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Western Digital Technical Support
PCI-SCSI Host Adapters FAQ Sheet
This document was last modified on Wednesday, 20-Nov-96 09:01:46 PDT
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1: Why choose SCSI over Enhanced IDE? 
2: What are SCSI-2 and SCSI-3? Does Western Digital support them? 
3: Define Fast SCSI and Wide SCSI. Does Western Digital support them? 
4: We know Western Digital's reputation in the IDE, Enhanced IDE arena, 
but how much SCSI experience does Western Digital have? 
5: Will Western Digital's SCSI products out-perform similar products 
offered by competitors? 
6: Do leading OEMs use Western Digital SCSI controllers? 
7: How can Western Digital guarantee compatibility? 
8: What is Certified FIT? 
9: Can end users get technical support directly from Western Digital? 
10: Can end users return their product directly to Western Digital? 
11: Must the Western Digital SCSI controller boot from the ID#0 drive?
12: Can you have more than one Western Digital SCSI controller link? 
13: Is the processor used in the Western Digital SCSI controllers proven? 
14: What is the purpose for the code RAM in Western Digital's RISC processor?
15: What's so special about the WD7296? Does Adaptec have a similar product?
16: What is Flash RAM BIOS, and why did Western Digital implement it? 
17: What is Auto Termination? Does Adaptec have the same feature? 
18: What is the Benefit of having CorelSCSI software? 
19: Is Western Digital going to offer SCSI hard drives? 
20: What is FLEXware? Does Adaptec offer anything similar to this? 
21: What is a bus master? 
22: What is Plug and Play? 
23: What does pipelined transfer counter for scatter/gather operations mean?
24: When I plug in my new host adapter it hangs up my system or it doesn't 
work. 
25: My WD7197 recognizes my NEC Multispin 6xi CD-ROM drive, but I can't 
make it run. Am I missing a driver? 
26: In the setup devices box of the SCSI manager(7193), there is no listing 
for my NEC 4Xi and I'm using the 4x CDR-900 pro selection. Does it matter? 
 27: I get strange messages such as: \SB16\DRV\CPS.SYS won't load. Do I need 
to load CTSB16.SYS, CTMMSYS.SYS, CSP.SYS? 
 28: Do you have updated ASPI drivers for HP ScanJet 3c? 
 29: How does one know if a wide hard drive is negotiated for wide transfers?
 30: I am only able to use the compatibility mode driver with my 7193, 
there's no "built-in" driver with Win95 release 490. What driver should I use?
 31: I recently bought a WD7197 board and have installed it into my Presario.
No matter what I do, the system will not see the board. Can you help? 
 32: Is there a handbook available for the WD7296RTL that is relevant to the 
device driver writer? How does one get a copy? 
 33: I downloaded the BIOS and ran the upgrade program. My system hangs. 
What gives? 
 34: When I backup using CORELSCSI! tape backup program, I get a fatal error.
DO you know what can be causing this? 
 35: I do not get the prompt (Alt-W) when the system boots (using my WD7197).
I "flash" ed my BIOS with the pciscsi.exe, but this had no effect. The error 
occurs during boot up, right after my IDE hard drives are shown. Any 
suggestions? 
 36: How can I configure my WD7193 to work with the IDE interface on the 
motherboard and Award BIOS? The SCSI BIOS scans the bus and finds all of 
the devices and then hangs immediately after the scan complete message. 
 37: I have an Apple CD 300i Plus that I would like to use in a PC that I 
am building along with your 7193 PCI/SCSI adapter. Will this work? 
 38: Since I have migrated to Windows 95, the CorelSCSI drivers for my NEC 
4Xi Multispin run in DOS-Compatibility mode. Will Corel update their drivers?
 39: Can I use a new SCSI-2 controller with five year old SCSI hard drives? 
Can I use SCSI-2 controllers and EIDE hard drives/ controllers? Will a SCSI 
adapter co-exist with EIDE controller? 
 40: My WD7193 adapter will not recognize my external SCSI ZIP Drive on 
initialization. What is the problem?

 
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1: Why choose SCSI over Enhanced IDE?

Enhanced IDE is unsurpassed when it comes to low cost and ease-of-use, but 
SCSI provides additional performance in multi-user or multitasking environments 
(servers, UNIX, Windows NT, Win 95 systems). SCSI also provides additional 
connectivity (up to 7 devices with 8-bit SCSI, 15 devices with wide SCSI), 
outside-the-box connectivity, and connectivity to many different peripheral types. 


2: What are SCSI-2 and SCSI-3? Does Western Digital support them?

SCSI-2 is an enhancement to SCSI-1 that provides improved command support for 
more robust compatibility. SCSI-2 also provides for Fast SCSI transfers (10MB/s) 
and Wide SCSI transfers (20MB/s). SCSI-3 provides further refinement of the 
SCSI specification, including recommendations for robust active termination and 
high-density, 16-bit connectors. Western Digital supports both SCSI-2 and SCSI-
3. 

3: Define Fast SCSI and Wide SCSI. Does Western Digital support them?

Fast SCSI refers to the ability to transfer data at 10MB/s for 8-bit bus and 20MB/s 
for 16-bit bus. Wide SCSI refers to a 16-bit data bus. All Western Digital host 
adapters support Fast SCSI. The WD7193 is an 8-bit Fast SCSI host adapter; the 
WD7197 and WD7296 are Fast Wide SCSI adapters. 

4: We know Western Digital's reputation in the IDE arena, but how much SCSI 
experience does Western Digital have?

Western Digital has over 10 years of SCSI experience in SCSI, and has sold over 
10 million SCSI devices. In the late 1980s, Western Digital held a leading position 
in the host adapter business. Western Digital is less well known than other players 
because most of our market focus in recent years has been on device-level business 
for high-performance workstation applications. 

5: Will Western Digital's SCSI products out-perform similar products offered by 
competitors?

Yes. Benchmark testing shows that Western Digital's host adapters outperform 
those of competitors in single user tests (Coretest) as well as network tests 
(Netbench). 

6: Do leading OEMs use Western Digital SCSI controllers?

Western Digital is working very closely with many well known OEMs to design 
our PCI-SCSI controllers. As these products are announced, Western Digital will 
issue press releases. 


7: How can Western Digital guarantee compatibility?

Customers expect and demand a product to work as advertised, and this means that 
it must be compatible with industry standard PCI and SCSI products. Competitors 
that have failed in meeting this expectation have not been successful. We believe 
that compatibility is a requirement for our success. To ensure compatibility, 
Western Digital performs extensive testing on all products in its Functional 
Integrity Test Lab (FIT Lab). The FIT process tests for compatibility with different 
hosts, operating systems, application programs, and peripherals as well as 
providing benchmark performance data. 

8: What is Certified FIT?

Our FIT Lab defines a test matrix that is far more comprehensive than any 
operating system certification tests and more extensive than most OEM 
qualification tests. Passing these difficult test requirements qualifies a product as 
Certified FIT. 

9: Can end users get technical support directly from Western Digital?

Western Digital maintains a fully staffed, toll-free technical support hot line - 
1(800) 832-4778. 

10: Can end users return their product directly to Western Digital?

Western Digital and repair/distribution centers approved by Western Digital will 
accept product returns accompanied with a Returned Material Authorization 
(RMA) number. RMA numbers may be obtained by contacting the Technical 
Support hot line for defective product returns or by contacting your account 
representative for stock rotations and accommodations. Defective product returned 
within the warranty period may be repaired/replaced or credited according to the 
warranty terms. Product returns via stock rotation or accommodation are 
administered in accordance with stock rotation policies and procedures 
detailed in the Western Digital Distributor Agreement. 

11: Must the Western Digital SCSI controller boot from the ID#0 drive?

Western Digital host adapters provide the unique capability to boot from any 
drive (SCSI or EIDE) selected in our FLEXware configuration utility. This 
allows the user to boot from any drive, regardless of the SCSI ID. 

12: Can you have more than one Western Digital SCSI controller link?

Up to 4 Western Digital host adapters (any combination) can be used in a system. 
The FLEXware configuration utility recognizes all of the boards and allows 
independent configuration of each adapter. 


13: Is the processor used in the Western Digital SCSI controllers proven?

The RISC processor used in Western Digital's PCI-SCSI controllers is a 
proprietary design developed specifically for I/O processing applications. 
This design has been extensively tested and is used on all of our new PCI-SCSI 
controller boards. 

14: What is the purpose for the code RAM in Western Digital's RISC processor?

Any RISC processor must execute its instructions out of memory. On-chip code 
RAM allows the fastest instruction execution possible. 

15: What's so special about the WD7296? Does Adaptec have a similar product?

The WD7296 has on-board expansion memory that is used to store up to 256 
SCBs (active SCSI tasks) locally. This provides added performance in systems that 
have extremely high I/O demands and busy PCI busses. The WD7296 is well 
suited for high-end RISC workstations and servers and mid-range systems. 
Typically, a PC or a PC server will not benefit from the advantages of the 
WD7296. Adaptec does not have a product similar to the WD7296 since they do 
not typically compete in the high-performance segment of the SCSI market. 

16: What is Flash RAM BIOS, and why did Western Digital implement it?

Flash RAM is non-volatile memory that can be reprogrammed by the user. Western 
Digital stores its BIOS in the Flash RAM along with FLEXware setup, RISC code 
and system boot capability. This allows users to upgrade their code quickly and 
easily from our bulletin board to take advantage of performance enhancements, 
new utilities, or new features. 

17: What is Auto Termination? Does Adaptec have the same feature?

The SCSI specification requires that both ends of a bus must be properly 
terminated. As devices are added or removed from a system, the end of the bus may 
change, and require a change (activate or deactivate) to the termination scheme. 
Since most users prefer not to become experts in SCSI, Western Digital has 
implemented a feature that greatly simplifies termination. We take care of 
terminating the host adapter. All the user has to do is set the termination on the 
drive when it is installed. Adaptec does not provide this capability. 

18: What is the Benefit of having CorelSCSI software?

Most operating systems (Windows 95, Windows NT, OS/2, UNIX, etc.) offer 
support for SCSI peripherals. This embedded capability, along with Western 
Digital drivers, provides a complete SCSI solution for these environments. DOS 
and Windows 3.1 do not provide any embedded support for SCSI, however. As a 
result, peripheral drivers are required to operate any non-drive peripheral (CD-
ROMs, tape, etc.). CorelSCSI is a world leader in SCSI peripheral driver software. 
They have outstanding brand recognition and an excellent reputation for quality. 
Our association with Corel provides users with the best solution 
possible. 

19: Is Western Digital going to offer SCSI hard drives?

Western Digital is developing a line of high-performance SCSI drives. These will 
be available in 1996 and feature the same high-quality and reliability as other 
Western Digital products. 

20: What is FLEXware? Does Adaptec offer anything similar to this?

Western Digital's FLEXware is a suite of software that includes operating system 
drivers, a powerful configuration utility, and a help utility. This software provides 
a complete, easy-to-use solution for all supported operating systems. Adaptec 
offers EZ-SCSI, which offers much of the base capability, but not all 
of the sophisticated features. 

21: What is a bus master?

A PCI bus master has the capability of taking control of the PCI bus and executing 
a transfer independent of the host CPU. This capability boosts performance by 
improving data transfer rate through the use of long burst transfers. Bus masters 
also offload the host CPU, further improving system performance. 

22: What is Plug and Play?

Plug and Play is an initiative promoted by Microsoft and Intel to make PCs easier 
to use. Plug and Play requires that add-in cards are automatically configurable (no 
jumpers or switches). Western Digital fully supports Plug and Play. 

23: What does pipelined transfer counter for scatter/gather operations mean?

When large blocks of data are transferred, the data is often broken up in memory 
into smaller blocks or pages. These pages are typically scattered in system 
memory. A host adapter can improve transfer performance by handling the 
gathering of these pages and fully managing the transfer of large blocks of 
data without host CPU intervention. Performance can be further enhanced by 
pipelining the pages. This allows multiple pages to be transferred during a single 
PCI bus access. Since there can be considerable latencies associated with gaining 
control of the PCI bus, pipelining can improve I/O performance and 
improve PCI efficiency. 

24: When I plug in my new host adapter it hangs up my system/ It doesn't work. 
What could possibly be 
wrong?

Most PCI systems automatically configure cards plugged in to a PCI slot. Some 
systems require you to go in to the system setup menu and manually configure 
each PCI slot. You must have the host adapter in a bus mastering slot. The slot 
must be assigned a unique IRQ (often 9,10 (0ah) or 11 (0bh) and an I/O address). 
If you are running Windows 95 then settings in the resources tab in System 
Properties must match the settings in the system setup menu as far as IRQ, I/O 
space and address space. 


25: My WD7197 recognizes my NEC Multispin 6xi CD-ROM drive, but I can't 
make it run. Am I missing a driver?

First we need to know what operating system you are using. If you are running 
MS-DOS or Windows 3.1 you'll need the following drivers -in your config.sys 
(The order is important!) 

Device=C:\wdscsi\wd296.exe       <== The ASPI Manager
Device=C:\coreldrv\cuni_asp.sys  <== The device driver for the CDROM, also 	
				    make sure your lastdrive statement has a 
				    free drive letter so that the CD extensions 
				    has one to use. 
** In your autoexec.bat include ONE of the following CD extensions: 

C:\dos\MSCDEX /D:MSCD001 <== This driver assigns a drive letter 
or
C:\coreldrv\corelcdx <== This driver assigns a drive letter 

26: In the setup devices box of the SCSI manager(7193), there is no listing for my 
NEC 4Xi and I'm using the 4x CDR-900 pro selection. Does it matter?

Assuming you are using the DOSCONFG.EXE tool that comes with CorelSCSI! 
You just need to select the closest CD-ROM drive on the list to your drive. For 
most applications it does not matter what drive you choose. But some multi-
session commands are vendor unique. If you have an application that uses multi-
session features of a drive it may be important to select a CD-ROM model. 

27: I get strange messages such as: \SB16\DRV\CPS.SYS won't load. Do I need to 
load CTSB16.SYS, CTMMSYS.SYS, CSP.SYS?

No, you don't need to load the driver for the old host adapter since you have 
removed it. Remove the line in config.sys that loads \SB16\DRV\CPS.SYS This 
device drive looks for your old host adapter and can't find it. Most device drivers 
do not load if they can not find the device they are supposed to control. The 
CORELSCSI! drivers work fine without the SoundBlaster drivers. 

28: Do you have updated ASPI drivers for HP ScanJet 3c?

The HP ScanJet III CX violates the SCSI bus specification. (not the ASPI 
specification) Western Digital modified our RISC code to accommodate the SCSI 
bus violation.. The RISC code is embedded in drivers for all operating systems. 
Download the latest drivers from one of Western Digital's on line services. Please 
note there are not going to be any updated drivers for this product and the last 
release of these drivers, did not include any Linux or Windows NT 4.0 drivers 
(although our customers report that Windows NT 3.51 drivers work with Windows 
NT 4.0) 


29: How does one know if a wide SCSI hard drive is negotiated for wide transfers?

You can tell if you are "Talking Wide" to a SCSI device by running benchmark 
software. Try it once with wide negotiation enabled and once with wide 
negotiation set to none. If wide negotiation is functioning properly then there 
should be a performance difference evident in the benchmark program. The other 
way is to purchase a SCSI bus analyzer. But that is expensive, $5,000- $20,000 
depending on what type you get. 


30: I am only able to use the compatibility mode driver with my 7193, there's no 
"built-in" driver with Win95 release 490. What driver should I use?

A driver for Windows 95 Release 490 is actually included on the Windows 95 CD 
in \drivers\storage\Wd. It is not included as one of the built in drivers though. It 
will be built in to future releases of Windows 95. To use the Windows 95 driver 
rather than the DOS driver you need to do the following: Go into the control 
panel and select the system icon. Click the device manager tab Double click the 
SCSI controllers icon. Double click the Western Digital WD7296A SCSI host 
adapter line. Click the driver tab. Click the change driver button Click the have 
disk button. If you have a FLEXware floppy disk insert it in the drive and 
click O.K. there is no Windows 95 sub-directory, the driver for the host adapter is 
located in the root directory. If you do not have the FLEXware disk use the browse 
button to browse to your CD-ROM drive to \drivers\storage\Wd Then click O.K. 


31: I recently bought a WD7197 board and have installed it into my Presario. No 
matter what I do, the system will not see the board. Can you help?

On some systems you must manually go in and assign a PCI slot resources. This 
means an I/O space and a free IRQ. You can do this by going into the 
motherboards setup menu (Often accessed by hitting DEL or F1 during boot up). 
NOTE: Windows 95 properties under the Control Panel / System / Device 
Manager / Properties / Resources, list the resources windows 95 thinks a card is 
using. It does not actually change the resources when the values in the dialog box 
are changed. 


32: Is there a handbook available for the WD7296RTL that is relevant to the 
device driver writer? How does one get a copy? ?

You can write your application to the ASPI layer. Western Digital Provides and 
ASPI device driver for DOS and Win 95 as well as Novell. Contact Adaptec to 
obtain a copy of the ASPI specification. 


33: I downloaded the BIOS and ran the upgrade program. My system hangs. What 
gives?

The Flash Program should be run with no memory managers loaded, This means 
that you must boot from a floppy or comment out Himem.sys and EMM386.exe 
from your config.sys file and then re-boot. 


34: When I backup using CORELSCSI! tape backup program, I get a fatal error. 
Do you know what can be causing this?

This problem has been fixed in version 1.14 of the DOS ASPI manager 
(WD296.EXE) and later. It available from the On-line Services. 


35: I do not get the prompt (Alt-W) when the system boots (using my WD7197). I 
"flash" ed my BIOS with the pciscsi.exe, but this had no effect. The error occurs 
during boot up, right after my IDE hard drives are shown: 

Auto-Configuration Error 03:03 Bus#:00 Device#:06 Function#:00

Try plugging you host adapter in to a different slot. The Westerns Digital Host 
adapter only functions in a bus mastering slot. 


36: How can I configure my WD7193 to work with the IDE interface on the 
motherboard and Award BIOS? The SCSI BIOS scans the bus and finds all of the 
devices and then hangs immediately after the scan complete message.

To boot from IDE go into the Setup menu (Hit ALT-W during boot) and select 4. 
BIOS (interrupt 13) Options BIOS Support "Enabled" Primary Drives 
"IDE/EIDE." 


37: I have an Apple CD 300i Plus that I would like to use in a PC I'm building 
along with your 7193 PCI/SCSI adapter. Will this work?

If the device meets the SCSI specification it should work with no problem. I have 
used one of Apples CD drives ( I don't remember the model) with a WD 7197 and 
it worked just fine. 

38: Since I have migrated to Windows 95, the CorelSCSI drivers for my NEC 4Xi 
Multispin run in DOS-Compatibility mode. Will Corel update their drivers?

You do not need the CD-ROM drivers (cuni_asp.sys ) if you are using the 
Windows 95 driver included on the FLEXware diskette (And available via Online 
services) Window 95 includes a driver to control SCSI CD drives. You are correct, 
the cuni_asp.sys program is using the 4 MB of memory but you can control it 
via the dosconfig.exe program if for some reason you decide not to use the Win95 
Driver. 

39: Can I use a new SCSI-2 controller with five year old SCSI hard drives? Can I 
use SCSI-2 controllers and EIDE hard drives or controllers? Will a SCSI adapter 
co-exist with EIDE controller?

YES, YES and YES! 

40: My WD7193 adapter will not recognize my external SCSI ZIP Drive on 
initialization. What is the problem?

Set Wide negotiation for ID 6 to none. Also make sure the zip drive is not selected 
to be the boot drive. 0x80 is the boot drive and it should be the SCSI or IDE drive. 
Go into device setup highlight the hard drive and hit the F10 key to change the 
boot device.