[SPARCbook] (no subject)

[Ken Hansen]

I think it is an attempt to make the CD-ROM appear to the system as a tape
drive... To leverage the existing code inside the OpenBoot PROM...

That is what I heard, and I choose to believe it - but I would be happy to
be corrected by someone who really knows the answer...

HTH,

Ken

(PS there is a firm in Pittsburgh, PA selling PentiumPro SCSI cases with 6x
plextor drives included for $89 + S/H... Don't know about international
shipping though... Bill bought a few and reported that he was *very* pleased
with his purchases! See http://www.computerfriend.com/ )


----- Original Message -----
From: "d neal wise" <nwise at spy.net>
To: <sparcbook at sunhelp.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 09, 2000 9:58 PM
Subject: Re: [SPARCbook] (no subject)


> 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
>
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