    plenty of BSD to go around as well (which naturally had no issues with non-DEC
    disks)

    Isildur

    On Thu, 7 Oct 2004, Ben Myers wrote:

    > The important thing to keep in mind about the non-Wintel DEC products is that
    > many of them will vomit (high tech term) all over a SCSI device that does not
    > have firmware identifying the device as DEC. Many of the RZ series of hard
    > drives, TZ tape drives, and RRD CD-ROM drives were manufactured with
    > DEC-specific firmware. Just about the only difference between a DEC-specific
    > device and its generic equivalent is the device identification in the firmware.
    > (Some old time DEC engineers may also claim that DEC asked the OEM manufacturer
    > to make other specific changes inside the firmware, and, in any event, DEC did
    > exercise strict control over the firmware in the OEM devices it used.)
    >
    > So... You can install a DEC-specific SCSI device in a Wintel computer and it has
    > a near 100% chance of working. If you install a non-DEC SCSI device in a DEC
    > proprietary box (Alpha, VAX, PDP, other?), the device may or may not work
    > depending on the vintage of the box. As a rule of thumb (but my thumb is often
    > bruised and bleeding from exceptions to the rule), the later the vintage of DEC
    > proprietary box, the better the odds of a non-DEC device working OK.
    >
    > IBM, HP, and Compaq did similar things to their older Wintel and non-Wintel
    > computers to prevent customers from installing much more cheaply priced
    > commodity devices... Ben Myers
    >
    > On Thu, 07 Oct 2004 06:05:36 -0700, James Nykiel <jnykiel@access4less.net>
    > wrote:
    >
    >> Greetings:
    >>
    >>
    >> I am interested in restoring a AlphaStation, it appears that the original
    >> CDROM drive was a RRD45 so that is what I would like to install, this is
    >> the only reasoning behind my choice.
    >>
    >>
    >> Thank you... - Jim
    >>
    >> On Thu, 07 Oct 2004 12:19:55 +0000, VAXman- wrote:
    >>
    >>> In article <pan.2004.10.07.03.50.32.25719@access4less.net>, James Nykiel
    >>> <jnykiel@access4less.net> writes:
    >>>> Greetings:
    >>>>
    >>>>
    >>>> I am in Oregon in the United States. I am looking for the RRD45
    >>>> specifically.
    >>>
    >>> I have some I might consider letting go but WHY must it be the 45? As Ben
    >>> said, the RRD46 is faster and newer than the RRD45. Using the 46, you may
    >>> find you will have less issues with *most* of the CD writeable media.
    >>>
    >>> --
    >>> http://www.ProvN.com for the *best* OpenVMS system security
    >>> solutions that others only claim to be.
    >>> --
    >>> Cyber-Terrorism (si'-ber tayr'-or-iz-em) n.:
    >>> The release of, the sale of, or the use of any Micro$oft software product!
    >>
    >
    >

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