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- .th HP IV 2/9/75
- .sh NAME
- hp \*- RH-11/RP04 moving-head disk
- .sh DESCRIPTION
- The files
- .it "hp0 ... hp7"
- refer to sections of RP disk drive 0.
- The files
- .it "hp8 ... hp15"
- refer to drive 1 etc.
- This is done since the size of
- a full RP drive is 170,544 blocks and
- internally the system is only capable
- of addressing 65536
- blocks.
- Also since the disk is so large,
- this allows it to be broken up
- into more manageable pieces.
- .s3
- The origin and size of the pseudo-disks on each drive are
- as follows:
- .s3
- .br
- disk start length
- .br
- 0 0 9614
- .br
- 1 18392 65535
- .br
- 2 48018 65535
- .br
- 3 149644 20900
- .br
- 4 0 40600
- .br
- 5 41800 40600
- .br
- 6 83600 40600
- .br
- 7 125400 40600
- .s3
- It is unwise for all of these files to be present in one installation,
- since there is overlap in addresses and protection becomes
- a sticky matter.
- .s3
- The
- .it hp
- 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 RP files
- begin with
- .it rhp
- and end with a number which selects the same disk
- section as the corresponding
- .it hp
- file.
- .s3
- In raw I/O the buffer must begin on a word boundary,
- and counts should be a multiple of 512 bytes
- (a disk block).
- Likewise
- .it seek
- calls should specify a multiple of 512 bytes.
- .sh FILES
- /dev/hp?, /dev/rhp?
- .sh BUGS
-