Tech Tip
Date: 12/3/88
Product: M2246E
Subject: M2244-46E compatibility with Western Digital
WD1007A controller.
As you probably know, there is a compatibility problem be-
tween the Fujitsu M2246E disk drive and the WD1007A control-
ler.
ECN (Engineering change notice): B030-4805-E038 made a
modifacation to the firmware (50316A up to 50316B) to
correct the problem. This upgraded the drive revision from
A7 to A8 for the M2244-6E#1 and from A3 to A4 for the M2244-
6#R drive assy's.
Bear in mind that this drive has had a lot of ECN's and the
revision levels are confusing. This is what happened:
The drive was introduced in 1986 and went from rev. A0
through all A, B and C revisions so that by Feb. 2nd. 1987
it had reached rev. D1 (ECN # B030-4805-E020).
At the next revision, the E#1 model was introduced and its
revision began at A0, while the E model continued to
progress to rev. D5 (ECN # B030-4805-E022, March 1st. 1987).
The ECN's are even more confusing after this, the E model
appears to progress to rev. E1 and the E#1 model reaches
rev. A6 (ECN 029 and 030). Then the E#R model is introduced
at revision A0 in june 1987. Along comes the model E#OL in
June 1988 at revision A0.
So, by the time we get to May 1988, this appears to be the
situation:
M2244-6 E is at revision E4
M2244-6 E#1 is at revision A8
M2244-6 E#R is at revision A4
M2244-6 E#OL is at revision A4
The point of all this is, when the Prom change was made for
the WD1007A controller compatibility, how far backward will
the 50316B chip go and remain compatible with the different
revision drives?
In some cases we think there is no problem in installing the
chip in an older rev. drive, and for other drives there is
no definite solution. Different Proms will be encountered as
follows.
The 50316A, 50272B, 50272D, 50272F, can be replaced with
the 50316B.
The 50272A, 50272C, and 50272E cannot be replaced.
What we have done is to install the 50316B Prom into a 1986
M2246E drive, rev. A2, which had a later PCA installed, rev.
67V and tested it on the WD1007A controller. It formatted
and work without a problem.
Always be sure you know what vintage and revision drive you
may be dealing with.
Engineer: Alan Littlewood
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-
Date: 7/24/90
Product: M2246E disk drive
Subject: Fujitsu M2246E with WD1007V controller
When installing the Fujitsu M2246E disk drive on an AT type
personal computer, you may experience the M2246E drive does
not work with Western Digital WD1007V controller.
Failure symptom: The controller/system cannot recognize the
drive.
Solution: Set jumper on the drive to "daisy" mode (CNH6 pin
15-16 open) even if there is only one hard drive
installed in the system.
Engineer: Warren Bee
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Tech Tip
Date: 8/29/90
Product: M2246E disk drive
Subject: Fujitsu M2246E with WD1007A controller
The Bios on the WD1007A controller has recently been updated
by Western Digital to rev. 2.2 so you may find there is a
compatibility problem with the Fujitsu M2246E disk drive.
The new Bios has label: WDC'89, 62-000217-034.
Failure symptom:
During the low level format using "Debug" command under DOS
3.3 is where the failure occurs. After typing in "g=c800:5"
(or the proper Bios address) and return/enter key, the
system display "Testing drive(s)" and hangs. (The user must
power down and up in order to clear that failure).
Solution:
Set jumper on the drive to "Daisy" mode (CNH6 pin 15-16
open) even if there is only one hard drive installed in the
system.
Notes:
The WD1007A controller mounting with the old Bios (WDC '88,
62-000217-032, rev. 1.1) doesn't have the failure mentioned
above. It works fine with Fujitsu M2246E disk drive.
The difference between Radial mode and Daisy mode on the
drive is in Radial mode, the drive's interface output
signals on the control ("A") cable are always enable,
regardless of the Drive Select signal. In Daisy mode, the
drive output signals are enable only when it is selected.
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Date: 8/13/90
Product: M2246E
Subject: Change of default jumper setting
In order to make the installation with the Fujitsu M2246E
hard drive simpler, Fujitsu Japan is going to change the
default jumpers setting on the M2246E hard drive as follows:
From To
Sectors/track 65 35
Sector mode controller hard sector Drive hard sector
Cut in date: 9/90
The majority ESDI controller that are available today would
not support 65 sectors per track and controller hard sector
mode, but 35 sectors per track and drive hard sector mode.
This new default jumper setting should eliminate some of the
"unnecessary trouble" for the user during the installation
process.
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