KZPCM-DX or KZPCM-DA (VMS compatible)

[urbancamo]

Hi guys,

A while back I posted a question about DA500 network adapters for an
AlphaServer 300 4/266. Basically I want 100MB networking on this box
which has a PCI backplane.

Recently I found the KZPCM-DX card which is a combo 2x68 pin SCSI and
10/100 ethernet controller. I bought one of ebay only to then find
that the manufacturer IntraServer have variants of KZPCM-DX which are
either compatible or not-compatible with VMS. The variant I have
recently bought, ITI-4280UE apparently is not compatible, a -V is
required at the end of the part number.

If anyone in the UK/EU has one of these parts (or the US with USPS
shipping) would be prepared to sell me one of these cards please
contact me. The latest card cost me GBP20 and has to go back -
Blackmore IT may have one that works for GBP40, but seeing as how the
box only cost me GBP50 in the first place (all shipping from EU) I
don't feel comfortable getting silly with the $$$.

Regards, Mark.

[urbancamo]

I note on ebay that Puget Sound Data Systems have the KZPCM-DA variant
for sale at $19.00 but I can't possibly justify spending $101.24 on
shipping!

[Steven Schweda]

> [...] Basically I want 100MB networking on this box

> which has a PCI backplane.

Why not just put in a $5 card with an Intel chip on it?

> Recently I found the KZPCM-DX card which is a combo 2x68

> pin SCSI and 10/100 ethernet controller. [...]

That doesn't sound to me like the most cheap and easy way
to get a 100Mb/s (not "MB") Ethernet interface. Which
problems are you trying to solve, and which ones are you
making for yourself?

[Fujikawa Yamamoto]

On 02 Mar 2012, urbancamo <mwicke...@googlemail.com> posted some
news:f9e77a4b-0f57-49d2...@m2g2000vbc.googlegroups.com:

What doesn't work? Can you see the SCSI adapter and additional NIC at the
console prompt? Should see a couple of 53C875's and a 21140 NIC. Did you
set the console environment variable for the correct mode for the NIC on
the SCSI adapter? P00> set ewb0_mode (garbage chars to return options.)
C/R.

The KZPCM-DX and KZPCM-DA are the same adapter. -DA is just an alternate
part number for -DX.

Option Restrictions
AlphaBIOS 5.65 not supported. (Don't care about this)
彦or VMS:
KZPCM-DA driver may not install properly if a KZPSA is installed in the
system.
Min verson v7.1-1H1:
SRM 5.2
ARC/AlphaBIOS 4.08
Floppy v1.1.10 contains Minimum driver: SYS$PKWDRIVER.EXE

ftp://ftp.hp.com/ftp1/pub/alphaserver/firmware/retired_platforms/servers/A
S300/

Doesn't show it as a supported option for the AlphaServer 300. That said,
I've run more than a few unsupported configurations over the years in lab
or hobby environments. Supported means tested and qualified, it doesn't
mean it won't work. The 300 does support KZPAC-CB and KZPSC-BA 3 channel
RAID controllers, so the KZPCM-DX/-DA will probably work if you meet the
criteria in the option restrictions.

I know this adapter runs fine in a DS20E or ES40 (Or PC running Windoze
XP/2003 Server.) I think I recall running one in an AlphaServer 400 4/233
with OpenVMS 7.2.

If you don't need the SCSI, get a DE500-BA 10/100 NIC and make sure you
set the ewb0_mode at the console.

http://h18002.www1.hp.com/alphaserver/options/as300/as300___-de500-ba.html

Don't forget to reconfig your network settings.

[urbancamo]

The issue is as follows:

The console sees both the network adapter and the SCSI adapters. It is
possible to configure the mode via the console. The AlphaServer 300 is
a diskless remote satellite. When I attempt to boot via this network
adapter the MOP image is served correctly but then I get a continuous
error retrying the connection to the disk server. This satellite
boots without issue using the DE435 built in adapter (although it must
be configured Twisted-Pair).

I did try auto configuration (which set it to 100MB full duplex) and
manually to full and and half-duplex - the same failure occurs in each
case.

The AlphaServer 1000A that the satellite boots off has a DE500 network
card.

There is a current ebay seller saying that these variants of the card
will not work with tru64 and OpenVMS, but obviously I can't verify
that claim except via evidence.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/INTRASERVER-ITI-4280UE-PCI-DUAL-ULTRA-SCSI-ETHERNET-/300171853675

There was mention on comp.os.vms back in 2004 about variants of this
card:

"It depends on the model number. Some of them don't have the VMS/
Tru64
ROMs. Tru64 will use the controller anyway in 53C810 mode, but VMS
will
complain and refuse to use the controller.

If the controller is an Intraserver card, the part number will be ITI-
xxxx-?
if the ? (there may be one or two characters and/or a number) has a V
in it,
the card has the VMS/Tru64 ROMs. For example, the ITI-4280UE-4 will
not
work with VMS, but the ITI-4280UE-4V and ITI-4280UE-4VS will both work
(the
"S" means it also has the proper OB firmware ROM for Sun systems)."

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.vms/browse_thread/thread/c7edff459ed6d448/175c44b82b08b89b?lnk=gst&q=Re%3A+DS20+from+Tru64+to+VMS#175c44b82b08b89b

This card is an ITI 4280UE labelled as a KZPCM-DX Rev A02.

[Paul Sture]

That reminds me of the fellow who was charging $10 for a CD packed full
of useful information, but he wanted $50 for shipping outside the US.

To Puget's price into perspective, Island Computers charged me somewhere
between 200 and 300 USD for shipping an Alpha PWS 600au from the US to
Switzerland, and that was a surprisingly heavy item.


--
Paul Sture

[Richard B. Gilbert]

Shipping from country A to a customer in country B can get very
complicated. There are services that do this for money. They
are usually called "Freight Forwarders". They handle all the paperwork
which is an art in itself, pay customs duties, etc. Think "Travel Agent
for Freight"

[Hans Vlems]

A -DX ought to work. BlackmoreIT is a good supplier but they're not
well versed in DEC lore I'm afraid.
DEC sold two versions, one was Windows only and neither VMS nor Tru64
were able to use them.
net BSD (and reputedly RedHat) will boot from them as will NT 4 and
Windows 2k.
Hans

[Paul Sture]

Not really. I had to pay customs duties on delivery.



--
Paul Sture

[Richard B. Gilbert]

Did the sender employ a Freight Forwarder? It doesn't happen
automagically. A Freight Forwarder will do what he is paid to
do. If he is not instructed and paid to take care of customs duties
it won't happen!

[David B Turner]

Shipping via Fedex is cheper because they ARE the frieght forwarder and they
electronically file all customs paperwork for us
We do al the work on this end before the label prints

As for KZPCM-DX - it is the DA - dx is board only. DA comes in a nice box
with a floppy driver for NT alpha


"Richard B. Gilbert" wrote in message
news:ksadnXiaXuApa87S...@giganews.com...

[John Wallace]

On Apr 13, 6:14 pm, "David B Turner" <dtur...@islandco.com> wrote:
> Shipping via Fedex is cheper because they ARE the frieght forwarder and they
> electronically file all customs paperwork for us
> We do al the work on this end before the label prints
>
> As for KZPCM-DX - it is the DA - dx is board only. DA comes in a nice box
> with a floppy driver for NT alpha
>

> "Richard B. Gilbert"  wrote in messagenews:ksadnXiaXuApa87S...@giganews.com...

>
> On 3/4/2012 2:07 PM, Paul Sture wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Sat, 03 Mar 2012 14:47:12 -0500, Richard B. Gilbert wrote:
>
> >> On 3/3/2012 10:44 AM, Paul Sture wrote:
> >>> On Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:24:00 -0800, urbancamo wrote:
>
> >>>> I note on ebay that Puget Sound Data Systems have the KZPCM-DA variant
> >>>> for sale at $19.00 but I can't possibly justify spending $101.24 on
> >>>> shipping!
>
> >>> That reminds me of the fellow who was charging $10 for a CD packed full
> >>> of useful information, but he wanted $50 for shipping outside the US.
>
> >>> To Puget's price into perspective, Island Computers charged me
> >>> somewhere between 200 and 300 USD for shipping an Alpha PWS 600au from
> >>> the US to Switzerland, and that was a surprisingly heavy item.
>
> >> Shipping from country A to a customer in country B can get very
> >> complicated.  There are services that do this for money.  They are
> >> usually called "Freight Forwarders".  They handle all the paperwork
> >> which is an art in itself, pay customs duties, etc.  Think "Travel Agent
> >> for Freight"
>
> > Not really.  I had to pay customs duties on delivery.
>
> Did the sender employ a Freight Forwarder?  It doesn't happen
> automagically.  A Freight Forwarder will do what he is paid to
> do.  If he is not instructed and paid to take care of customs duties
> it won't happen!

Fedex may in theory be a freight forwarder, and the theory may even
work for real now, but a decade or so ago when I spent several years
sending and receiving DEC stuff around Europe from time to time,
everything from a VME board to an AlphaServer 2100, there was a world
of difference between a random US courier routinely recommended by DEC
US folks (stuff gets shipped via Heathrow and frequently sits in
customs indefinitely) and the freight forwarder which DEC Europe had
an account with (Circle Freight, marvellous people back then - on one
occasion when I was in need of a VME board from Munich for an
exhibition in Birmingham the following day, they had the VME board in
my hands something like twenty minutes after the flight from Munich
arrived at BHX, which was about five minutes more than the driving
time from BHX).

[Paul Sture]

Sorry David, Richard was trying to over complicate the matter.

If you read the exchange above, you will see that you yourself were the
sender, and I was very happy with your service. I had agreed to be
responsible for the customs duties. I was slightly surprised that Fedex
wanted the cash on delivery rather than bunging me an invoice, but
fortunately I had the correct cash on me to pay down to the last cent.

(Yes a credit card would have done, but the Swiss Franc was taking a
hammering at the time and I only had a GBP card back then and wanted to
minimise my exposure to currency rate fluctuations.)



--
Paul Sture

[Paul Sture]

On Fri, 13 Apr 2012 12:55:55 -0700, John Wallace wrote:

> Fedex may in theory be a freight forwarder, and the theory may even work
> for real now, but a decade or so ago when I spent several years sending
> and receiving DEC stuff around Europe from time to time, everything from
> a VME board to an AlphaServer 2100, there was a world of difference
> between a random US courier routinely recommended by DEC US folks (stuff
> gets shipped via Heathrow and frequently sits in customs indefinitely)
> and the freight forwarder which DEC Europe had an account with (Circle
> Freight, marvellous people back then - on one occasion when I was in
> need of a VME board from Munich for an exhibition in Birmingham the
> following day, they had the VME board in my hands something like twenty
> minutes after the flight from Munich arrived at BHX, which was about
> five minutes more than the driving time from BHX).

I had similar service from IBM back in the day. The only available
circuit board which we needed to get our printer working was located in
Germany. It was on the next flight to Heathrow and sent by black cab
direct to our premises. I had used the IBM speak equivalent of "elevate"
to get that service, and it didn't disappoint. :-)


--
Paul Sture