Hi Les and thanks; Your yes and no type answers helps a lot. On Tue, 2008-02-05 at 11:07 -0600, Les Mikesell wrote: > William Case wrote: > > Hi all and thanks; > > > > I find the answers and information you have given me very helpful, but > > they don't quite get to the basis of the problem. So let me try again. > > If you want the really easy version, count the pins in the cable. If > you have a wide 40-pin connector, possibly with an 80-wire cable, you > have Parallel ATE (also known as IDE). Scsi would have 50 or 68 pins on > a connector or 80 on hot-swap SCA connectors that include power. > According to my manual I have an IDE connector (40-1 pin PRI_IDE; 40-1 pin SEC_IDE). > >> I have two Maxtor 40 Gb drives and AMD 64 X2 CPU on an ASUS M2NPV-VM > >> motherboard. I am using F8 as my operating system. > > The disk size is another hint. Scsi drives would be 36 Gb, IDE's 40. > > >> How come? : > > > >> My Hardware browser, under 'IDE Controllers' lists, nVidia Corporation > >> MCP51 IDE; > > That is your controller. > > >> while /sys/bus/scsi/devices/ lists my two drives as SCSI > >> devices. > > > > When I look on the bottom of an old drive (from a 4-5 year old machine > > -- not one of the Maxtors mentioned above, but a Maxtor nonetheless), > > there are several chips. One of those chips, I assume, contains the > > SCSI programm, protocol, commands, that interface with the SCSI bus or > > SCSI bus controller. Or, is one of the chips hardwired to call on a > > special driver for the harddisk? > > The current kernel calls everything scsi. It isn't. Oh! > > >> If I look in /dev/disk/by-id they are listed as > >> "ata-Maxtor-5T040 ..." and "ata-Maxtor-6E040...". > > > > To what does the ata in ata-Maxtor ... refer. The hard disk chips or > > the the MCP51. > > The interface type. I guess. Still trying to figure out the interface type exactly. > > > My question is not about the history of the various chips etc., but is > > about why do I get three different designations on my computer and how > > do I disentangle the information being given me so that I know what is > > what? > > You have two hardware designations because you have a controller and > disks. The third is a lie. > So then my disks are SCSI (or something else) and my controller is IDE (PATA)? > > I have and I can look up the operation and function of the different > > designations once untangled, but in all my reading descriptions seem > > full of contradictions and open ended statements, each on its own making > > sense, but completely confusing when I try to apply them to my own > > existing machine. > > So far you have not described any actual scsi hardware. > Does your comment mean that there appears to be no truly scsi hardware, or, does it mean I have failed to find and send to the mailing list some vital piece of information that I should have sent. If it is the second, tell me what I should be looking for and where to find it, please ? -- Regards Bill
