RS/6000 PCI SCSI Card

[raoulduke]

You guys are probably going to skewer me for this... I bought an unclear SCSI card on the gamble I might be able to use it in a PC.  It doesn't have clear identification marks but the chip is a Symbios  53C875 and there's a 4-K label on the outside-facing part of the card (by the port).  Windows recognizes it as a SCSI card but can't find drivers.  I haven't really tested with OS X yet but it didn't seem to recognize it.

I found this, which suggests potential compatibility.  Problem is I honestly can't figure out how precisely IBM labeled the card.  The FRU is 93H809.  IBM's replacement drivers (still not sure which card I'm looking for) suggest AIX and possibly RPM.  I'm wondering if - because Adaptec made cards with the same chipset (which I know is overly simplistic and optimistic) - it might be possible to use or fudge another driver.

 

[CelGen]

I would almost be cautious on others working purely because of the chipset because IBM had a thing for loading their own firmware that made the generic drivers not work.

 

[avadondragon]

Originally Symbios was an NCR part and luckily they still seem to have the drivers for that card here:

http://www5.ncr.com/support/support_drivers_patches.asp?Class=pc_library_pqs

(note: they only list support up to Windows 2000 and the drivers date to the year 2000)

Later Symbios was bought by LSI who was later bought by Avago who has a device listed under "Legacy ICs" on their support page as product "LSI53C875E"

http://www.avagotech.com/support/download-search

Try the Windows ASPI driver download (Advanced SCSI Programming Interface).  It MIGHT work but it is dated 2002 and meant for Windows XP.

 

[raoulduke]

See avadondragon that was my thought - thanks very much.  Some FreeBSD documentation I found suggested that OS (and maybe NetBSD) may actually be able to run the card OOB (or there may be drivers, not sure).  But truthfully I haven't had a lot of time to try this all out.  I will play with these drivers.  I appreciate it.

This isn't that important but the card has a 50-pin connector and I thought it would be kind of cool to use transmac to fully restore a drive created from SheepShaver.  I'll report back.

[Yeah... celgen this was an impulse buy that didn't make sense ... cum... project that may never end.]

 

[johnklos]

There's hardly ever a reason to change a card from what's sold for other platforms. An RS/6000 card most likely just has different firmware, and firmware is not necessary at all to load drivers - it's only necessary if you want to boot from the SCSI card.

 

[raoulduke]

Win2k was the right idea, but the NCR drivers give an error 31. However, the MS Symbios 875xx driver works, so now I have a neat little inconvenient 50-pin interface on my legacy PC. Thanks!

**uhh... any thoughts on whether the card would have termination/power or if something is Temple of Dooming the heart of my machine?