CompuServe Thread

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Amiga 2000…WHEN?!

10 messages in this thread

#83909From: RON TROYSep 6, 1987 10:55 PM

Hopefully working completely (including scsi)! Enjoy, Ron

#84228From: Glenn NielsenSep 8, 1987 12:27 PM

I'm not sure why the drive wouldn't format past cyl 80 as a SCSI. I would like to know if it was the drive, controller, or software; but it works as an ST 506, and I don't have the time to play with it. <Glenn

#84303From: RON TROYSep 8, 1987 10:17 PM

When you do get the time, it should be well worth the effort to follow up. SCSI should be a step up from st506. Ron

#84361From: Glenn NielsenSep 9, 1987 4:47 PM

Ron, I don't see any advantage to the SCSI side of the HD controller right now. It is rated at twice the data transfer rate of the ST 506 side, but the hardware speed doesn't matter right now with the software bottleneck of the current filehandler. With the rumored update to the filehandler, it may be faster as a SCSI. Just have to wait and see. <Glenn

#84505From: RON TROYSep 10, 1987 9:28 PM

If, if, if, and if! Ron

#84663From: John DraperSep 12, 1987 2:54 AM

Ron, I'm not sure why you think SCSI is a "step up" from ST506. Other than a "higher level" command structure, and perhaps an ability to handle more drives with a standard controller, it doesn't seem to offer anything else. Since the drives themselves are ultimately ST506 drives accessed through an adapter, the speed should be the same. Regards, Larry.

#84695From: Don Curtis/SYSOPSep 12, 1987 11:36 AM

Larry, That's not necessairly ture…some drives have direct SCSI controllers built into them rather than ST506 interfaces and thus (in theory) should be faster than an ST506-SCSI setup. SCSI also offers more than HD hookups, almost any device can be a SCSI device and thus chainable or "networkable" which you can't get from the ST506…or at least not at the present. Don

#84704From: John DraperSep 12, 1987 1:06 PM

Don, I do realize that SCSI will allow other devices, but of course I didn't bother with mentioning that because we were speaking about disk drives. I'll have to look into it a little more concerning data rates though. It would seem to me that the logical thing to do in terms of speed would be to bypass SCSI completely and go directly from ST506 to ESDI, where some real speeds can be realized. Regards, Larry.

#84737From: RON TROYSep 12, 1987 8:07 PM

With a couple messages in between, here's my reply. Even larger systems are now adding scsi adaptors, and it's my understanding that devices like tape drives and laser printers can be scsi driven. Ron

#84747From: John DraperSep 12, 1987 9:08 PM

That is true Ron, and it could be that the biggest selling point of SCSI will be the defacto standardization of that interface. I wonder though, if ESDI might have been a better direction to take, being considerably faster. Regards, Larry.