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Conference decwet::ntaxp

Title:Windows NT For Alpha AXP
Moderator:TARKIN::LINEIBER
Created:Mon Sep 27 1993
Last Modified:Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1058
Total number of notes:4567

1048.0. ">64KB read through SCSI?" by QUARK::LIONEL (Free advice is worth every cent) Tue May 13 1997 07:14

[I received the following in the mail today.  I'd be happy to forward any
answers to the customer.  Thanks - Steve]

Steve,
        Could you point me at someone who can answer the ultimate question?
I need to find out if The DEC Alpha can read data blocks
larger than 64K through a SCSI interface under WindowsNT. I have struck out
with my local DEC rep. and I am sure that someone at 
DEC knows the answer to this.
               Regards,

                 Ed Steele
                 Exploration Design Software
                 11191 Westheimer #214
                 Houston, Texas 77024

                 [email protected]
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1048.1QUARK::LIONELFree advice is worth every centWed May 21 1997 14:413
A stumper, eh?  Is there somewhere else I should ask?

			Steve
1048.2Here's an opinion ...KERNEL::MEGARITYI remember when Rock was youngThu May 22 1997 04:5623
For this to be possible, both the following would have to be true :-

o	There would have to exist a native SCSI command that would
	do this.  But, according to my non-current SCSI spec, both the
	READ LONG and READ(10) commands only allows 2 bytes for the
	transfer length, which means that the limit is 64K bytes.
	Of course, there might have been an improvement here or there
	might even be a vendor-specific SCSI command that would do
	this for certain disk drives.
	If it were me, I'd ask this question in ASK_SSAG.


o	There would have to exist a means within WIN32 of sending
	a native SCSI command to a disk drive - a bit like
	IO$_DIAGNOSE under OpenVMS.
	You could try the NT Developers conference for an
	answer to this question ...



Hope this gets some discussion going ...

/Ian
1048.3check the OS conferencesWRKSYS::HOUSEKenny House, Workstations EngineeringThu May 22 1997 06:3220
    re .2 - allowed transfer length with SCSI commands ...
    
    READ(6) has one byte to count logical blocks
      (256*512 -> 131,072 bytes)
      (00h means 256 blocks)
    
    READ(10) has two bytes to count logical blocks
      (65535*512 -> 33,553,920 bytes)
      (0000h means 0 blocks)
    
    READ LONG has two bytes to count bytes
    
    
    Early SCSI chips we used had only a sixteen-bit byte counter (5380). 
    Later chips had 24-bit (53C810) and 32-bit (1040B) counters.  The
    actual transfer length limitaion is specific to each operating system.
    (I recall early versions of the OpenVMS SCSI drivers only allowed for
    127-block transfers, maybe that's been increased in later versions.)
    
    -- Kenny House
1048.4I stand corrected ...KERNEL::MEGARITYI remember when Rock was youngThu May 22 1997 06:411