Major release: SxSI V5 with DMA patch Translated by Eidis

[eidis]

 Hi Guys !

It needed to be done and here it is. I hope that it will make the whole SASI and SCSI topic a lot more clearer. Let the pleasure begin !

The patch was discovered by our forum member Neko68k and is reproduced with his kind permission.

Get it here:
http://nfggames.com/X68000/Misc/SxSI%20V5%20with%20DMA%20patch%20Translated%20by%20Eidis/MasterDisk_V2.zip

=====================================================
                 Eidis/GameSX Presents
                     Engrish version of
                 SxSI v5 with DMA patch
=====================================================

This archive contains SCSI compatible IOCS driver
for X68000 machines with SASI port and features DMA
patch which prevents data corruption while writing
data to disk.

In this floppy image you will find translated
versions of the following programs:

HUMAN.SYS      - Human OS hardware interfacing routines
                          and the DOS initialization program.
COMMAND.X     - Default operating system shell.
ED.X                 - Text editor
SCSIFORMAT.X  - SCSI UNIT initialization program
BOOTSET.X       - SCSI device boot program for the
                           SASI port (Installs to SRAM)
SASIIOCS.SYS  - SCSI port for SCSI-IOCS
SCSIHD.SYS     - SCSI Block Device driver.


Foreword
=====================================================

Early X68000 models such as ACE, EXPERT, PRO,
EXPERT II and PRO II can interface with hard drives
through the built in SASI port which is a fully
compliant subset of SCSI-1. This means that
electronically SASI and SCSI-1 are compatible and
that the only difference is in the software which
drives them. The largest known SASI hard drive has 40MB
capacity which even during the X68000 glory days was
too small and especially too loud.
The SxSI driver on the other hand allows interfacing
with 8bit bus wide SCSI-1 devices and is limited to
the maximum size of 1GB. The SCSI-1 hard drives are
very slow, loud and given their age can not be
considered as a reliable storage media.
For many years the workaround for this problem was
to use a SCSI to IDE adapter and connect an IDE hard
drive or CF reader to it.

Some compatible SCSI to IDE adapters are:

* I-O Data IDSC21-E
* Yamaha V769970
* Acard AEC-7720U

They all have been surpassed by STRATOS CF AztecMonster
which has a built in CF reader and is fully compatible
with X68000. Sometimes it costs even less than any of
the previous mentioned adapters.


How to format, partition hard disk and make it boot
=====================================================

Set your device to SCSI ID0 and boot from the
MasterDiskV2. Upon booting you will be greated with
a DOS prompt.

Now type the following commands:

cd sxsi
scsiformat

*Press 0 to select device with ID0. The program will
ask you to initialize and format the hard disk.
Answer Y to both questions.
*Press 2 to create new partition.
*Press A if you want to allocate all available space
or type in the amout of MB you wish to allocate for
the new partition.
*Enter 32 for maximum root directory entries. This
means that you will be able to go 32 directories
deep from the root directory.
*Press Y to transfer HUMAN.SYS to created partition.
*Press A to select A: as the source drive.
*Press 4 to enter Bootflags menu.
*Press 1 to select 1st partition.
*Press 0 to make it bootable.
*Press 8 to exit the sxsiformat program.
*Reboot the X68000 from MasterDiskV2

cs sxsi
bootset

*Enter ED0100 as destination SRAM address.
*Enter 1 as boot delay in seconds.

cd ..
copy command.x c:

Now remove floppy disk, reboot and ...

Keep the scene alive !
Eidis

[slk486]

Really appreciated, thanks ! I'm sure I'll be needing this soon

[caius]

Excellent job as always! 

[H68k]

So In theory, with this SCSI-on-SASI driver.. older X68k models with SASI only, could handle SCSI hard disk's up to 1GB in size?

Damn... and I watched a gaggle of Expert and Pro models sail by a couple of day's ago. they all went for quite "reasonable" prices.. I was tempted to have a bid on one of them... but I wasn't sure about this, as I couldn't find anything definite on what the maximum drive size SASI could handle was.

 

[eidis]

 Hi H68k !

Not only in theory. That's how I use CF on my ACE HD and this method should work with all SASI X68000 models. By the way, there is a program called goverhd which allows you to go past the 1GB barrier. However, 1GB is plenty fol all sorts of things.

Keep the scene alive !
Eidis

[98pacecar]

So I assume this is not necessary for a SCSI machine (Super and newer) using your pre-built image?   

[eidis]

Affirmative. SCSI users only need to set the correct SCSI ID with switch.x

Keep the scene alive !
Eidis

[98pacecar]

Excellent! I'm not an owner yet, but I'm trying to learn as much as I can before mine gets here. Thanks for the info!