[rescue] Netapp quad ethernet, also sbus FDDI card

[James Sharp]

> Also, I picked up a SBUS FDDI/S DAS 5.0 card (370-3143) which has two
> fiber ports and a mini-DIN (6-pin) plug on the backplane. What's the
> mini-DIN for?

Optical bypass.  you plug an external "Switch" into the minidin, then plug
your fiber into it...then plug fiber from it into the ports on the card.
That way, if something happens to that particular node, it can isolate
itself from the ring or keep the ring from collapsing.

>
> I'm almost tempted to try finding some more FDDI stuff and play with it. I
> also saw an SBUS CDDI card but since I don't run EISA, my copper FDDIlink
> cards are probably far down in the piles-o-mire... so I didn't ponder
> getting it.

CDDI is good food.  99.5% of my stuff at home is CDDI.  Its so much easier
to string cat5 around instead of having to pull fiber.  Its not quite as
interference resistant as fiber, but it works pretty damn well.