(semi-long) What ESDI Controller ships with the new AT&T 6386s?

[~XT6561110~Frank McGee~C23~L25~6326~]

In article <2542 at infmx.UUCP> aland at infmx.UUCP (alan denney) writes:
>Regarding the new 6386 line from AT&T (25 MHz version, 33 MHz version,
>and 33 MHz "Model S"):  what hard disk controllers do they use?

Here's a fast summary of the controllers past and present :

6386/33E Model S - WD 7000 series combo floppy/SCSI controller

6386/33E - WD 1007-WA2 combo floppy/ESDI controller

6386/25 - WD 1007-WA2 combo floppy/ESDI controller

6386/SX - integral (on the motherboard) IDE controller also
with an integral floppy controller.  Both are disable-able
through CMOS (floppy disable, disk disable, or both disable).
The IDE interface is also known as the "AT" interface.

6386E - WD 1007-WAH (fixed disk only) with a motherboard
floppy controller.

6386 - WD 1003-WAH (older ST506 machines, 3:1 interleave),
WD 1006-WAH (newer ST506 machines, 1:1 interleave), WD
1005-WAH (older ESDI machines, 3:1 interleave), and the WD
1007A-WAH (newer ESDI machines, 1:1 interleave, translation
mode for more than 1024 cylinders).  All are fixed disk only
controllers, these machines had a motherboard floppy
controller.

6312 - WD 1006-WA2 combo ST506 and floppy controller.

Those are all that I know of off of the top of my head.  They
are all Western Digital controllers with no BIOS ROMs 
(some controllers have a BIOS chip add-on on the card that
allows low level formatting and other things).  We ship a low
level formatter to people that send in there warranty
registration cards for the 6386 and 6386/E; the low level
formatter can be accessed on the 6386/SX, 6386/25, and
6386/33E by pressing ALT-F while you are in the disk utilities
of the customer diagnostics.  Don't know if the SX low level
formatter will format non-IDE interface drives.  The 6386/25
and 6386/33 will auto-configure ESDI drives if you run the
configuration utility in the customer diagnostics.  There are
user-configurable drive types on the 6386/SX, 6386/25, and
6386/33 (drive types 48 and 49).  I believe these will allow
outrageous sized disks (256 heads, 32000 cylinders).  On the
6386/SX, 6386/25, and 6386/33 a quick and dirty CMOS editor
can be pulled up by pressing ALT-CTRL-INS; if you are running
Unix you need to do this before the boot loader starts, it's
always there under MSDOS unless you specify in CMOS that you
only want to allow it to be entered during pre-boot.

That's pretty much the whole story on AT&T disks.  I also
found out that all of our AT-bus SCSI add-ons and the Model S
all use the same controller but with different jumper settings.

Hope this answers your question,

-- 
Frank McGee, AT&T
Tier 3 Indirect Channel Sales Support
attmail!fmcgee