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Date:      Tue, 5 Mar 1996 18:28:39 +0100
From:      se@zpr.uni-koeln.de (Stefan Esser)
To:        "Justin T. Gibbs" <gibbs@freefall.freebsd.org>
Cc:        freebsd-scsi@freefall.freebsd.org, freebsd-hardware@freefall.freebsd.org, freebsd-hackers@freefall.freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Archive Anconda Tape drive 1.35GB
Message-ID:  <199603051728.AA00074@Sysiphos>
In-Reply-To: "Justin T. Gibbs" <gibbs@freefall.freebsd.org> "Re: Archive Anconda Tape drive 1.35GB" (Mar  5,  6:38)

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On Mar 5,  6:38, "Justin T. Gibbs" wrote:
} Subject: Re: Archive Anconda Tape drive 1.35GB

} >When operating as a SCSI-2 device (jp6 shorted) the drive does not
} >lock the scsi bus during the operations listed above.  However to
} >get the ncr working with /sbin/dump, the ncr requires a patch
} >extending the latetime from 10 secs to a larger value.  presently
} >i am using 20 minutes.  ;(  but it works and its fast!   it does
} >not lock the bus while the dump is being written to tape.
} 
} What does the latetime value affect?

The NCR updates a time variable whenever it passes
a certain point in its main program loop.

Once per second the driver checks the last update 
time of this variable, and issues a NCR start, if
it hasn't been updated for more than a few seconds
(this restart doesn't affect normal operation, it
is a NOP if the controller is connected to some 
device).

If the watchdog code finds the time variable has
not been updated for "latetime" seconds, it assumes
a severe fault and tries to reinitialize the NCR
chip and the driver. This leads to much confusion,
if the SCSI bus was locked for many minutes because 
of a tape not disconnecting on rewind ...

I might remove this watchdog timer, since it seems
to cause more problems than it solves (i.e. I don't
know, whether it ever was triggered for its designed
purpose) ...

Regards, STefan
-- 
 Stefan Esser, Zentrum fuer Paralleles Rechnen		Tel:	+49 221 4706021
 Universitaet zu Koeln, Weyertal 80, 50931 Koeln	FAX:	+49 221 4705160
 ==============================================================================
 http://www.zpr.uni-koeln.de/~se			  <se@ZPR.Uni-Koeln.DE>



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