[rescue] Macs & IDE vs. SCSI

[Dave McGuire]

On Saturday, April 12, 2003, at 03:23 PM, Phil Stracchino wrote:
>> [IDE] will never escape, for example, the silly master/slave
>> thing...
>
> Actually, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Serial ATA a 
> point-to-point
> connection with no master/slave distinction?  (Or are you not counting
> Serial ATA as IDE?)

   As far as I know, you're correct...but this basically boils down to 
one drive per bus, neatly sweeping a very nasty design flaw under the 
rug.

> That said, yes, IDE master-slave configuration is and always has been a
> pain in the ass, especially back in the days when getting devices from
> different manufacturers to play nice together on the same IDE channel
> frequently required black magic and blood sacrifices (and occasionally
> would only work one way around, and sometimes just wouldn't work at 
> all,
> period).  Just let me set the drive's address and have done with it,
> thank you very much.

   Yup, correct design in the first place.

   I firmly believe that the universe gives us clues here & there...and 
that all too often, those clues are ignored.  With IDE, you have to 
modify one of the major aspects of its design...ignore the master/slave 
thing and put one drive on each bus...in order to gain any useful level 
of performance.  There's a message there.

       -Dave

--
Dave McGuire             "My belly these days is too substantial
St. Petersburg, FL           for most hosiery."       -Robert Novak