Re: ultrastor.c is a bit-rot

Al Viro
2008-03-23T17:17:43Z

On Sun, Mar 23, 2008 at 09:24:03AM -0700, H. Peter Anvin wrote:

> >Hmm interesting, so someone took the VGA thing and made a storage device
> >for it. Did that ever happen with AGP? Any AGP scsi cards. I guess I can
> >Google for it.
>
> A lot less likely, IMO. Unlike AGP-PCI, VLB slots were compatible with
> ISA cards, and the electricals were less complex, so several motherboard
> manufacturers built boards with 3 or more VESA slots (I think I saw a
> board with 6 at one point.)
>
> AGP electricals pretty much require that it be point to point.

... not that VLB didn't suck badly with several devices attached at the same
time. I would be rather surprised if that board would work if fully populated
with VLB cards, all in active use. IOW, a likely explanation is that it
had a warning along the lines of "use of more than <number> of VLB cards
at the same time may use instability" buried in documentation and proud
"6 VLB slots!!!" touted by marketing...

I can't find VLB specs online, but IIRC 3 had been the limit and anything
past that had been very much out of spec and likely to screw you.