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Emulex UC07 SCSI controller eBay deal, or junk bin addition?

G

gslick

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Saw this Emulex UC07 SCSI controller pop up this afternoon for only $35 shipped and couldn't resist taking the gamble:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/111899938088

Will it turn out to be a great deal, or another junk bin addition? I should find out next week when it arrives.

I have several CMD and Dilog Q-bus SCSI controllers but I've never had one from Emulex. It might be handy to have one from Emulex for comparison, if it works. I don't think I've seen an MSCP capable Q-bus SCSI controller from any vendor go by this cheap before.

-Glen
 
Glen,
Congrats! That is a fantastic deal. I have two UC07s and they have been great for me. I use the SCSI2SD cards with them. One system is a PDP-11/83 running RSX11M+ with a pair of SCSI2SD cards. Each SCSI2SD / microSD is configured with one RD54 and one RA92 so that I can backup either disk with BRU painlessly. The second system is a MINC-23 with a modified BDV11 that boots DU on an 11/23 CPU with four RD54 drives running RT11 on a single SCSI2SD / microSD card. I can also run a 11/73-AB in the MINC and it will boot the UC07 by itself. Without the BDV11 you can enter a short ODT sequence and boot the UC07 by itself.

Configuring a UC07 with the built in F.R.D. utility (also started from ODT) is a bit tricky only because of the many options. One thing I just recently learned is that it is better to turn the transparent replacement of bad blocks off so that the BAD and INI utilities work better with blank microSD cards.

Good Luck and enjoy!

Mark

gslick said:
Saw this Emulex UC07 SCSI controller pop up this afternoon for only $35 shipped and couldn't resist taking the gamble:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/111899938088

Will it turn out to be a great deal, or another junk bin addition? I should find out next week when it arrives.

I have several CMD and Dilog Q-bus SCSI controllers but I've never had one from Emulex. It might be handy to have one from Emulex for comparison, if it works. I don't think I've seen an MSCP capable Q-bus SCSI controller from any vendor go by this cheap before.

-Glen
Click to expand...
 
Wow. Just wow. I paid $249 for mine ~2 years ago. Congratulations!

All I can say about this interface is that it just works. There is a setup routine to go through, and after that, seamless and invisible. I have a re-purposed Apple SCSI HD and a SCSI Zip drive on mine. It just works.

EDIT: Now that I took a look at your auction... My interface card is the double wide version with only one SCSI I/O, not the quad wide version that you just acquired. I think that you actually have the UC08. Good luck!

smp
 
Last edited:
I think that is still the UC07. I have a UC08 and both sides of the quad board are populated with components and it has two connectors to connect SCSI devices to.
 
Very good deal there! I use a dual-width UC07 in my PDP-11/73 with a magneto-optical drive to run 2.11BSD. What's nice about that is, I can eject the cartridge, mount it on my Linux desktop, and use the MO disk image in SIMH. It's also very easy to make backups that way.

Others are correct that your board is a quad-width UC07 with only half the available board populated. The UC07 can only do MSCP *or* TMSCP (Tape MSCP, SCSI tape drives), so the Emulex solution was to put two on a single board for people who needed both SCSI disk and tape. I've got a PDP with ESDI drives and have used the UC07 in TMSCP mode with a 4 mm DAT drive, which works fine too.
 
Congrats. I use a UC17 that I paid a bundle for many years ago. If it works consider yourself good. I bet it will. Never had an
issue with mine.
 
The UC07 arrived yesterday. I was surprised when I received the USPS delivery notification email that said it was delivered in my mailbox instead of being left on my front porch as boxes of any size won't fit in my mailbox.

I wasn't too pleased to check and see that it actually was delivered in my mailbox, in a manila envelope instead of in a box. Before I opened it there didn't seem to be much padding at all and I didn't know what to expect when I opened it. There was only a double layer of bubble wrap around the UC07 board, which was at least in a static shield bag. I opened it up and was somewhat surprised that it appeared to have arrived in good condition without any damage.

I just got it installed in a MicroVAX and was able to get into the F.R.D. menu. I got it configured with a scratch SCSI hard drive and it seems to be running through a verify pass successfully at the moment, so it looks like I might have gotten a winner here for $35. (Which doesn't go too far for making up for all of the other losers)

-Glen

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IMG_0002.JPG
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IMG_0004.JPG
 
Anyone have an Emulex UC07/UC08 with firmware revision level R and access to an EPROM programmer to create a binary dump of the firmware EPROM? I think the EPROM is likely a 27C512. I haven't double checked that.

If you start up F.R.D. you should get a banner like this:

Disk Firmware-Resident Diagnostic
Copyright (c) 1988 Emulex Corporation all rights reserved
UC07/8 controller, firmware revision level R
IP address = 172150

And the label on the firmware EPROM should be G143R.

I have firmware revision level L with an EPROM labeled G143L on the UC07 I just received and I'd like to experiment with trying firmware revision level R on it.

-Glen
 
spare programmer

spare programmer

PG31 said:
My UC08 has G143P. Unfortunately I don't have a programmer/copier.
Click to expand...
Depending on the chip type I might have a copier you could borrow.
Save me hunting the web please - what chips are in the UC08.
You could read and export them with my programmer.

iain
 
Look like AMD 27C512, I have "P" rev but I'm guessing "R" is the latest. I have no need/plan to upgrade mine to "R". Wonder what the differences are? More device support features or bug fixes.
 
PG31 said:
Look like AMD 27C512, I have "P" rev but I'm guessing "R" is the latest. I have no need/plan to upgrade mine to "R". Wonder what the differences are? More device support features or bug fixes.
Click to expand...

This thread from 8008guy from January 2015 shows some Disk Firmware-Resident Diagnostic firmware revision level R configuration output:
http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthre...or-installing-RT11-on-a-SCSI2SD-card-PDP11-83

One thing I don't have in firmware revision level L is the option to change the media ID. I think it is fixed at RA81.

Code: 
Current media ID is: RA81

Do you want to change media ID [Y or N, def = N]? Y

Please select a media ID number from this table - [0-5]
or type RETURN to use current default

0 = RA81
1 = RA82
2 = RA90
3 = RA91
4 = RA92
5 = RD54
Media ID,def=0]: 1

Another option is "Full capacity mode". I wonder what that changes?

Code: 
Full capacity mode [Y or N,def=Y]?

One thing I noticed in the detailed configuration information in that thread is that he is trying to create an RA82 sized disk which I believe has exactly 1,216,665 user visible blocks, but then the UC07 shows that as 1,216,601 or 64 fewer blocks. I don't know if the UC07 is reserving some blocks for replacement or diagnostic purposes, or what is going on. I'd like to figure that out to be able to create a disk that appears to be exactly the same size as another to the host system. That is easy to with CMD SCSI controllers.

Again from the other thread:

Code: 
Current Device Settings:
SCSI ID: 1
Vendor: "SCSI2SD "
Product ID: "RA82 "
Revision: " 3.5"

Parity Checking: enabled
Unit Attention Condition: enabled
Bytes per sector: 512
Maximum Size: 594.07MB ([B]1216665 [/B]sectors)

Code: 
Option Menu
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 - Format 2 - Verify
3 - Format & Verify 4 - Data Reliability
5 - Format, Verify, & Data Reliability 6 - Read Only
7 - List Known Units 8 - Replace Block
9 - Write RCT 10 - Optical Read all Diag Sectors
11 - Optical Write a Diag Sector 12 - Issue Mode Select
13 - Display Novram 14 - Edit / Load Novram

Enter option number: 7

Drive Status Unit Size
-------------------------------
0 Available [B]1216601[/B]
 
My UC17 firmware is marked UC07/08 G143P. Maybe the firmware is the same between UC07 and UC17 and the difference are in the gate arrays and the drivers used? I have a EPROM programmer and should be able to make an image if there is interest.
 
MattisLind said:
My UC17 firmware is marked UC07/08 G143P. Maybe the firmware is the same between UC07 and UC17 and the difference are in the gate arrays and the drivers used? I have a EPROM programmer and should be able to make an image if there is interest.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't mind having binary images of the various firmware versions that are out there just for comparison. I'll have to get my device programmer set up and dump the G143L version that I have.

I might have a look at disassembling the firmware to see if anything interesting can be reverse engineered. It should be 8031 code.
 
Firmware Version R EPROM

Firmware Version R EPROM

gslick said:
Anyone have an Emulex UC07/UC08 with firmware revision level R and access to an EPROM programmer to create a binary dump of the firmware EPROM? I think the EPROM is likely a 27C512. I haven't double checked that.

If you start up F.R.D. you should get a banner like this:

Disk Firmware-Resident Diagnostic
Copyright (c) 1988 Emulex Corporation all rights reserved
UC07/8 controller, firmware revision level R
IP address = 172150

And the label on the firmware EPROM should be G143R.

I have firmware revision level L with an EPROM labeled G143L on the UC07 I just received and I'd like to experiment with trying firmware revision level R on it.

-Glen
Click to expand...

Glen,
I have a UC07 with firmware version R and I have an EPROM programmer to make a copy of the EPROM. Attached is a photo of the UC07 board I have which shows the EPROM with the G143R label. Also, the F.R.D. start up indicates the firmware as you show:

Disk Firmware-Resident Diagnostic
Copyright (c) 1988 Emulex Corporation all rights reserved
UC07/8 controller, firmware revision level R
IP address = 172150

This F.R.D. does have the RA92 option in the known disk options as you point out in another post. I've let the UC07 autosize my SCSI2SD card and it finds whatever disk sizes that I tell the SCSI2SD firmware to set up.

I'll need to verify the exact type of EPROM by pulling off the sticker. If I have good luck with everything I'll have a dump of the EPROM soon.

Matlock
 

Attachments

  • UC07.jpg
    UC07.jpg
    98.5 KB · Views: 1
gslick said:
I wouldn't mind having binary images of the various firmware versions that are out there just for comparison. I'll have to get my device programmer set up and dump the G143L version that I have.

I might have a look at disassembling the firmware to see if anything interesting can be reverse engineered. It should be 8031 code.
Click to expand...

Glen,
I was able to make a copy of the EPROM. It was an AM27C512 AMD EPROM and I made a .HEX format dump that I zipped and have attached to this message. If your programmer prefers a .BIN let me know and I can send that instead.

Let me know how it works for you. I'd like to know that I have a good copy. In the past I had an error on one of my UC07s that the LEDs indicated was a bad EPROM. I just used DeOXit to clean the EPROM pins and socket and it's been fine since then. It did make me wish I had a good copy of the EPROM so now I do.

Matlock
 

Attachments

  • uc07-g143r.zip
    64.5 KB · Views: 2
Excellent. Thanks for the G143R dump. I'll have to try it out tomorrow on my UC07 and report back on whether or not I can just swap it in place of my G143L firmware, and if it makes any operational difference.

-Glen
 
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