DEC RAID Card specs? - Printable Version

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DEC RAID Card specs? - Irinikus - 09-04-2022

Does anyone here know the specs of this SCSI RAID card: DEC DIGITAL KZPSC-XB 29-33373-01 PCI SCSI RAID CONTROLLER D040349-4D-DEC

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RE: DEC RAID Card specs? - Irinikus - 09-04-2022

I need to know what read speed it will give me in a RAID 0 configuration?

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RE: DEC RAID Card specs? - johnnym - 09-08-2022

I don't know the exact specs, but this looks like a Mylex DAC to me. Ah, indeed, it says DAC960LB on that thingy above the memory slot.

The SCSI controllers are Symbios Logic 53c720s, which according to this datasheet support up to 20 MiB/s (Fast-Wide SCSI). So theoretically up to 60 MiB/s could be possible with three of them on the same controller.

Before you buy one, let me check my inventory, because I have a few of those Mylex DACs laying around (incl. more modern eXtemeRAID ones). I used to have a Mylex eXtremeRAID 1100 in my Primergy 560 after using a DAC960PG/PJ with 6 disks in the 560 and 9 disks in a disk array aggregated to a RAID5 with one or two spares (don't remember exactly). Performance wasn't great (30 to 40 MiB/s under Slackware 10 or 11 IIRC). Unfortunately the i450GX doesn't have a good PCI performance. The older i430 Pentium chipsets were much better in this regard, I believe more than 80 MiB/s were possible with them.

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RE: DEC RAID Card specs? - johnnym - 09-11-2022

So, I went through some (the ones I found - my inventory unfortunately is a mess since a while ;-() of my SCSI (RAID) controllers and found the following ones you can have for shipping if you like:

Sorry for the picture quality, it was already too dark for my camera.

Mylex DAC960PJ



This one has three Ultra-Wide-SCSI controllers (so 40 MB/s per channel) onboard and the faster i960RD with 66 MHz. It's currently missing its memory module, but I should still have it somewhere. Don't know why I didn't leave it in the controller.  Most likely because it was a bigger sized module (either 32 or 64 MiB).

Depending on the firmware level - which I don't know - this one has the RAID configuration tool included in its BIOS or not. If not you need to use a DOS startup disk with the respective tool (DACCF) on it IIRC.

Mylex eXtremeRAID 1100



This one has three Ultra2-Wide-SCSI controllers (so 80 MB/s per channel) (3 external connectors and 2 internal connectors) onboard and according to this post with 160 MHz StrongARM. It's currently missing its memory module, but I believe I still have a few of those somewhere...

The RAID confguration tool is included in the BIOS for this one.

I also have exactly one of these controllers with 3 internal connectors and two external connectors, but want to keep that one, just in case I want to revive my Primergy 560 plus disk array setup. Sorry.

Mylex AcceleRAID 352



This one has two Ultra160-SCSI channels from a single controller and a i960RN running at 100 MHz. This one still has its memory module (64 MiB in size, ECC SDRAM).

The RAID confguration tool is included in the BIOS for this one.

Adaptec 2940UW



This is the non-Pro version w/o bridge chip between 68 pin and 50 pin connectors. Has its own BIOS, so supports booting from disk and disc drives.

Unfortunately the PCI64 cards won't fit in your single CPU PPRO motherboard (the PCI slots there are missing the notches), so depending on where you want to use it, you are limited to the DAC960PJ and Adaptec 2940UW.

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