FCC STATEMENT

WARNING: This equipment has been certified to comply with the

limits for a Class B computing device, pursuant to subpart I of Part l 5 of the
Federal Communications Commissions rules. These rules and regulations
are designed to provide reasonable protection against radio and television
interference in a residential installation. If not installed properly, in strict
accordance with the manufacturers instructions, it may cause interference. lf
you suspect interference, you can test this equipment by turning it on and
off. lf this equipment does cause interference, correct it by doing any of the
following:
Reorient the receiving antenna or plug.
Change the relative positions for the peripheral and the receiver.
Plug the equipment into a different outlet so that the peripheral and
receiver are on different circuits.
CAUTION: Only equipment with shield grounded cables (computer
inputoutput devices, terminals, printers, etc.), certified to comply with
Class B limits, can be attached to this device. Operation with non certified
equipment may result in communications interference.
Your house AC wall receptacle must be a three-pronged type (AC
ground). If not, contact an electrician to install the proper receptacle. If a
multi-connector box is used to connect the computer and peripherals to AC,
the ground must be common to all units.
If necessary, contact your dealer or an experienced radio-TV
technician for additional suggestions. You may find the following FCC
booklet helpful: I-low to Identify and Resolve Radio-TV Interference
Problems." The booklet is available from the U.S. Government Printing
Office, Washington, D.C. 20402, stock no. 004-000-0i0345-4.
This manual is the Copyright I991 of Great Valley Products inc.. All Rights Reserved.
This document may not, in whole or in part, be copied. photocopied, reproduced, translated, or
reduced to any electronic medium or machine readable form, without prior consent, in writing of
Great Valley Products, Inc.
GVP, Impact, Impact Series I1, DPRC, and FaaastPrsp" are registered trademarks of
Great Valley Products, Inc.
Amiga is a registered trademark of CommodorAmiga, Inc. Commodore is a registered
trademark of Commodore Electronics Limited. Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple
Computers, Inc.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction

Installing Additional Fast RAM in GVP's Impact Series II

SCSI/RAM Controllers

Installing the First Hard Drive on a

GVP Series II SCSI/RAM Controller

Installing Additional Hard Drives on the GVP Impact

Series II SCSI/RAM Controller

Installing the Impact Series II SCSI/RAM Controller Cards

In the Amiga 2000

Using the PC Bridge-board with a GVP Hard Disk

Instructions for Janus Version I
Installing the Janus Software Version II
Partitioning and Formatting Using FaaastPrep
Programmers Documentation
Technical Specifications

15
16
20
22
27
34

NOTE:
Please remember to send in your warranty registration card.

INTRODUCTION
The Great Valley Products (GVP) Impact Series II product line offers a wide
range of high-performance add-on peripheral products for the Commodore
Amiga computer systems. This manual serves as the Users Guide for the
following products:
Impact Series II A2000-HC+8. This product is GVPs flagship
SCSI controller. This controller has room to mount, directly on the
card, a 3.5" SCSI hard drive as well as the capability to hold up to
eight (8) megabytes of Fast RAM.
Impact Series II A2000-HC. This product is similar to the A2000HC+8but does not contain the expansion RAM capability. This
controller has room for a 3.5" SCSI hard drive Io be mounted directly
on the card.
A key feature of all GVP Series II SCSI/RAM controllers is the new GVP
DPRC. The DPRC is a custom Dual-Port RAM Controller chip that was
designed exclusively by GVP and is currently only available on GVP Series
II SCSI/RAM controller products. The DPIQC allows the GVP to achieve
some of the fastest SCSI transfer rates of any controller in the Market

2
Installing Additional Fast RAM in
GVPs Impact Series II SCSI/RAM Controllers
Adding RAM to the board is relatively simple and requires only a few steps.

The RAM that should he used is 100ns (nanosecond) or faster, page-mode

DRAM SlMMs. DRAM stands for Dynamic Random Access Memory
while SIMM stands for Single Inline Memory Module. SlMMs are used
because of the ease of installation as well as the space they save. GVP uses
1M x8 SlMMs. This means that there are 8 individual DRAM chips
soldered to a small circuit; board. These SlMMs can come in two different
styles, both styles are shown below:

Step 1:
The SIMMs must be inserted in a specific order. They go in from the
innermost (CN10) to the outermost (CNI7) sockets (see diagram at
beginning of Chapter 5). The maximum configuration is eight mega-bytes
and in this configuration all the SIMM sockets will be filled. With two
megabytes only the first two sockets {i.e. CN 10 and CN11) will be filled
and with four megabytes the first four sockets will be filled.
The SIMMs can only be inserted in one direction since they are
keyed. This key prevents the SIMMs from being inserted backwards and
being damaged. Once the SIMM is in its socket, apply slight pressure to the
top of the SIMM to ensure that it is properly seated. When the SIMM is
being seated, it will generally snap into place. SIMMs must be inserted in
increments of two (i.e. 2, 4, 6 and 8).

Step 2:
Now you must set the proper jumpers so that the system knows about
this new expansion memory. There are five jumpers on the board below the
word RAM". The diagram at the beginning of Chapter 5 indicates where
the jumpers are located. The chart below indicates the proper jumper
settings:

Memory

SIMM Locations

J5

J6

J7

J8

J9

NONE

OFF

OFF

ON

OFF

ON

CN10 CN11

OFF

ON

OFF

OFF

ON

CN10 CN13

ON

OFF

OFF

OFF

ON

CN10 CN15

OFF

OFF

ON

ON

OFF

CN10 CN17

OFF

ON

OFF

ON

OFF

Once the proper jumper settings have been made, you should proceed
to Chapter 5 on how to install your Impact Series II board in your Amiga
A2000.

3
Installing the First Hard Drive on A
GVP Series II SCSI/RAM Controller
If you purchased your GVP Series II Controller with no hard drive attached
and wish to attach a hard drive, just follow these steps:

Step 1:
First it is necessary to physically prepare your hard drive. The following
items must be taken care of;
The SCSI ID number should be set to zero
The terminating resistor packs should be removed
(See Chapter 4)
In order to set the SCSI ID to zero, you should read the manual that came
with the hard drive. Usually, a SCSI ID of zero means that all SCSI ID jumpers
are removed, but refer to the owners guide that comes with the drive. The same
applies to the resistor packs. It is necessary to refer to the owners guide of the hard
drive in order to find out how to remove the resistor packs.
Once the SCSI ID is set and the resistor packs have been removed, proceed
to the next step.

Step 2:
Since the drive has to be mounted on the card and connected to two cables,
it is best to connect the cables first. Begin by connecting a 50-pin ribbon cable to
the controller at the location specified in the figure shown in the beginning of
Chapter 5. The ribbon cable is keyed and so is the connector on the GVP board, so
it can only be inserted in one direction.
After the ribbon cable is attached to the controller, it is necessary to attach
the other end of the ribbon cable to the hard drive.

The hard drive has the same connector as the GVP board, so attach the
other end of the ribbon cable to the hard drive keeping in mind the key.
Next, you should connect the 4 pin power connector to the hard drive. This
connector is located on either side of the SCSI connector. Included with your
GVP Board was a small four -wire cable with a connector on either end. The
small end plugs into the connector on the board and the large end plugs into
the hard drive. This connector is also keyed at the corners and can only be
inserted in one direction.
Once the two cables are connected, you can use the four screws that
came with the GVP controller to secure the hard drive down to the board. If
you are using the new one-inch high Quantum drives, only three screws are
required. The location for the forth screw is not drilled on the drive, this is
left blank intentionally.
Now reinstall the GVP Series II controller as per Chapter 5.

4
Installing Additional Hard Drives on the
GVP Impact Series II SCSI/RAM Controller
Up to seven SCSI peripheral can be attached to any GVP Impact
Series II controller. These devices may be hard disk drives, tape drives, CDROMs, etc. There are a few concepts to understand about the SCSI
interface that should be explained before you do the actual Installation.

SCSI ID:
Each SCSI peripheral must have its own SCSI ID. SCSI IDs range
from zero to seven. However, the Impact Series II controller itself uses SCSI
ID number seven. Therefore no other SCSI peripheral may use the SCSI ID
value of 7.

Terminating the SCSI Bus:

Since SCSI devices are chained one after another in a daisy chain",
the last device needs some special attention. The end of the SCSI bus must
be terminated with terminating resistors. Terminating resistor packs are
small plastic packages, usually with eight pins coming out of them. The
figure below shows a typical resistor pack:

Note: Some SCSI peripherals do not have terminating packs; instead they
have terminating plugs/connectors which serve the same purpose. Please
refer to the appropriate users guide for more information.
Only the last SCSI device in the chain should contain the resistor
packs. It is essential that the terminating resistor packs are removed from all
but the last SCSI device. If there are both internal and external SCSI devices,
then the last external SCSI device is considered to be the last device,
therefore using the terminating resistor packs.

This means that all the terminating resistor packs have to be removed
from all the other SCSI devices. Please note that GVP removes all
terminating resistor packs on hard drives that are mounted on our controllers
so removing them is not necessary.

Cabling:
When multiple SCSI devices are used, there are special cabling
considerations to be taken into account. When only internal SCSI devices
are being used, a "daisy-chain" cable is used. This cable is a flat 50-pin
ribbon cable with multiple connections In other words; this cable can be
started at one SCSI device and then connected to a second and then to a third
and so on.
If external SCSI devices are being used, they need a different cable.
The cable they use is wrapped in a thin metal foil providing a shield as per
FCC regulation. This is necessary so that the signals leaving your computer
do not interfere with other electronic devices. This cable attaches to the back
of the GVP Impact Series II controller through a 25-pin connector. The other
end of the cable usually has a 50-pin shielded connector which attaches to
the external SCSI device. Both the internal and external SCSI cables are
available through your authorized GVP Dealer.

5
Installing the Impact Series II SCSI/RAM
Controller Cards in the Amiga 2000
This chapter will describe the physical installation of the Impact
Series II cards in the Amiga 2000. We suggest that y0u read this installation first,
so that you become familiar with it arid then proceed to do the actual installation
The diagrams below show the outline of the two typical Series II boards with the
critical components highlighted.

The first step is to determine which product you are going to install
and which options, if any, you are going to utilize. The reason for this is that
you should perform the installation in a specific order, so that the installation
is as simple as possible. The following is a good guideline to use when
installing any of the GVP Impact Series il products:
Install any options in the card first and then install the
card in the 2000.
In other words, if you are adding a hard drive to the card or if you are
adding RAM, do that first and then install the card in the 2000. If you are
installing both RAM and a hard drive, do the physical mounting of the hard
drive first, then add the RAM, and finally install the completed card in the
2000.
Installing any GVP product requires only a Phillips head screwdriver.
lf you do not feel comfortable working inside your Amiga, then have your
dealer install the board for you. It is essential that you ground yourself to the
Amiga's chassis before handling any UVP product. Please note the
following:
The components on the GVP board are static sensitive. When you
remove your GVP board from its box, you will notice that it is in a special
plastic bag. This bag protects the board from any static electricity that might
harm the board. It is important to remove t ho board in the most static-free
environment possible. Also it is important to keep the original packaging of
the GVP board in case you must ship it somewhere.
Before opening up your Amiga, it is essential that the Amiga is unplugged.

Warning:
Unplug the Amiga 2000 before removing its top cover to install any add-on
product. Installing any product with the power on could cause injury to
yourself and damage to the equipment. Great Valley Products cannot be
held responsible for any damages or injuries caused by improper
installation of the Impact Series II boards. Such improper installation will
void all warranties both on the Amiga 2000 itself and on the Impact Series II
expansion boards.

10

Step 1:
Disconnect the power cord from the Amiga. Next, disconnect the
keyboard cable, mouse cable and any other device plugged into the second
mouse port. It is essential that these cables be removed before taking the
cover off the machine.

Step 2:
The Amigas case is secured by five screws. Two of these screws are
located on the right, bottom side and two are located on the left, bottom side.
The fifth screw is located on the back of the case at the top, center. Please
refer to the diagrams below for the screw locations:

11

Step 3:
Now you must decided which slot in the Amiga 2000 you are going to
plug your new GVP board into. There are five slots that are capable of
holding the GVP board. See diagram below for slot locations.

Note:
Since the GVP boards which have a hard drive mounted on them are Wider
than normal single slot boards, it is necessary to take into account what will
be on the right of the board. The GVP board will block the slot immediately
to the Right of the board.

Step 4:
Once you have decided which slot you are going to use, you must
remove the thin metal plate which blocks the back of the slot. This thin
metal plate hangs on the rear portion of the case which in intended for
securing add-in boards. Remove the Phillips head screw that holds the
appropriate slot in place and lift out the slot blocker. Put the screw in a sale
place as you will need it later. Also the slot blocker you just removed should
be saved as you may need it if you ever remove the GVP board and want to
block the slot

12

Step 5:
In order to install the board in the Amiga, you must insert the board
with the component side of the board t0 the right. The board will slide into
the plastic guide at the front of the Amiga and hang" on the rear of the
Amiga where you removed the slot blocker. Once the board is lined up in the
guide, apply slight pressure to the top of the card to "seat" it in the slot Make
sure that it goes all the way into the connector and that the metal bracket on
the rear of the board correctly sits on the ledge at the back of the 2000 case.
Next use the screw that you removed from the slot blocker to secure
the GVP card in place.

Step 6
(Only necessary for GVP cards that have an internal hard drive attached to them)

Next, the LED on the Amiga that displays when you are accessing the
hard drive must be connected. On the older 2000s the LED is green and on
the newer 2000s the LED is amber. This LED can be found just below the
lower LED on the front panel of the 2000. lf you look inside the case lust
behind the small panel which holds the two LEDs in place, you will find
some wires coming from the LED. Two of the wires connect to the front of
the motherboard. These are the power LED wires. The other two wires,
which come from the bottom LED, are to be connected to the GVP board.
On the board is a set of three pins labeled "LED" (see the diagram at the
beginning of the chapter). Take the wires you found earlier and connect the
black connector at the end of these wires to the 3-pin connector on the GVP
board. Orientation of the connector is not important.

13

Step 7:
Replace the cover of your Amiga paying careful attention not to catch
any wires between the cover and the base. Once the five screws have been
replaced you should reconnect the power cord as well as the keyboard and
mouse.
The hardware installation is now complete. The nest step is to
initialize the hard drive by using GVPs FaaastPrep. Please proceed to
Chapter 9 for initialization procedures.

Warning:
If a hard drive is mounted on your GVP Impact Series II Board then your
Amiga 2000 should never be shipped with the Impact Series II board in your
system. Before shipping (i.e. UPS, FedEx, US Mail, etc.) always removed
the GVP board. This is because the single metal Bracket that holds the board
in place is not strong enough to hold the board during shipping. Serious
damage may occur to both the 2000 and the GVP board if this advice is not
followed.

14

6
Using the PC Bridgeboard
with a GVP Hard Disk
The GVP Impact Series II controller boards support Commodores
A2088 and A2286 Bridgeboards by providing a convenient way to create
virtual drives for the PC side to access. The term virtual drive refers to the
process by which an Amiga DOS file is created on the Amiga side to act as a
separate hard drive for the PC side. In this way, a GVP-controlled SCSI hard
drive offers you fast, effective storage for both your Amiga and your PC
applications.
There are presently two versions of the Janus Software, the essential
installation software accompanying your Bridgeboard. In this section of our
manual, GVP has attempted to clear up the confusion that formerly
surrounded this process. Please check your Janus software to determine
whether it is Version l or Version 2, and follow the corresponding
procedure for the rapid creation of your virtual drive.
NOTE: The following assumes that you have;
successfully completed the hardware installation of the Bridgeboard by following the instructions in its manual.
successfully completed the hardware installation of your GVP
hardcard OR controller card /cable/drive assembly- please refer to the
appropriate chapter in the table of contents.
successfully set aside a formatted AmigaDOS partition of your hard
drive that will contain the PC virtual drive file. Follow the instructions
for software installation in Chapter 9. We recommend that the size of
this allocated partition be between 5 and 20 megabytes, depending on
how much of your hard drive space you are willing to allocate to your
PC side. (Please note also that the MS-DOS limit is 32 megabytes).

15

7
Instructions for Janus Version 1
Step 1:
Insert the GVP Installation diskette in your floppy drive and double
click on its icon. Next, run GVP's Bridgeboard Install utility by double
clicking on the BBI icon. Follow the instructions prompted by the BBI
utility. When BBI is finished, proceed to the next step.

Step 2:
The next step involves adding a single line to the "startup-sequence"
file in the "s" directory so that the virtual drive information is fed to the
Amiga side upon boot-up. This command line may already be present in
your "startup-sequence", so you must check carefully as we proceed. Type

ed sys:s/startup~sequence
to enter into the startup-sequence file. Cursor down through the various lines
to find a line that reads, Blinddrlvers. If Blinddrlvers is not present, you
should add it about 7-I0 lines from the top (from the bottom if you have an
accelerator card installed) by typing a single RETURN at the end of the line
you wish Blinddrlvers to follow, and then typing Blinddrlvers into the
newly-created empty line. (Refer to the AmigaDOS manual for instructions
regarding ED.)
Next, place the cursor after the Blinddrlvers command and press the
return key to insert a new line after it. Now type into the empty line the
following:

run >nil: sys:pc/pcdisk

This routine allows the Bridgeboard to read and write Amiga drive
information. To exit, again hit ESC, and then X, and then RETURN to save
the modified startup-sequence. (Note; lf you enter a Q instead of an X all
your edits will be lost and you will be able to start again.)

16

Step 3:
Place the MS-DOS System Disk #1 in the 5,25" IBM drive. Reboot
your computer (CTRL-Amiga-Amiga). Open the PC color or PC mono
window - depending on what jumper settings you have selected by
consulting your Bridgeboard manual.

Step 4:
Always make backups! You can make a backup of the 5.25" MS-DOS
disk by typing "diskcopy a: a" at the "A>" prompt. NOTE: The quotation
marks used throughout this section are only for your reference; they are
not to be typed.

Step 5:
Store the original MS-DOS diskette in a safe place, and make sure its
COPY is in the 5.25" drive. This is your MS-DOS boot disk, and you will
now modify it to facilitate the use of a virtual drive. Still within the PC
window, type the following at the "A>" prompt being careful to use the
correct backslash key:

Copy con a:\config.sys

On the screen, you will receive a new line without a prompt, at which
point you should type the following lines of text exactly as they are shown
below. The comment column separated with semicolons is just for your
reference and is NOT to be entered. After each separate line, press the
RETURN key.
YOU TYPE

COMMENT

files = 20
buffers = 20
device = jdisk.sys
device = ansi.sys
^Z

:
:
:
:
:

Maximum number of open files

Reserved memory for drive speed
Loads PC-Amiga translator
Loads common graphics driver
End of this file. *See next Page*

17

*The ""Z" or so-called control Z" character is obtained by holding

the control (CTRL) key down and pressing the Z key at the same time, Alter
in his last line is typed and the RETURN key is pressed, the computer will
give you a confirmation message, and your prompt should return to the
screen.

Step 6:
Reboot the Bridgeboard by pressing the keys CTRL, ALT, and DEL
simultaneously. Once the A>" prompt has returned, you are ready to create
the virtual drive. Before you enter the appropriate command, you must first
determine four things;
1. MS-DOS virtual drive letter - (C,D,E, or F) by choice
2. AmigaDOS drive number- partition set aside (i.e. dhl ,dh2...)
3. AmigaDOS filename - by choice (i.e. pcdrive, mydisk, etc.)
4. Virtual drive size - in kilobytes (i.e. I5meg= 15000)
Our example drive created below uses the first example selection from
each ofthe four given options above. You will now enter the following line
while substituting your own names and numbers in place of the example
selections in bold:

jlink c: dhl:pcdr|ve

/c: 15000

Be certain that you have pressed RETURN after this line, and be
aware that if you are recreating an already established virtual drive that
all of the MS~DOS data will be erased.

Step 7:
Transfer the contents of the 5.25" floppy diskette to the newly created
virtual drive by entering;:

copy a:*.* c:

18

Step 8:
Now that you need to make a boot files on the same floppy that will
serve to automatically activate the virtual drive and transfer control to it after
each startup. Please type
Copy con a:\autoexec.bat
And hit RETURN. Next enter the following lines without typing the semicoloned comments which are again provided only for your information.
YOU TYPE

COMMENT

echo off
cls
jlink c: dh1:pcdrive
set comspec=c:\command.com
c:
^Z

:
:
:
:
:
:

Limits output to the screen

Clears the screen
Re-links virtual drive *see below*
DOS to virtual drive
Defaults to the C drive
Ends the file.

Step 9:
You have now completed your virtual drive installation. *In the above
example, MS-DOS drive c is the virtual hard drive contained on a file
called dhl:pcdrive of the Amiga side, you should use the appropriate drive
names and filename when you enter this line. NOTE: There are certain
precautions that you should always follow to insure the future proper
operation of your virtual hard drive:
l. Always UNLINK the drive before rebooting or turning off your
computer by typing jlink c:/u where "c" is the drive letter.
2. As an added security, before you use the virtual drive for your
applications, fill it completely with any data and/or files, unlink it,
then re-link it and delete this data. This procedure expands the
virtual drive before you place valuable data on it, and an accidental
reset is much less likely to damage your information later on.

19

8
Instructions for the Janus Software Version II
Step 1:
Insert the GVP installation diskette in your floppy drive and double
click on the its icon. Next, run GVPs Bridgeboard Install utility by double
clicking on the BBI icon. Follow the instructions prompted by the BBI
utility. When BBI is finished, proceed to the next step

Step 2:
The next step involves adding a single line to the startup-sequence
file in the s directory so that the virtual drive information is fed to the
Amiga side upon boot-up. This command line may already be present in
your startup-sequence, so you must check carefully as we proceed. Type

ed sys:s/startup-sequence
to enter into the startup-sequence file. Cursor down through the various lines
to find a line that reads Blinddrivers. If Blinddrivers is not present, you
should add it bout 7-10 lines from the top (from the bottom if have an
accelerator card installed) by typing a single RETURN at the end of the line
you wish Blinddrivers to follow, and then typing Blinddrivers into the
newly-created empty line. (Refer to the AmigaDOS manual for more
instructions regarding ED.)
Next, place the cursor after the Blinddrivers command and press the
return key to insert a new line after it. Now type into the empty line the
following:

run >nil: sys:pc/pcdisk

This routine allows the Bridgeboard to read and write Amiga drive
information. To exit, again hit ESC and then X, and then RETURN to save
the modified startup-sequence. (Note: if you enter a Q instead of an X all
your edits will be lost and you will be able to start again.)

20

Step 3:
We will now format the virtual drive and copy the contents of the MSDOS floppy disks over to it. Insert the MS-DOS system disk number l into
the 5.25" drive and reboot the Amiga (CTRL-AMIGA-AMIGA). Open the
appropriate color or mono window from the PC drawer. At the "A>" prompt,
type "FDISK" and hit RETURN. You will be presented with an option
menu. Select option #l to create a DOS drive partition. Next choose option
#1 again to create a primary DOS partition. Next, designate an active
partition as the number 1 partition. When this has finished, hit the escape
key to exit, and then reboot the Bridgeboard side with (CTRL-ALT-DEL).
Some versions of the /\2088 board might "hang" the system, in which case
you should use the "PCHard" icon to reset it.

Step 4:
At the new "A>" prompt, you will format the virtual drive by typing,
"format c: /s", being careful to use the proper slash key. When that finishes,
type xcopy a: c: /s" to copy the first system disk to the virtual drive. When
the copy is complete, type "C:" to make the virtual drive the current
directory. Place the second MS-DOS disk into the 5.25" floppy drive, and
retype "xcopy a: c: /s" to copy the contents of the second floppy to the
virtual drive. Repeat this process once more with the third MS-DOS system
disk. You have now completed the installation. You may test your work by
removing the 5.25" floppy and rebooting the Bridgeboard side. Now, watch
your GVP-controlled hard drive autoboot as a virtual MS-DOS drive!

21

9
Partitioning and Formatting Using FaaastPrep
Included with your GVP Impact Series II hard drive controller is our new
FaaastPrep Utility. This utility will allow you unprecedented versatility when
working with your hard disk, whether it be a SCSI drive or an AT/IDE drive.
In order to utilize the full power of FaaastPrep, we will first give you a brief
overview of this utility. When executing this utility by double clicking on the
FaaastPrep icon, you will be presented with a startup screen offering you several
options Your first choice is whether you are going to use this utility on your SCSI
drive or your AT drive. In order to switch between these two options, there is a
small gadget in the middle of the screen.
The next option concerns automatic versus manual installation. The
following is a brief description of both choices:

Automatic: This is the easier of the two selections when installing a hard
drive. This option requires a minimum of input from the user and is the fastest way
to set up your hard drive. The Automatic Installation is appropriate for novice
users, as well as for those who desire a rapid hard drive installation without the
immediate need for special options.

Manual: This option gives the experienced user total control over their
hard drive. Parameters such as boot priority, max transfer, and buffer size may be
altered for any partition even after the drive has been previously partitioned and
already contains data. Other parameters such as low and high cylinders are also
alterable. The manual mode is recommended for the experienced user only.
Note: Hard drives previously prepped the old GVP drivers can be re-propped and
updated for the new driver using the Automatic mode. Using the Automatic mode
to re-prep your hard drive will retain any data currently on the drive

Automatic Mode Instructions:

Once you have chosen SCSI or AT you must then click on the Automatic
gadget. You will then be presented with the installation screen for the automatic
mode. FaaastPrep will default to drive ID number zero, if you are installing a drive
other than ID number zero, click on the Skip to Next gadget to proceed to the
next available unit.

22

Once you have chosen your correct ID number, FaaastPrep will read
in some information regarding the drive and display it on the left hand side
of the screen. Now, enter the number of partitions into which your drive will
be divided by clicking on the appropriate gadget and entering your desired
value. Followed by a return. Please note that due to limitations in the
Amiga's file system, only one partition is allowed on removable media
devices. (Please refer to the chapter titled "Programmer's Documentation"
for more information.)
Next, FaaastPrep will automatically divide the total storage capacity
into equal sizes. lf you do not want the partitions to be the same size, all you
have to do is to position the cursor in the partition size box and alter the
number within the box. Always finish with the RETURN key. Please note
that in the lower left hand corner of the screen are two drive size indicators
for your reference.
Once you have entered the number of partitions and their respective
sizes, you must decide the partition names. FaaastPrep will offer you default
partition names which you may change or accept. Lf you change the names,
just position the cursor in the partition name box and re-type the name
followed by a return.
Note: Prep/Format will erase all data currently on the target drive.
Once everything is to your preference, click on the "Prep/Format"
gadget to send this structural data to your drive. Once FaaastPrep is finished,
the drive will be prepped and formatted.
Software Installation:
Once your hard drive has been installed and initialized, it will be
ready to accept software. Your hard drive partitions act just like large floppy
disks, only much faster. This means that copying to and from the hard disk is
the same as if you were copying between floppy diskettes.
Some software requires special hard drive installation routines to
access them from a hard drive. lt is recommended that you consult the
software manual that came with the software on how to install it on a hard
drive. You will also want to consult your AmigaDOS manual on additional
information regarding copying.

23

Manual Mode Features:

Low Level Format: This will instruct a hard drive to complete a low
level format on itself. Low level format will also present a screen allowing
you to enter the interleave for the target drive. An interleave of zero (0) tells
the drive to use its own default setting for interleave. Any other number will
create an interleave of that number to (1) (i.e. 1 = l:1, 2 = 2:1, 3 = 3:1, etc.).
Note that certain drives such as Quantum and Maxtor do not allow you to
change the interleave value, they always default to 1:1. Also, low level
format will completely erase the drive.
Note: This function is not implemented for AT drives
Bad Block Re-Map: This will re-map any defective blocks that a
drive may have while keeping the data intact. This re-map will attempt to
restore any data found on the bad blocks themselves. Also, you should
always back up your hard drive prior to a bad block re-map.
Note: This function is not implemented for AT drives.
DOS Format: This is the equivalent of the Amiga DOS format.
Read: Reads the rigid disk block and the partition block of the target
hard drive.
Write: Writes the data you specified to the rigid disk block and the
partition block of the target drive.
Unprep: Erases the first 64 blocks, removing the rigid disk boot block
and the partition blocks.
Auto: When enabled, this will automatically adjust cylinders, heads,
and sectors according to your specification. (I.e. when entering sectors
FaaastPrep will automatically re-calculate high cylinders.) This will also
automatically calculates high and low cylinder values according to partition
size values.

24

FileSys: File system type. FFS-Fast Files System, OFS-Old File

System, AFS-Alternate File System (currently not utilized)
Mem: Type of memory that the buffers are allocated from. E-ether
fast or chip, C-Chip, F-Fast
Mask: Address Mask to specify memory range that DMA transfers
can use.
< >: Use these gadgets to change the target drives ID number.

25

10
Programmers Documentation
In this chapter, we will explain some of the more technical details related Io
GVP's SCSI software which are useful to know if you want to program the SCSI
driver or if you want to improve the performance even further, Some sections (and
the example programs on the distribution disk) assume some familiarity with the
Amigas I/O system, especially the way the trackdisk.device works. For an
introduction, see I3, Chapter 19 and Chapter 42.
Initialization
The GVP device driver must be opened via the exec.librarys OpenDevice()
call, It requires a standard I/O request, the "flags" parameter must currently be set
to zero. Here is an example;
struct MsgP0rt *mp;
struct lOStdReq *io;
if((mp = CreateP0rt(NULL, 0)) != NULL)
{
if((i0 = CreateStdIO(mp)) != NULL)
{
if(OpenDevice(gvpscsi.dcvice", UNIT, io, 0) ==0)
{
/* SCSI commands go HERE */
CloseDevice(io);
}
DeleteStdIO(io);
}
DeletePort(mp);
}

GVP's SCSI driver adheres to the standard defined in the include file
<devices/scsidisk.h>, so the unit number has the following meaning: The 100s
digit is the board number (our driver supports any number of boards), the 10s digit
is the logical unit number (LUN), and the 1s digit is the SCSI target ID. The host
adapter itself currently uses target ID7 (HFERR_SelfUnit on OpenDevice()), but
this is subject to change. For further information see |2. pages D-16 and D-17| and
|2. pages E-17 and E-18|. The driver automatically recognizes all GVP SCSI
controller boards in the system.

27

Trackdisk Commands
GVPs SCSI driver supports the following trackdisk.device
commands (see |2, pages B-70 to B-76| for the official documentation on the
trackdisk.device and |2, pages D-I9 and D-20| and |2, pages E-20 and E21 | for the corresponding include file definitions);
CMD_READ
CMD_WRlTE
TD_FORMAT
TD_MOTOR
TD_SEEK
CMD_UPDATE
CMD_CLEAR
TD_REMOVE
TD_CHANGENUM
TD_CHANGESTATE
TD_PROTSTATUS
TD_ADDCHANGEINT
TD_REMCHANGElNT
gvpscsi.device will automatically support any block size up to 64
kilobytes that is a power of two, so the io_Length and io_Offset parameters
for the CMD_READ, CMD_WRITE and TD_FORMAT commands do not
necessarily have to be multiples of TD_SECTOR (5I2) bytes, even though
the 1.3 file systems (ROM and FFS) do not support other block sizes It is
possible, however, to use SCSI devices with a block size smaller than 512
bytes (e.g. 20-meg Iomega Bernoulli with 256-bytes sectors), since our SCSI
driver will handle requests of any size as long as it is a multiple of the
current logical block size as understood by the SCSI drive. This is also the
reason our new driver does not require the MountList MaxTransfer kludge
as most other drivers do (i.e. MaxTransfer is 0x7FFFFFFF). This results in
much faster transfer of large data blocks.
In contrast to trackdisk.device VI .3 or earlier, RD_REMCHANGEINT does
work! Use of TD_REMOVE is not recommended, since this might interfere
with the file system. The current versions of the Amiga file systems do not
make use of the TD_ADD/REMCHANGEINT calls, since many drivers do
not support them or simply crash. Therefore you should not use more than
one partition on any removable medium!

28

Always make sure the motor is turned off using TD_MOTOR after
CMD_READ, CMD_WRITE or TD_FORMAT, since otherwise you might
not be able to eject removable media cartridges (e.g. SyQuest)

Direct SCSI Commands

The Commodore SCSI standard provides for a way of sending raw
SCSI commands that do not fit into the Amiga's I/O system to the device.
This way, a programmer can use any command supported by the SCSI
devices firmware. Heres an example on how this feature can be used:
struct IOStdReq *io;
struct SCSICmd SC;
UBYTEL command[l2];
io->io_Command
io->io__Length
io->io__Data

= HD_SCSlCMD;
= sizeof(struct SCSICmd);
= (APTR)&SC;

SC.scsi_Data
SC.scsi__Length
SC.scsi_Command
SC.scsi_CmdLength
SC.scsi_Flags
SC.scsi_SenseData
SC.scsi_SenseLength
SC.scsi_SenscActual

=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=

command[0]
command[l]
c0mmand[2]
c0mmand[3]
c0mmand[4]
c0mmand[5]

=
=
=
=
=
=

(UWORD *)scsidata;
scsilength;
command;
6;
SCSIF_READ | SCSIF_AUTOSENSE;
sensedata;
MAXSENSE;
0;

scsicmd;
LUN << 5;
0;
0;
scsilength;
0;

DoIO{io);
/* */

29

HD_SCSICMD is the name of the Exec command being used,

io_Length is always set to sizeof(struct SCSICmd), io_Data points to the
SCSICmd structure. The SCSICmd structure in turn points to the memory
area for the SCSI data and the Request Sense data. It also contains fields for
data length and SCSI status information.
For a complete example on HD_SCSICMD, see the distribution disk.
Make sure you also read and understand the section Memory
Requirements. One more restriction; Don't use HD_SCSICMD to perform
block I/O on disk devices, use the trackdisk commands (CMD_READ,
CMD_WRITE) instead!
The SCSIF__AUTOSEI\ISE feature requires the use of the latest
version of <devices/scsidisk.h>, which is, unfortunately, not included with
the Version 5.05 of the Lattice C compiler. It can, however, be obtained
from Commodore Applications and Technical Support (CATS) as part of the
Native Developer Update Kit 1.3
Memory Requirements
There are certain restrictions on the memory regions that can be used
when dealing with SCSI DMA controllers. These restrictions do not
necessarily apply to the GVP SCSI controller boards and/or drivers, they
should, however, be taken into account when writing software that is
supposed to work with other manufacturers SCSI controllers.
Memory regions used for DMA should be at least word-aligned, some
controllers (none of GVPs though) even require longword-alignment. This
is easily achieved with the AllocMem() call. The other requirement is related
to the type of memory used: Since most SCSI controllers are Zorro-II
devices (i.e. designed for the A2000 with its 24-bit address bus), they can
only DMA into the lower 16 megabytes of the Amiga's address space. If you
happen to have a RAM expansion board that is located outside the address
range $00000000 to $00FFFFFFFF or one that does not support DMA, you
must restrict all SCSI data transfers to those regions of memory that do
support DMA. In the worst case, this is Chip memory only, so you should
allocate data buffers with the MEMF_CHIP attribute and set the MountList
Mask-parameter to 0x1FFFFF (Chip memory only). Unfortunately, there is
no way a programmer can request Zorro-II memory -

30

- without traversing the free-memory list. None of these restrictions apply to

the GVP Impact Series I SCSI controllers, and usually it is sufficient to use a
Mask value of 0xFFFFFE. Please refer to your RAM expansion manual for
further information
Summary; for CMD_READ, CMD_WRITE and TD_FORMAT,
io_Data should be at least word-aligned and point to DMA-able memory.
io_Length should be an even number of bytes For HD_SCSICMD the same
restrictions apply to scsi_Data, scsi_SenseData, scsi_Length and
scsi_SenseLength. scsi_Length should not exceed the 24-bit limit.
MountList and the Rigid Disk Block
GVPs SCSI software adheres completely to Commodore's Rigid Disk
Block standard. This allows autornounting / autobooting with alternate file
systems (non-ROM file systems).We also support the FileSystern.resource
and file system version numbers, so the SCSI driver will automatically use a
later ROM file system if one is available. This enables you to use the
Kickstart 2.0 ROM file system and all of its new features, even though the
drive might have been prepped with the 1.3 FFS. It also requires much less
memory.
One other advantage of the RDB standard is that you can move hard
drives and cartridges between different manufactures controllers and boot
from them without having to re-prep anything.
VUPrep
The RDB standard is defined in |2, pages D-5 and D-6|. |2. pages E-6
and E-7I, and |3, pages 538-545|.
GVP SCSI the MMU and V. 2.0
Version 3 of our SCSI device driver no longer requires SetCPU
CARDROM entry, since the driver will copy it self Into 32-bit memory (if
any is available) and therefore execute at the highest possible speed. Since
SetCPU requires large memory blocks, this will save valuable 32bit
memory and leave the MMU available for other tricks.

31

Speeding up the Autoboot Process

During autoboot, the SCSI device driver scans the SCSI bus for all
devices currently connected. Unfortunately, this takes a few seconds, so you
might want to break out of this loop if you do not have the maximum of
seven SCSI devices connected to your Amiga. This can be done by setting
the "Last Disk", "Last LUN" or "Last TlD" flags of the RDB, which will
result in a slightly faster autoboot process.
Removable Media
gvpscsi.device fully supports removable media, (eg. SyQuest, Iomega
Bernoulli, Ricoh) by implementing the trackdisk commands TD_REMOVE,
TD_ADDCHANGEINT and TD_REMCHANGEINT. The 1.3.2 Fast File
System, however, does not make use of them, so you would really have to
use the old ROM file system if you wanted to use removable media. Since
this is not an acceptable solution, our SCSI driver uses some special tricks to
tell the FFS about media changes. One drawback, however, still applies;
Workbench icons might change to BAD" instead of disappearing after you
remove a cartridge.
GvpMount is a small utility that can be used to mount removable
media that have not been inserted at boot-time. Simply call it without any
command line options. Option -s" will cause GvpMount to stick around
until all SyQuests etc. have been mounted (default if you start it from
Workbench). This way it can be "Run in your Startup-Sequence".
Disconnect
Version 3 of the GVP SCSI device driver automatically enables all
SCSI devices to "disconnect" if more than one is connected.. This means
that if a SCSI device detects that an operation might take longer than usual
(due to seeks etc.), it will release the SCSI bus and give other SCSI devices a
chance to operate. Imagine an Amiga with a hard drive and a tape unit:
Without the disconnect feature, every time your backup-software would
rewind the tape, you could do absolutely nothing with your hard drive until
the operation was complete! The same applies for example to low-level
formatting of hard drives, which usually I takes a few minutes. Under
gvpscsi.device, the SCSI will send the driver a message that it is releasing
the bus and yet another message when the low~level format is done.

32

Between these two messages, all other SCSI devices can operate
normally, they could even disconnect as well. This is similar to the Amigas
multitasking where one task releases the processor (i.e. "goes to sleep") until
an external event takes place, thereby giving other tasks a chance to run.
The disconnect feature has a slightly higher per-command overhead
than the "nasty" mode which holds" the SCSI bus until the command is
completed. With the GVP Impact Series I SCSI controllers, writing very
large blocks of data can also be slightly slower in disconnect-mode. If you
do not normally operate with several SCSI devices at the same time, you
might wish to disable the Disconnect/Reselect feature. If you only have a
single SCSI device connected, the driver will use the nasty mode by default.

References:
|1| American National Standard for Information Systems - Small
Computer System Interface (SCSI), ANSI X3.131-1986, American
National Standards Institute, Inc.
|2| Commodore-Amiga, Inc.; Amiga ROM Kernel Reference Manual;
Includes 8 Autodocs, I989, ISBN 0-201-18l77-0, Addison-Wesley
Publishing Company, Inc.
|3| Commodore-Amiga, Inc.; Amiga ROM Kernel Reference Manual:
Libraries 8- Devices, 1989, ISBN 0-20I-18187-8, Addison-Wesley
Publishing Company, Inc.

33

11
Technical Specifications
Combination eight (8) megabyte, zero-waitstate Fast RAM controller
and ANSI X3T9.2 compatible SCSI controller
Supports up to seven (7) SCSI peripherals
High performance DMA transfers to and from hard disk.
SCSI data transfer rates of up to 3.58MB/sec for SCSI peripherals
Amiga 2000 expansion bus host interface
Auto-configs Both Fast RAM and SCSI controller
Internal 50~pin SCSI connector
External 25-pin SCSI connector (DB25), Macintosh-compatible
pinout
Power requirements; +5V, +/-5%, 2.2 Amps maximum
Ambient temperature; 0 - 55 C
Relative Humidity; 20% - 80%

34

External SCSI Connector Pinout

(DB-25) Female
Pin

Name

Pin

Name

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

REQ
MSG
I/O
RST
ACK
BSY
Ground
DB(0)
Ground
DB(3)
DB(5)
DB(6)
DB(7)

14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25

Ground
C/D
Ground
ATN
Ground
SEL
DB(P)
DB(1)
DB(2)
DB(4)
Ground
TPWR

Internal SCSI Connector Pinout

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

50
48
46
44
43
40
38
36
34
32
30
28
26
24
22
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

49
47
45
43
41
39
37
35
33
31
29
27
25
23
21
19
17
15
13
11
9
7
5
3
1

Pin

Name

50
48
46
44
43
40
38
36
34
32
30
28
26
24
22
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2

I/O
REQ
C/D
SEL
MSG
RST
ACK
BSY
Ground
ATN
Ground
Ground
Not Used
Ground
Ground
Ground
DB(P)
DB(7)
DB(6)
DB(5)
DB(4)
DB(3)
DB(2)
DB(1)
DB(0)

All odd pins, except 25, are ground. Pin 25 is not used.

35

Warranty
For a period of one year from the date of purchase, Great Valley
Products warrants to the original purchaser that the hardware shall be free
from manufacturing defects.
This warranty is applicable only to the original purchaser who
purchased the product directly from Great Valley Products or from an
authorized dealer. This warranty shall be void if the unit has been subjected
to improper or abnormal use, or if modified, or dismantled in any way. If a
defect occurs during the warranty period the unit must be returned, postage
paid, in original packaging, to the place of purchase, together with the sales
receipt.
The Purchasers sole and exclusive remedy in the event of defect is
limited to the correction of the defect by adjustment, repair, replacement, or
refund at Great Valley Products election. Great Valley Products will in no
event be liable for any direct, indirect, or consequential damages to any
equipment used with any hardware or software sold by Great Valley
Products.
Any software provided is sold or licensed AS IS". The entire risk as
to its quality, performance, or fitness for any particular purpose is assumed
by the buyer. Should the software prove to be defective following purchase,
the buyer assumes the entire cost of all necessary servicing, repair, or
correction of any incidental or consequential damages.
Any statements made by Great Valley Products and its employees,
including but not limited to, statement regarding capacity, suitability, or
performance of the unit shall not be deemed a warranty or representation of
Great Valley Products for any purpose, nor give rise to any liability or
obligation of Great Valley Products.

36

37

Document Conversion Details

Converted by
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Originally Scanned by

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FreeOCR.net
Version 2.6 December 2008
Using Tesseract v2.03
Written by R.Richardson

Omissions
Page 26, (text truncated to Page 25) blank page removed but not
ignored from index.

Notice:
The up most care has gone into creating an exact as possible
reproduction of the original GVP Impact Series II SCSI Controllers User
Guide for both preservation and the digital ease of use.
Please note that there is always the possibility of conversion error and
it is recommend that if unsure of the validity of data represented here to seek
confirmation from the source document.
This conversion is in no way on behest or behalf of GVP international
and is provided AS IS. No one mentioned in this document will be held
liable or responsible for any damage or injury to oneself or hardware as a
result of using this document.

In Conclusion

Long live Amiga!

39