Sun 7053 Disk Controller with Fujitsu 688 Meg Drive

[Jim Mooney]

In article <3322 at kalliope.rice.edu> phil at rice.edu (William LeFebvre) writes:
>X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 7, Issue 303, message 7 of 12
>> I'm using a SUN SMD-4 (the 7053) with a CDC 9720-1230 drive and I've never
>> had any problems, so the SMD-4 does handle 3 MB/s transfer rates.  I know
>> the documentation for the SMD-4 says that it will only support up to 2.4
>> transfer rates, but I called SUN technical support and they said it really
>> does support 3.0 transfer rates. 
>
>I got this bit of information from someone "in the know":
>Well, you got lucky.  Sun purchases the XD7053 from Xylogics without
>specifying that they be suitable for 3.0.  Some of the ones they get will
>not run that fast, although most of them will.

As a person "IN THE KNOW" let me help clarify this issue. There are two
version of the SMD4 (7053). The initial shipments were spec'd to support a
maximum rate of 2.4MB/S. All shipments are now spec'd at, and are
supporting, 3.0MB/S transfer rates.  There is an easier way to tell what
your controller supports than trying a drive. On the back of each
controller there are two white stickers. One is a serial number and the
other is the model number. Models that support 2.4 are: 7053-101,
7053-102, 7053-103, and 7053-104. Models which support 3.0 are 7053-105
and anything to follow. 

James Mooney, Sr. Applications Engineer,
Xylogics,Inc.  mooney at Xylogics.COM