From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!info-vax
Newsgroups: fa.info-vax
Title: SI drives on VAX
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.7902
Posted: Sat Jul  3 19:35:20 1982
Received: Sun Jul  4 01:37:31 1982

>From decvax!harpo!ihnss!ihps3!stolaf!sft@Berkeley Sat Jul  3 19:37:11 1982
We have had similar problems with SI 9400 controllers on an 11/60 running
RSTS and an 11/70 running UNIX V7.  Our VAX/VMS system seems to be immune.
There is indeed a firmware problem with overlapped seeks in 9400s, and it
sounds to me like you've found it.  Our fix in V7 (and 2.8 BSD) UNIX is to
delete the code in hpstart() between the labels "search:" and "done:".
This disables overlapped seeks and makes the system run, although a little
slower.  Sorry I can't help you with 4.1BSD--we're still waiting for our
VAX license and I don't have source code.

On the other hand, you might have a hardware problem.  One of our controllers
(on the 11/60) had a tendency to go south, usually between midnight and
7 AM.  The controller would indicate strange things (including drive off-line)
in the drive status registers and would refuse to accept any commands.
Replacing the main logic board fixed that.  I'd bet that your problem is
firmware, though.

Steve Tarr
....!ihnss!ihps3!stolaf!sft