I am trying to dig through some history of the IBM 5170 (AT). I know that the PS/2 included SCSI support. To what extent could SCSI be used on the 5170, and when was it first available? I have conflicting information on this. Any knowledge would be greatly appreciated.
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IBM 5170 history?
- Thread starter SoffyB
- Start date
cuvtixo
Member
ST-506 Small Computer System Interface
ST-506 Small Computer System Interface
have you looked at http://www.vintage-computer.com/ibmpcat.shtml ?
Wikipedia ST-506 article: As a consequence of IBM's endorsement, almost all pc disk drives in the 1980s were ST-506-based.
However the complexity of the controller and cabling led to newer solutions like SCSI, and later, ATA (IDE). In most cases SCSI drives were in fact ST-506 drives with a SCSI to ST-506 (or, in some cases, ESDI) controller on the bottom of the drive; this continued until the early 1990s, when single-chip ATA and SCSI host adapters from Western Digital, Adaptec and Emulex/QLogic (as well as custom ones designed by the hard drive makers themselves) became commonplace.
ST-506 Small Computer System Interface
have you looked at http://www.vintage-computer.com/ibmpcat.shtml ?
Wikipedia ST-506 article: As a consequence of IBM's endorsement, almost all pc disk drives in the 1980s were ST-506-based.
However the complexity of the controller and cabling led to newer solutions like SCSI, and later, ATA (IDE). In most cases SCSI drives were in fact ST-506 drives with a SCSI to ST-506 (or, in some cases, ESDI) controller on the bottom of the drive; this continued until the early 1990s, when single-chip ATA and SCSI host adapters from Western Digital, Adaptec and Emulex/QLogic (as well as custom ones designed by the hard drive makers themselves) became commonplace.
Yes, I did look at that site. I'm trying to understand - at what point was it possible to buy a SCSI drive and an ISA-to-SCSI interface card and stick them in the AT? Or was this even possible/an advertised solution? Was it just not done, and the PS/2s came along before people cared about doing this?
jscheef
New Member
Soffy,
SCSI predates the AT by a mile. SCSI adapters were available for the 8-bit ISA (PC) bus before the AT was released.
Jim
SCSI predates the AT by a mile. SCSI adapters were available for the 8-bit ISA (PC) bus before the AT was released.
Jim
Jorg
Veteran Member
rmay635703
Veteran Member
I know for a fact scsi was sitting on some old NCRS I encountered years ago, they must have dated from about 82 or so. I also saw some very large 14" or so HP hard drives that appeared to have a scsi interface, might have been from the late 70's.
My guess is SCSI could have easily been purchased at about the same time a standard 5 1/4" 10mb MFM HD was becoming available.
SCSI however did not operate at a low level which in the early years was very undesirable as you could not make your own custom track/encoding formats, nor could you directly control the drive internal hardware. I have a feeling if IDE was released in 1982 it would have been very unpopular at that time for the same reason.
Also SCSI would have been competing with IPI & SMD interface drives which had a completely different market than MFM and size/price range than a normal PC at that time would have fallen into. SCSI was mainly intended for workstation/mainframe/minicomputer use (even back then) So not many folks would buy them as they probably cost more for the more advanced logic on the drive. Not to mention in the early 80's there where still a lot of 8" & 14" hard drives being made that neither fit into a normal PC, nor were they cost effective for it.
Anyone else want to chime in?
My guess is SCSI could have easily been purchased at about the same time a standard 5 1/4" 10mb MFM HD was becoming available.
SCSI however did not operate at a low level which in the early years was very undesirable as you could not make your own custom track/encoding formats, nor could you directly control the drive internal hardware. I have a feeling if IDE was released in 1982 it would have been very unpopular at that time for the same reason.
Also SCSI would have been competing with IPI & SMD interface drives which had a completely different market than MFM and size/price range than a normal PC at that time would have fallen into. SCSI was mainly intended for workstation/mainframe/minicomputer use (even back then) So not many folks would buy them as they probably cost more for the more advanced logic on the drive. Not to mention in the early 80's there where still a lot of 8" & 14" hard drives being made that neither fit into a normal PC, nor were they cost effective for it.
Anyone else want to chime in?