[Info-vax] RZ1DB etc

[FrankS]

On Wednesday, April 18, 2012 4:43:34 PM UTC-4, Phillip Helbig---undress to reply wrote:
> What does the fifth character stand for, e.g. the B in RZ1DB?
> 
> I have an RZ1FB at 36 GB.  Were there larger-capacity disks in this size 
> (thick SBB for a BA356)?
> 
> Are all the RZ1* disks ultra wide (e.g. 40 MB/s)?

I don't know how what meaning is assigned to the fifth character.  I vaguely remember seeing spindle speed vary (that is, 5400rpm, 7200rpm, and 10k rpm), but I'm not sure if that was the purpose of the fifth character.

You're missing part of the identifier, though.  The drives were identified as (for example) RZ1CD-VA, and RZ1CD-VW.  The -VA was narrow (8 bit) and the -VW was wide (16 bit).

The largest I can recall ever being issued in blue carriers was the RZ1F% series of 36gb drives.  I have seen RZ1FC-VW marked on some of them.  At the time, 36gb was the largest capacity drive that was supported on the controllers that ran those shelves (for example, the HSD50, HSJ50, and HSZ50).  I don't remember if the HSZ70 had a 36gb limit, though I only saw it used with blue drives so it must have had the same limitation.

The HSG80 can support larger drives (up to 300gb to ACS v8.7, but 300gb support was removed in ACS v8.8).  I do have a customer that runs 146gb and 300gb drives in the blue containers in BA370 shelves with HSG80s.  We basically source the drives seperately and open up the containers ourselves to get the larger capacity.  At one point I actually bought some 4gb RZ1CD-VW drives just to get the blue container, then give away the 4gb drive on Craigslist.