[SPARCbook] (no subject)

[d neal wise]

On Thu, 9 Nov 2000, Ken Hansen wrote:

> >        Rd capacity block size (512) disagrees with sector size (2048)
> 
> Suns require a differnt block size than most (PC) applications. Sun, SGI and
> other workstations seem to share this requirement...
> 
> The CD-ROM is read in itty-bitty 512 byte blocks *all the time*, AFAIK...

Only recently have I come up with a plextor jumperable SCSI drive. Up
until that point I used a pretty ugly solution to install Sun/Sun-like
stuff at home. About 4 years ago someone was selling thousands of 2x
Toshiba 5106 (i think that's the model.. i'm at work :) that were
originally intended to be dropped into SS10/SS20s (I think) for $10 on
comp.sys.workstations.for-sale (I think that was it. I don't do news
any more unfortunately. the big workstations group). 

I've been using one of those with a ribbon strip that is ended with 50-pin
centronics ends (you know the ones :), a terminator and a centronics to
68-pin "honda" cable. Powered by an old pc case's power supply. I'm sure
several others on this list have such frankensteins hanging around their
home systems. My wife pointed at the pile a few months ago, declared it a
"fire hazard" and gave me purchasing authority (hah) for a better solution
which I got off ebay down here (i'm in .au) for $20 AUD for an 8x with the
jumper. Yeah I could've bought a case for it but i was looking for an
SS10/20 to enclose it in and felt like if I got a case i'd never buy the
SS (which I never did :)

The "sun-bootable cd-rom" scenerio sucks, IMHO, and i'm guessing
originated with a combination of a technical requirement and protectionism
to make sure people use purple gear instead of grabbing a random drive
from a random source.

Anyone know the history of the 512 vs. 2048 decision?

regards,

neal
___________
d neal wise - nwise at spy.net
SPY internetworking  -  will network for food
http://www.spy.net