SI(4) Kernel Interfaces Manual SI(4)
NAME
si - SI 9500/CDC 9766 moving head disk
SYNOPSIS
/sys/conf/SYSTEM:
NSI si_drives # SI 9500 driver for CDC 9766 disks
/etc/dtab:
#Name Unit# Addr Vector Br Handler(s) # Comments
si ? 176700 170 5 siintr # si9500
major device number(s):
raw: 18
block: 9
minor device encoding:
bits 0007 specify partition of SI drive
bits 0070 specify SI drive
DESCRIPTION
Files with minor device numbers 0 through 7 refer to various portions of drive 0; minor devices 8 through 15 refer to drive 1, etc. The
standard device names begin with ``si'' followed by the drive number and then a letter a-h for partitions 0-7 respectively. The character
? stands here for a drive number in the range 0-7.
The block files access the disk via the system's normal buffering mechanism and may be read and written without regard to physical disk
records. There is also a `raw' interface which provides for direct transmission between the disk and the user's read or write buffer. A
single read or write call results in exactly one I/O operation and therefore raw I/O is considerably more efficient when many words are
transmitted. The names of the raw files conventionally begin with an extra `r.'
In raw I/O the buffer must begin on a word (even) boundary, and counts should be a multiple of 512 bytes (a disk sector). Likewise seek
calls should specify a multiple of 512 bytes.
DISK SUPPORT
The origin and size (in sectors) of the pseudo-disks on each drive are as follows:
SI 9500/CDC9766 partitions:
disk start length cyls comments
xp?a 0 9120 0 - 14 /
xp?b 9120 9120 15 - 29 swap
xp?c 18240 234080 30 - 414
xp?d 252320 247906 415 - 822*
xp?e 18240 164160 30 - 299 /usr
xp?f 182400 152000 300 - 549
xp?g 334400 165826 550 - 822*
xp?h 0 500384 0 - 822 whole pack
Those partitions marked with an asterisk (``*'') actually stop short of the indicated ending cylinder to protect any bad block forwarding
information on the packs. The indicated lengths are correct. Partition ``h'' must be used to access the bad block forwarding area. N.B.:
the si driver does not support bad block forwarding; the space is reserved in the event bad block forwarding is ever added to the driver.
FILES
/dev/si[0-7][a-h] block files
/dev/rsi[0-7][a-h] raw files
/dev/MAKEDEV script to create special files
/dev/MAKEDEV.local script to localize special files
SEE ALSO
hk(4), ra(4), ram(4), rk(4), rl(4), rp(4), rx(4), xp(4), dtab(5), autoconfig(8)
DIAGNOSTICS
si%d%c: hard error sn%d cnr=%b err=%b. An unrecoverable error occurred during transfer of the specified sector of the specified disk par-
tition. The contents of the two error registers are also printed in octal and symbolically with bits decoded. The error was either unre-
coverable, or a large number of retry attempts (including offset positioning and drive recalibration) could not recover the error.
si%d%c: hard error sn%d ssr=%b err=%b. An unrecoverable error occurred during transfer of the specified sector of the specified disk par-
tition. The contents of the two error registers are also printed in octal and symbolically with bits decoded. The error was either unre-
coverable, or a large number of retry attempts (including offset positioning and drive recalibration) could not recover the error.
BUGS
In raw I/O read and write(2) truncate file offsets to 512-byte block boundaries, and write scribbles on the tail of incomplete blocks.
Thus, in programs that are likely to access raw devices, read, write and lseek(2) should always deal in 512-byte multiples.
The partition tables for the file systems should be read off of each pack, as they are never quite what any single installation would pre-
fer, and this would make packs more portable.
3rd Berkeley Distribution August 20, 1987 SI(4)