CompuServe Thread

Richard, I can't help with the first two parts of your question, but SCSI-2 is a new SCSI protocol that may be still in draft form. It was supposed to have been approved recently, but I haven't heard the results for sure. Devices are available now that conform to this new spec, including HDDs of up to 3GB capacities. Benefits are increased speed/thruput, support for more devices and better compatibility, the latter being SCSI-1's nightmare, especially if you really want to take advantage of multiple devices on the SCSI chain. Some subsets of SCSI-2 include Fast SCSI, Wide SCSI and Fast/Wide SCSI, the latter offering a 16/32 bit data path and up to 20/40MB/sec transfer — at a price, as in mucho dineros. For comparison, SCSI-1 and vanilla SCSI-2 are 8-bit, 5MB/sec. And, just to make you uncertain, SCSI-3 is looming on the horizon with longer cable lengths and more devices per chain. There's a good article in the 6/29/93 issue of PC Magazine that goes into a lot more detail if you're interested. It's probably available for download (GO COMPDB, I think, or thru Ziffnet).

Richard– I currently have the setup you describe: NEC CDR-84-1 and PAS-16. I had no trouble hooking it up. In addition to the sound-card drivers that come with the PAS-16, you will need a CDROM driver for the PAS-16 (from Trantor), the vanilla DOS CDROM driver (MSCDEX.EXE), a 50-pin internal SCSI cable, and a cable to connect the audio output of the CDROM drive to the input of the PAS-16. PC Connection sold me a kit containing all the latter odds and ends for $20 when I bought the card and drive from them. (They don't have the most rock bottom prices, but will support you to the wall if you have problems). You'll also need some speakers, of course. If the CDROM is all you want to connect via SCSI, the PAS-16 will do the job just fine — the data rates from the CDROM are not all that high. If you want to connect other devices (e.g., hard drive) via SCSI, you *will* need a real SCSI host adaptor. SCSI-2, as described in a previous answer, is the new faster version of SCSI. Both the PAS-16 and the CDR-84-1 speak SCSI-2. Speaking of model numbers, the -1 indicates the latest version of NEC's drive. I believe it adds multisession Photo CD support, and I'm not sure what all else. Then go download a bunch of .WAV files to play when your PC boots, enters windows, etc. Try CSABLN.ZIP from WINFUN. "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world…" -TS