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Re: Genesis device: The emergence of Corvette support in Complex BIOS

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On 5/20/26 20:51, Louis Ohland wrote:
> Folks, as usual with IBM, we are left with suspicions and suggestive 
> passages.
> 
> This morning, I fed my Brittanies around 0510, brewed up a pot of French 
> Press coffee. Then the utterances of Saint Katherine of Rohl came to me, 
> unbidden.
> 
> The Corvette lacks a SCSI BIOS and the SCSI firmware has a "stub". What 
> this stub does, or what procedure it calls, or what address it points 
> to, I dunno.
> 
> Since the Corvette is an RS/6000 adapter, there is no announcement 
> letter for it, instead, it is part of a system announcement letter, fer 
> instance, for the 580. The POWER2 systems seem to be the first ones to 
> support the Corvette's need for the SCSI BIOS internalized in IML code.

Is it?  I know the 4-C Corvette Turbo is but I think the standard one 
was always intended for dual use.

> If we look at the "Enhanced Complex BIOS" or "Dual Boot" upgrade complex 
> BIOS for the T1 -AND- T2, both are from Mar '92. The upgrade needs the 
> T1 ver 1.31 refdisk or the T2 ver 1.21 refdisk are both from Nov '92.
> 
> The RETAIN tip about the Corvette in a 8595 says there are improvements 
> in SCSI stuff, but no mention of the F/W.
> 
> The earliest POWER2 systems that offered the F/W are in mid-'94. But 
> that doesn't mean the Corvette couldn't be ordered separately from the 
> system. RPQ or special bid...

https://www.ardent-tool.com/IBM_SCSI/SCSI-FW.html#RS6000_Boot_Support

Note that the way these (early) RS/6000s boot is opposite of a PC.  The 
ROS code enumerates the devices and selects a boot record from a default 
search order or a persisted nvram order.  So it needs to know enough 
about the device to do that.  That's why it can't boot the older systems.

> 
> My SWAG is the Korvetten-class were under development in '92, and IBM 
> most likely planned for introduction on the high-end 90/95 and on POWER2 
> and better RS/6000.
> 
> Another thought, offering a high-end SCSI adapter that requires an 
> upper-end product seems like pure IBM marketing.

SCSI-2 was formally ratified in 1994 although products were shipping 
earlier.  It took a bit more horse power for everything (HBA, drive 
ASICs) to run F/W and the cabling was once more complicated.  Until 
drives started to push the speeds, there wasn't yet a big need for a PC 
class system to worry about it.  The 0664 HDD was contemporary, offered 
in F/W, and might peak at 5MB/s.  So you'd need a few simultaneously 
accessed for F/W to show a major improvement.

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Genesis device: The emergence of Corvette support in Complex BIOS Louis Ohland <ohland@charter.net> - 2026-05-20 22:51 -0500
  Re: Genesis device: The emergence of Corvette support in Complex BIOS Kevin Bowling <kevin.bowling@kev009.com> - 2026-05-20 21:53 -0700
    It depends... Re: Genesis device: The emergence of Corvette support in Complex BIOS Louis Ohland <ohland@charter.net> - 2026-05-21 08:38 -0500
      Re: It depends... Re: Genesis device: The emergence of Corvette support in Complex BIOS Kevin Bowling <kevin.bowling@kev009.com> - 2026-05-21 19:24 -0700
        Finally! A coherent question! Re: Genesis device: The emergence of Corvette support in Complex BIOS Louis Ohland <ohland@charter.net> - 2026-05-22 06:10 -0500
          Re: Finally! A coherent question! Re: Genesis device: The emergence of Corvette support in Complex BIOS Kevin Bowling <kevin.bowling@kev009.com> - 2026-05-22 11:17 -0700
    Re: Genesis device: The emergence of Corvette support in Complex BIOS Louis Ohland <ohland@charter.net> - 2026-05-21 08:50 -0500
      Re: Genesis device: The emergence of Corvette support in Complex BIOS Kevin Bowling <kevin.bowling@kev009.com> - 2026-05-21 11:26 -0700
        Re: Genesis device: The emergence of Corvette support in Complex BIOS Louis Ohland <ohland@charter.net> - 2026-05-21 16:33 -0500
          Re: Genesis device: The emergence of Corvette support in Complex BIOS Kevin Bowling <kevin.bowling@kev009.com> - 2026-05-21 15:46 -0700
  Re: Genesis device: The emergence of Corvette support in Complex BIOS Rick Ekblaw <ekblaw@vnet.ibm.com> - 2026-05-21 18:57 -0400

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