SCSI HVD PCI-X controller??

Dear all,
I'm looking for a SCSI controller to use with my IBM Magstar library.
To control my Magstar library you've to use HVD (high voltage differential)
SCSI controller, and not more usual LVD.
A good one is the Adaptec AHA-2944UW (HVD), but it has a normal PCI (33mhz)
connector.
In our server only 1 PCI-X (66Mhz, hot-swappable) slot is available.
Could you help me??

Thanks a lot
regards
Matteo

On Mon, 22 Sep 2003 17:23:26 +0200, "Hiroshi"
wrote:

Dear all,
I'm looking for a SCSI controller to use with my IBM Magstar library.
To control my Magstar library you've to use HVD (high voltage differential)
SCSI controller, and not more usual LVD.
A good one is the Adaptec AHA-2944UW (HVD), but it has a normal PCI (33mhz)
connector.
In our server only 1 PCI-X (66Mhz, hot-swappable) slot is available.
Could you help me??

I don't know of any HVD PCI-X adapters (Qlogic dropped their parallel
SCSI line, which really leaves just Adaptec and LSI, who have
32bit/33Mhz PCI, but that's about it).

The problem is that HVD is limited to lower SCSI transfer rates
(Ultra, certainly, but not U160 or U320 by any means), so there's
little incentive to produce new silicon with a fast host bus and a
slow(er) SCSI interface.

This may seem a little odd, but I'd suggest that your best bet is to
go with a PCI-X *LVD* adapter and something like a Paralan LVD-HVD
converter.

Although this will probably cost more 8-(

Matteo

Malc.

PCI-x operates at 133mhz not 66mhz. Standard PCI-3 architecture
dictates 66/64bit max. With your 3 primery flavors being 32bit/33mhz,
32bit/66mhz, and 64bit/66mhz.
You wont find a SCSI/HVD controller over 40MB/sec because thats the
practical achitectual limit for UltraWIDE SCSI devices. PCI-x isnt
going to speed it up for you..

With an HVD device your looking at 10/20/40MBytes/sec Max
The controller you listed is just fine.

Robert



Malcolm Weir wrote in message . ..
On Mon, 22 Sep 2003 17:23:26 +0200, "Hiroshi"
wrote:

Dear all,
I'm looking for a SCSI controller to use with my IBM Magstar library.
To control my Magstar library you've to use HVD (high voltage differential)
SCSI controller, and not more usual LVD.
A good one is the Adaptec AHA-2944UW (HVD), but it has a normal PCI (33mhz)
connector.
In our server only 1 PCI-X (66Mhz, hot-swappable) slot is available.
Could you help me??

I don't know of any HVD PCI-X adapters (Qlogic dropped their parallel
SCSI line, which really leaves just Adaptec and LSI, who have
32bit/33Mhz PCI, but that's about it).

The problem is that HVD is limited to lower SCSI transfer rates
(Ultra, certainly, but not U160 or U320 by any means), so there's
little incentive to produce new silicon with a fast host bus and a
slow(er) SCSI interface.

This may seem a little odd, but I'd suggest that your best bet is to
go with a PCI-X *LVD* adapter and something like a Paralan LVD-HVD
converter.

Although this will probably cost more 8-(

Matteo

Malc.

Correct my last post.. I said PCI-X operates at 133mhz. It does in
fact start at 66mhz according to the standard (66-500mhz). However, I
have yet to see a machine ship that did not support a 133mhz PCI-X
slot. Im sure they exist.

Robert

Malcolm Weir wrote in message . ..
On Mon, 22 Sep 2003 17:23:26 +0200, "Hiroshi"
wrote:

Dear all,
I'm looking for a SCSI controller to use with my IBM Magstar library.
To control my Magstar library you've to use HVD (high voltage differential)
SCSI controller, and not more usual LVD.
A good one is the Adaptec AHA-2944UW (HVD), but it has a normal PCI (33mhz)
connector.
In our server only 1 PCI-X (66Mhz, hot-swappable) slot is available.
Could you help me??

I don't know of any HVD PCI-X adapters (Qlogic dropped their parallel
SCSI line, which really leaves just Adaptec and LSI, who have
32bit/33Mhz PCI, but that's about it).

The problem is that HVD is limited to lower SCSI transfer rates
(Ultra, certainly, but not U160 or U320 by any means), so there's
little incentive to produce new silicon with a fast host bus and a
slow(er) SCSI interface.

This may seem a little odd, but I'd suggest that your best bet is to
go with a PCI-X *LVD* adapter and something like a Paralan LVD-HVD
converter.

Although this will probably cost more 8-(

Matteo

Malc.

"Hiroshi" wrote in message
...
To control my Magstar library you've to use HVD (high voltage
differential)
...
In our server only 1 PCI-X (66Mhz, hot-swappable) slot is available.

A larger problem may be your bus voltage.

Many of the HVD cards that were made would take 3.3v or 5v signalling, but
all of the ones I am familiar with require 5v power. Many of the newer PCI-X
busses have only 3.3v power.

Scott

Thanks a lot to all!

Probably IBM will replace our new LTO (HVD) library with a new (and a
little bit cheaper) LTO LVD library

thanks
regards
Matteo

So, back to the original question ... why can't this gentleman stick his regular PCI 32bit/33 MHz card into a PCI-X slot? What's
wrong with doing that? I'm guessing that the PCI-X bus he plugs into will then only run at 33 MHz, for one thing, but will it work
or not?

Thx,
Don

"Robert" wrote in message om...
Correct my last post.. I said PCI-X operates at 133mhz. It does in
fact start at 66mhz according to the standard (66-500mhz). However, I
have yet to see a machine ship that did not support a 133mhz PCI-X
slot. Im sure they exist.

Robert

Malcolm Weir wrote in message . ..
On Mon, 22 Sep 2003 17:23:26 +0200, "Hiroshi"
wrote:

Dear all,
I'm looking for a SCSI controller to use with my IBM Magstar library.
To control my Magstar library you've to use HVD (high voltage differential)
SCSI controller, and not more usual LVD.
A good one is the Adaptec AHA-2944UW (HVD), but it has a normal PCI (33mhz)
connector.
In our server only 1 PCI-X (66Mhz, hot-swappable) slot is available.
Could you help me??

I don't know of any HVD PCI-X adapters (Qlogic dropped their parallel
SCSI line, which really leaves just Adaptec and LSI, who have
32bit/33Mhz PCI, but that's about it).

The problem is that HVD is limited to lower SCSI transfer rates
(Ultra, certainly, but not U160 or U320 by any means), so there's
little incentive to produce new silicon with a fast host bus and a
slow(er) SCSI interface.

This may seem a little odd, but I'd suggest that your best bet is to
go with a PCI-X *LVD* adapter and something like a Paralan LVD-HVD
converter.

Although this will probably cost more 8-(

Matteo

Malc.

"Don Matthews" wrote in message
news
So, back to the original question ... why can't this gentleman stick his
regular PCI 32bit/33 MHz card into a PCI-X slot? What's
wrong with doing that? I'm guessing that the PCI-X bus he plugs into will
then only run at 33 MHz, for one thing, but will it work
or not?


As I said in my earlier post...

He needs to check his bus info on the new machine. There is a reasonable
chance that it only supports 3.3v power. All the HVD cards I know require 5v
power, even if they support 3.3v signalling.

Scott