This file provides basic configuration information for the ULTRA 14FB SCSI
controller. For a more detailed instructions, please refer to the ULTRA 14FB
User Manual.
1. Jumper Settings
(note : * denotes default settings)
JP2 : Floppy Control
*IN Enable
OUT Disable
JP11 : BIOS address
1-2 3-4 5-6 : BIOS address if JP12 pin 7-8 is ON
OUT OUT OUT Disable
OUT OUT IN C4000 - C7FFF
*OUT IN OUT C8000 - CBFFF
OUT IN IN CC000 - CFFFF
IN OUT OUT D0000 - D3FFF
IN OUT IN D4000 - D7FFF
IN IN OUT D8000 - DBFFF
IN IN IN DC000 - DFFFF
JP12 : IO address & configuraion options
1-2 3-4 5-6 : IO address if JP12 pin 7-8 is ON
*OUT OUT OUT 330
OUT OUT IN 340
OUT IN OUT 310
OUT IN IN 230
IN OUT OUT 240
IN OUT IN 210
IN IN OUT 130
IN IN IN 140
7-8 : Configuration control
*OUT : I/O and BIOS address is controlled by software configuration
IN : I/O address is set by JP12 pin 1-2 3-4 5-6
BIOS address is set by JP11 pin 1-2 3-4 5-6
JPTP : Terminator Power Control
* IN : The 14FB supplies terminator power for SCSI pin 26
OUT : Terminator power supplied from SCSI pin 26
2. Connectors
J1 : 50 pin internal SCSI connector
J2 : 50 pin high density external SCSI connector
J3 : 34 pin internal floppy connector
JP3 : 4 pin controller activity LED connector
3. Power On Diagnostic
The controller performs internal diagnostics upon power up. The sequence
and type of the diagnostics are : local CPU check, ROM Checksum
verification, local RAM check, Host interface chip check, configuration
Data check and SCSI chip check.
If any diagnostic routine fails, the controller will stop initilization and
flash the controller activity LED. Normally, this LED is connected via a
pair of wires to the front of the system's case; refer to your system
vendor's documentation. The number of flashes reflects the error condition.
Flashes Failed Diagnostic
1 Controller CPU diagnostic fails
2 Controller ROM checksum check fails
3 Controller RAM check fails
4 Controller host interface circuit check fails
5 Controller configuration data check fails
6 Controller SCSI interface control check fails
If all diagnostics pass, the controller continues initilization until
the system becomes ready to accept commands.
4. Controller Configuration Options
Controller configuration data is stored in the controller memory, a
non-volatile ram which maintains data integrity while power is off.
The I/O and BIOS addresses may be configured by one of two sources :
configuration data stored in the non-volatile memory or by the default
jumper settings.
Configuration setup may be performed either by the on-board BIOS utility or
by the software SETUP utility that is included in the software package.
Only the enabling or disabling of the floppy disk controller can not be
changed via the BIOS or SETUP software configuration methods; the floppy
disk controller is controlled solely by a jumper setting.
The configurable options:
IO address : (if pin7-8 of JP12 is OUT)
*330 / 340 / 310 / 230 / 240 / 210 / 130 / 140
BIOS address : (if pin7-8 of JP12 is OUT)
*C8000 / CC000 / D0000 / D4000 / D8000 / DC000 / C4000 / Disable
DMA Channel : *5 / 6 / 7 / 0
IRQ selection : *11 / 15 / 14 / 10
ISA (TFR) mode : *Disable / Primary / Secondary
Primary address : 1F0h - 1F7h, 3F6h, 3F7h
Secondary address : 170h - 177h, 376h, 377h
This option provides the ability to emulate the ISA mode [Task File
Register Set of WD1003 or IDE] type controller.
Up to 2 SCSI hard disk drives may be configured and active. When this
mode is enabled, the controller accepts commands from Mailbox Bus Master
mode or ISA [TFR PIO] mode simultaneously. The 14FB's device driver
determines which mode is running. All device drivers provided by
UltraStor, including the on-board BIOS, operates in the MailBox Bus
Master mode.
This option [ISA mode] allows the installation of operating systems
for which a ULTRA 14FB device driver does not exist in the kernel or
for which there is no facility for linking a device driver during
installation. This type of OS usually requires the controller's IRQ
to be set to 14 and the CMOS drive type to be set to 1 in the system.
Some examples of this type of OS include : ISC UNIX 3.0.1, AT&T UNIX
3.2.0.
Floppy port : *Primary / Secondary
Floppy enable/disable is determined by JP2 .
Primary address : 3F0h - 3F7h
Secondary address : 370h - 377h
3rd Floppy cable : *Double twisted / Single twisted
Refer to User Manual for 3rd floppy cable type.
SCSI Terminator on controller : *Enable / Disable
The SCSI terminator needs to be disabled only when SCSI devices are
attached to both external and internal connectors. The devices on both
ends need to have terminators.
AT BUS Master Transfer Speed (MB/sec) :
*5.0 / 5.7 / 6.2 / 6.7 / 7.3 / 8.0 / 9.0 / 10
This field defines the transfer rate for the ISA Bus Master transfer.
Run the ATBusSpeed test in the on-board BIOS utility to determine the
optimum transfer speed for the system.
AT Bus ON/OFF time (Usec) :
Bus ON time : 1 usec - 15 usec default= 11 usec
Bus OFF time : 1 usec - 15 usec default= 1 usec
The BUS ON time is the maximum duration in which the Bus Master
(Controller) stays on the ISA bus for each burst transfer. The BUS OFF
time is the minimum duration the bus master must remain off the bus
before arbitrating for next burst transfer [getting back on the bus].
These settings allow other devices in the system with a lower DMA
priority [floppy controller] to use the ISA bus.
When encountering problems with some devices such as floppy (tape) or
graphic devices in a heavy disk access operation, decrease the BUS
ON time and increase the BUS OFF time. For example, for floppytape
back up operation set BUS ON time to 7 usec and BUS OFF time to 4 usec.
Host Adapter ID : *7 / 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1 / 0
The host adapter SCSI ID should be different from the ID of the attached
SCSI devices.
Boot SCSI ID : *0 / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7
This option allows the user to select which SCSI device to boot from. The
boot device has to be a hard disk, a removable hard disk or a Magneto
Optical device and the option of BIOS INT13 Drive has to be set to
"Include". Otherwise, the boot device wil be the lowest SCSI ID with BIOS
INT13 Drive option set to "Include".
Note : For some operating systems, such as UNIX, the boot device ID has
to be set to 0.
* The following options are per each SCSI device :
BIOS INT13 Drive : *Include / Exclude
The BIOS INT13 option forces the use of the disk I/O routines that
process disk read/write commands which are issued by the operating
system. It only handles hard disks, removable hard disks and magneto
optical devices. Other typesof devices are excluded from BIOS INT13
option regardless of this option's setting. Devices that are not handled
by BIOS INT13 should be handled by either device driver, (e.g. CDROM,
WORM) or directly from the application software (such as Tape). Devices
that are included in BIOS INT13 are required to be "ready" during the
BIOS power up scanning process. For removable devices, the cartridge
has to be inserted in order for the drive to be ready. Please note that
this option only handles devices with 512 bytes per sector and can't
handle removability of the device. For such devices, use the proper
software device driver.
Drive Mapping mode : 64/32, 16/63, 64/63, 255/63, 128/32, 128/63
This option only affects hard disks, removable hard disks and magneto
optical devices. The mapping option provides flexibility for supporting
different drive capacities. The first number is number of heads and the
second number is number of sectors which are used for that mapping
option. The maximum capacities that a mapping mode can support (assume
the OS is limited to 1024 cylinders, such as DOS, OS2):
64/32 mode : up to 1 Gbytes ( 1 Mbyte per mapping cylinder)
16/63 mode : up to 512Mbytes ( 0.5 Mbytes per mapping cylinder)
64/63 mode : up to 2 Gbytes ( 2 Mbytes per mapping cylinder)
255/63 mode : up to 8 Gbytes ( 8 Mbytes per mapping cylinder)
128/32 mode : up to 2 GBytes ( 2 Mbytes per mapping cylinder)
128/63 mode : up to 4 Gbytes ( 4 Mbytes per mapping cylinder)
Each device may have its own mapping options, thus allowing drives with
different capacities to use a different mapping option to co-exist in
the same system without re-installing the operating system. When using
devices that were installed by other controllers, make sure to select
the same mapping mode as used by that controller.
Note : For some operating systems, such as SCO UNIX, the mapping mode
for each device in the same controller has to be the same. Refer
to the readme file in this package for detailed information.
SCSI Parity: *Enable / Disable
This option enables or disables the parity checking of data coming from
SCSI device to the controller. For some older SCSI devices, the SCSI
parity may not be implemented and this option must have the Disable
setting for that device.
SCSI Disconnect : * Enable / Disable
This option allows each device to enable or disable SCSI disconnection.
Some older SCSI devices may not implement the SCSI disconnect/reselect
function correctly. With the SCSI Disconnect option disabled, performance
may be improved for non-multithread operation.
Motor spin up : *Drive auto spin up / Sequential Spin up by controller
The Motor spin up option applies to hard disk devices only. The device
must have the option of spinning up by itself upon system power up or
by receving SCSI "Start Motor" command from the controller. If spin up
is controlled by the controller (sequential spin up), the controller
sends commands to spin up drives in 4 second intervals. Choose sequential
spin up to avoid a power surge during system power up when multiple hard
disks are attached.
SCSI Sync negotiation:
1. *Controller Initiated from 10 MB/sec
2. Controller Initiated from 5 MB/sec
3. Target initiated negotiation
SCSI negotiation provides a method to set the transfer rate per
individual device. The negotiation can be initiated from the controller
or from the target devices. If initiated by controller, the negotiation
can start with 10 Mbyte/sec or 5 Mbyte/sec and 15 byte offset. The
target device normally responds with its maximum transfer rate handle
but not more than the negotiation starting transfer rate and offset.
If the SCSI sync negotiation is initiated by the target, the controller
will response with the the maximum of the negotiation.
When encountering data transfer problems with some devices, choose the 5
Mbyte/sec negotiation transfer rate.
5. ULTRA BIOS Utility
There are two ways to invoke the on-board BIOS utility.
1. During system power up, the message "Hit <F9> to Enter BIOS Utility" is
displayed on screen for 2 to 3 seconds. The user can then press the F9
key to enter the ULTRA BIOS Utility.
2. After a full system bootup to the DOS operating system, use the DOS
"DEBUG" program to invoke the BIOS utility :
a. Load the DEBUG program by typing
DEBUG after the DOS prompt ( ">" sign )
b. Once in the DEBUG program, following the prompt ( "-" sign ), type
g=c800:5 or
whatever BIOS address the board is configured to.
The ULTRA BIOS utility has two menu selections on initial startup:
configuration menu and utility menu. The Configuration menu selection
allows the user to change controller configuration options. The utility
menu selection displays SCSI device ID, type, manufacturer, model number
and mapping mode; it also provides functions for exercising SCSI devices
and running the controller's diagnostics.
The Configuration menu is divided into two catagories.
General options :
. I/O address
. BIOS address
. DMA channel
. IRQ channel
. ISA Mode (TFR) Port
. SCSI terminator
. Floppy port
. 3rd Floppy cable
Advanced options
. ISA Bus master transfer speed
. ISA Bus master ON/OFF time
. Controller SCSI ID
. Boot device SCSI ID
. INT13 DRV
. Mapping mode
. Disconnect
. Parity
. Motor Spinup
. Sync negotiation
Each option in the ULTRA BIOS utility has the same impact as those in
the SETUP Utility.
The Controller utility menu displays SCSI information and provides the
following functions :
Verify : Non-destructive media verfication for hard disks, removable hard
disks and magneto optical devices.
Scan : Same function as verify except it will issue "reassign bad
block" to the drive when defective sectors are found.
Format : Low level format of the SCSI device.
CFormat: Low level format of the SCSI device with the certification
option (CLIST) which re-sequences the good blocks.
HADiag : Controller internal diagnostic. The diagnostic sequence is
controller CPU, EPROM Checksum verification, controller RAM
check, host interface circuit, controller configuration check
and SCSI interface circuit check.
ATBusSpeed : This test performs bus master data transfer back and forth
through the AT bus. It starts with 5.0 Mbyte/sec. If
sucessful, it increase the speed until transfer fails or
continues upto 10Mbyte/sec. This test may hang the system
if a speed higher than the AT BUS can handle is tested. If
the test fails or hangs the system at certain bus speeds,
the previous speed that passed the test is recommended when
setting the AT transfer speed in configuration menu.
6. Software Utility : SETUP
The MS DOS based software setup utility provides two functions : Controller
card and device setup configuration and Device driver installation. The
controller configuration is similar to the BIOS configuration menu, except
that it provides a graphical and user friendly interface with mouse
support. It can also configure multiple controller cards at the same time.
It also has a more in depth explanation of each option via the "HELP" bar.
The configuration functions only with the ULTRA 14FB.
The device driver installation lets the user install the ASPI compliant
SCSI device driver, USPI14.SYS, and the third floppy device driver, which
supports three floppy devices on the ULTRA 14FB. The installation allows
the selection of options and drive types and automatically modifies the
config.sys file in the system.
The device driver installation can be used for the ULTRA 14F and 14FB.
The SETUP program is self-explanatory. To launch the SETUP utility,
insert the distribution diskette labeled DISK 1 into your floppy drive
(A: or B:), then type :
A:>SETUP or
B:>SETUP.
