cmcmanis@stpeter.Eng.Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (08/10/90)
This is an interesting question. Sun now sells a CD-ROM for ~$1000. (less
any discount you can get from your sales critter.) I've played with them
and they are pretty damn fun since they can also play audio CD's and there
is a neat hack that lets you run the CD player "front end" on your workstation.
The question is, is there a market for these things on the Amiga? They
have a scsi connector and talk SCSI, the Sun CD's are in High Sierra
format (as are most I understand). The question is, if there was an
Amiga driver for this guy would you consider buying one?
--
--Chuck McManis Sun Microsystems
uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: <none> Internet: cmcmanis@Eng.Sun.COM
These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.
"I tell you this parrot is bleeding deceased!"seanc@pro-party.cts.com (Sean Cunningham) (08/11/90)
In-Reply-To: message from cmcmanis@stpeter.Eng.Sun.COM If it is close to, or below the $1K mark...AND it could run all of the CD titles coming out for "Baby," I don't see why not...competition keeps businesses on their toes :") Sean //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// UUCP: ...!crash!pnet01!pro-party!seanc | ARPA: !crash!pnet01!pro-party!seanc@nosc.mil | " Fanatics have their INET: seanc@pro-party.cts.com | dreams, wherewith they | weave a paradise for RealWorld: Sean Cunningham | a sect. " Voice: (512) 994-1602 PLINK: ce3k* | -Keats | Call C.B.A.U.G. BBS (512) 883-8351 w/SkyPix | B^) VISION GRAPHICS B^) \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) (08/13/90)
In <7741@gollum.twg.com>, david@twg.com (David S. Herron) writes: >In article <140444@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> cmcmanis@stpeter.Eng.Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) writes: >>The question is, is there a market for these things on the Amiga? They >>have a scsi connector and talk SCSI, the Sun CD's are in High Sierra >>format (as are most I understand). The question is, if there was an >>Amiga driver for this guy would you consider buying one? > >If that's the same format as the Oxford English Dictionary disk >(and for that matter, all the other CD ROM's out there for IBM-PC's) >then > > **YES**! Welp, it is.... and it isn't... Most of the CD-ROMs out are indeed High Sierra and/or ISO 9660 (some small differences between these two standards). However, many of them also require software that will decode (uncompress) the contents, and a 'search engine' to look for the goodies. Unfortunately, a lot of companies do not make their data formats public, nor do they write the search engines for anything other than IBM or Mac (sometimes both on the same disk, sometimes one or the other only). I do think this will change, once a CD-ROM becomes available for the Amiga, and once it becomes a popular item. As with anything like this, it is a chicken-and-egg situation for most of the CD-ROM publishers, or those who would make CD-ROM drives available. This is why it is so important to have a CD-ROM available that will sell fairly well; one that will cause folks to go out and buy a drive. Personally, I think that a _fully_ indexed Fred Fish collection, whether it be on 1 disk or 3, along with a good search engine, would be the catalyst that starts the ball rolling (or the CD-ROM spinning). -larry -- Sex is better than logic, but I can't prove it. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | // Larry Phillips | | \X/ lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca -or- uunet!van-bc!lpami!lphillips | | COMPUSERVE: 76703,4322 -or- 76703.4322@compuserve.com | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
david@twg.com (David S. Herron) (08/13/90)
In article <140444@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> cmcmanis@stpeter.Eng.Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) writes: >The question is, is there a market for these things on the Amiga? They >have a scsi connector and talk SCSI, the Sun CD's are in High Sierra >format (as are most I understand). The question is, if there was an >Amiga driver for this guy would you consider buying one? If that's the same format as the Oxford English Dictionary disk (and for that matter, all the other CD ROM's out there for IBM-PC's) then **YES**! -- <- David Herron, an MMDF weenie, <david@twg.com> <- Formerly: David Herron -- NonResident E-Mail Hack <david@ms.uky.edu> <- <- Sign me up for one "I survived Jaka's Story" T-shirt!
nraoaoc@nmt.edu (NRAO Array Operations Center) (08/13/90)
In article <7741@gollum.twg.com> david@twg.com (David S. Herron) writes: >In article <140444@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> cmcmanis@stpeter.Eng.Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) writes: >>The question is, is there a market for these things on the Amiga? They >>have a scsi connector and talk SCSI, the Sun CD's are in High Sierra >>format (as are most I understand). The question is, if there was an >>Amiga driver for this guy would you consider buying one? > >If that's the same format as the Oxford English Dictionary disk >(and for that matter, all the other CD ROM's out there for IBM-PC's) >then > > **YES**! Chuck raises a very good point, but one thing many people do not seem to be aware of is that most CD-ROM databases are the same for IBM-PC, Sun, or Mac's. That is you can take the same CD-ROM disk of a NASA X-ray source catalog, or of an EPA (or whichever federal agency) catalog of hazardous materials, (to name two that I have looked at), and read it on the Sparc Stations, the PC's or the Mac's here at the observatory. The software on the individual systems is different, of course - the quality of sotware in descending order is Sun -> MacII -> PC - but one uses the same data disk. However, the readers are expensive, hence Chuck's point about the cost. Pat Palmer (email: ppalmer@nrao.edu)
jerry@truevision.com (Jerry Thompson) (08/15/90)
SCSI CD ROM driver for Amiga? Tell me more.
lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) (08/26/90)
In <1199@tardis.Tymnet.COM>, jms@tardis.Tymnet.COM (Joe Smith) writes: >In article <1885@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca> lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) writes: >>Well, it can (and should) be made compatible with existing data disks, as far >>as the file system format is concerned; that is, it can be made conformant to >>the High Sierra or ISO 9660 specs. > >Question: Does the CD-ROM file system look exactly like an AmigaDOS file >system, or is it just somewhat compatible? Well, depends on what you mean by the 'CD-ROM' file system. If you are referring to the High Sierra or ISO-9660 file system, then no, it does not look much like the Amigados file system. Bear in mind that a file system could be written to be Amigados file system compatible, and to do any necessary fiddling to make it work with the different block sizes of CD-ROM. >After seeing how Sun is distributing SunOS-4.1 on CD-ROM, I get the impression >that the standard for CD-ROMs have a different limitation in the length of >a file name, have a more restricted set of characters allowed in a file name, >and have a limitation on the number of periods in a file name. Also, the >standard format of CD-ROM for MS-DOS and Macintosh don't handle Unix >protection bits, much less the AmigaDOS protection bits. It looks like a file name may have up to 31 character, which may contain a file name, a file name extension, and a file version number. This means we may have two separators. I know, brain dead. I haven't looked at the ISO-9660 spec yet, so we can only hope someone saw fit to make this a little more versatile. >In other words, to store the contents of an entire Amiga floppy on CD-ROM and >preserve all the AmigaDOS attibutes requires using something like ZOO or >LHARC. Not all of the files in the current Fred Fish collection could be >stored on CD-ROM as simple files because some of the file names have illegal >characters. Both volume and file attributes are provided for. Again, an Amiga specific CD-ROM need not be in High Sierra or ISO-9660 format. -larry -- It is not possible to both understand and appreciate Intel CPUs. -D.Wolfskill +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | // Larry Phillips | | \X/ lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca -or- uunet!van-bc!lpami!lphillips | | COMPUSERVE: 76703,4322 -or- 76703.4322@compuserve.com | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
jms@tardis.Tymnet.COM (Joe Smith) (08/26/90)
In article <1885@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca> lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) writes: >Well, it can (and should) be made compatible with existing data disks, as far >as the file system format is concerned; that is, it can be made conformant to >the High Sierra or ISO 9660 specs. Question: Does the CD-ROM file system look exactly like an AmigaDOS file system, or is it just somewhat compatible? After seeing how Sun is distributing SunOS-4.1 on CD-ROM, I get the impression that the standard for CD-ROMs have a different limitation in the length of a file name, have a more restricted set of characters allowed in a file name, and have a limitation on the number of periods in a file name. Also, the standard format of CD-ROM for MS-DOS and Macintosh don't handle Unix protection bits, much less the AmigaDOS protection bits. In other words, to store the contents of an entire Amiga floppy on CD-ROM and preserve all the AmigaDOS attibutes requires using something like ZOO or LHARC. Not all of the files in the current Fred Fish collection could be stored on CD-ROM as simple files because some of the file names have illegal characters. Could someone please post an overview of the current CD-ROM standards? At least, outline the differences between the High Sierra File System and AmigaDOS. -- Joe Smith (408)922-6220 | SMTP: jms@tardis.tymnet.com or jms@gemini.tymnet.com BT Tymnet Tech Services | UUCP: ...!{ames,pyramid}!oliveb!tymix!tardis!jms PO Box 49019, MS-C51 | BIX: smithjoe | 12 PDP-10s still running! "POPJ P," San Jose, CA 95161-9019 | humorous dislaimer: "My Amiga speaks for me."
R38@psuvm.psu.edu (Marc Rifkin) (08/31/90)
ISO 9660 is an internationally recognized format for CD-ROMs. It's architecture is different than AmigaDOS, as it is optimized for a non-writeable medium. To the Amiga, it is just another filesystem, like the old FS, FFS, MSDOS (if you've ever used Cross-Dos), etc. By using ISO 9660, the Amiga is at least filesystem compatible with most CD-ROMs- of course it can't run other computers' software, but the access to data files is there for Amiga native software to use. Marc Rifkin, R38@PSUVM