[parisc-linux] Terminology

[parisc-linux] Terminology

[van de Werken, Matthew (DEM, PH)]

Hi folks:

I'm hoping someone can clear this up for me - it's not documented clearly
anywhere that I can find.

What's a Zalon? Is it an interface chip between the FW SCSI on some 700
series machines, or is it something else?

What's an Outfield? I know this is on a 735, but some places I've seen say
the 735 is a "hardball", while others list it as an "outfield". My
understanding was that Outfield is equivalent to Zalon, only different. 

What's a LASI? and how does it relate to the above? (Actually, this one is
answered very nicely on the glossary page, but if someone can compare and
contrast to the above I'd be grateful.

Does anyone have any documentation that describes what these things are, and
more importantly how to talk to them? Particularly the "Outfield", since I'd
*really* like to use the FW SCSI on my 735, and it seems this is where I'm
falling over.

Matthew van de Werken
Electronics Engineer
CSIRO Exploration & Mining - Gravity Group
1 Technology Court - Pullenvale - Qld - 4069
ph:  (07) 3327 4685     fax:  (07) 3327 4455
email:  m.vandewerken@cat.csiro.au

Re: [parisc-linux] Terminology

[Richard Hirst]

On Mon, Apr 30, 2001 at 04:13:56PM +1000, van de Werken, Matthew (DEM, PH) wrote:
> Hi folks:
> 
> I'm hoping someone can clear this up for me - it's not documented clearly
> anywhere that I can find.
> 
> What's a Zalon? Is it an interface chip between the FW SCSI on some 700
> series machines, or is it something else?

An interface chip between 53c720 and HPs internal GSC bus.  In my case
the Zalon chip is on a GSC card called Bluefish.

> What's an Outfield? I know this is on a 735, but some places I've seen say
> the 735 is a "hardball", while others list it as an "outfield". My
> understanding was that Outfield is equivalent to Zalon, only different. 

http://puffin.external.hp.com/parisc/hp9000_models.html shows hardball
as the project name for 735 machines.

http://216.208.98.4/view.php3?type=machine&name=735%2F99 shows outfield as the
main i/o control for the machine.

> What's a LASI? and how does it relate to the above? (Actually, this one is
> answered very nicely on the glossary page, but if someone can compare and
> contrast to the above I'd be grateful.

I'd say LASI was a newer Outfield.  LASI gives you 53c710 scsi rather
than 53700.  Outfield gives you 82596 LAN, whereas my B180 with LASI has
a Dino (GSCtoPCI bridge) and provides Tulip LAN that way.

Of course, I'm not that well up on HP internals, so hopefully an HP
person will correct anything I got wrong.

Richard