Partial summary: ESDI controllers and non-ESDI Xenix.

[Rich Brennan]

  From the email I've received, and the one posting I've read, it looks
like the WD1007 (or WD1005) talks ESDI to the drive, and talks "WD1010"
to the PC/AT bus. This is what the non-ESDI version of Xenix likes and
needs. Apparently (thanks, Jim Morton of Applix) the WD1007 can handle
1:1 interleaved drives (track buffered?), while the recommended value
for WD1005 is 3:1.

  There's another wrinkle to this, however. A year ago, before I gave
up on this ESDI mess and got an RLL Priam, (you should see my controller
and drive collection!), I got a WD1005 with a 4175 MAXTOR ESDI. I spent
a week trying to get them to work and finally gave up. Recently, looking
a little harder at the doc, I now see the the WD1005 only works with
HARD SECTORED ESDI DRIVES. Unfortunately my 4175 is soft sectored.
Ergo, Nogo. Of course the only place I could find that the MAXTOR was
soft sectored was in a little diagram describing the ESDI "Configuration
response bits". One asserted status bit is marked "soft sectored"!
Was I the only person on the continent to order a soft sectored ESDI
drive?!?

  I've ordered up my WD1007 which I hope will work with either soft or
hard sectored ESDI drives (the OMTI 8620 does, but it doesn't talk the
standard "WD1010"; you need "ESDI Xenix" to get the 8620 to work).

  I'll post info on the WD1007 when it arrives. Who knows, maybe it only
works with "firm" sectored drives :-). You may also see a "for sale"
notice for some controllers and drives, too!

  I can hardly wait until I can duke it out with the many flavors of
the SCSI standard!


Rrrrrich.
-- 
...!{uunet,linus!alliant}!merk!root			Rich Brennan