JOHNBARNES@ENH.NIST.GOV (11/17/89)
In a message to a reader who asks about upgrading his SH204 Hard drive
Ray Wallace piques my curiosity:
1) As a non-SH 204 user I would like to ask what is in the guts of an
SH 204. I assume that it is an Atari Host Adapter with an Adaptec
controller. If this is the case the Seagate drive (say an ST 251)
that would be added on would connect to an extra port on the
controller and would therefore have the same SCSI address as the
original drive but a different LUN number.
2) Might it not also be possible to fashion a daisy-chain cable for the
SCSI connector from the host adapter and go to an embedded SCSI drive?
3)> I am under the impression that ICD's formatting software looks for an
ICD clock at SCSI unit 6 on the bus, a feature that is unique to ICD's
host adapters. Tom Harker told me that this is why they are so
generous in passing out their software, since only owners of ICD host
adapters can use it.
4). The ICD formatting software from ver 4.xxx up is much more user-
friendly than previous versions and is highly to be recommended. I
think that new drives can still be added, but I am not sure of this.
The version 4.2 ICBDBOOT program also aoffers significant advantages
with built-in caching and a fix for the 40-folder problem.
5). Those who are using the HDX program to format drives should be aware
that an updated version is available on most decent BBS's (ver 3.01?)
6). If I were going to do what our correspondent wants to do I would sell my
SH 204 and get an ICD host adapter, a case with a good sturdy power
supply, and a suitable drive (embedded or non-embedded (also needs a
controller). I'll bet that this would be more trouble-free in the
long run. With the ICD host adapter you can also use a longer cable
from the ST to the drive, and this makes a lot of difference.
Wallace's information is certainly nice and clear and quite correct. I am
simply offering another point of view. The tool is called a "vise". A
"vice" is something different.
I subscribe to Steve Goldstein's pledge.
In the June 1989 Current Notes I wrote a column solciting interest in
a professional organization for Atari Users along the lines of DECUS
in the DEC world. This fell on deaf ears in that context and on
GENie, but netland may be more fertile ground.
It would be nice to know how many subscribers INFO-ATARI16 has.
Is there any interest in maintaining a membership roster on one of
the archive sites? Perhaps some of our people could post lengthier
writeups on technical problems like using TeX and TCP/IP software and
hardware for the ST. There are lots of issues like this that could
use a more coherent appraoch than the bulletin board system seems to
offer. Some of these articles might make it into the Atari press.
I'm sure that the people who are paying for all of this net stuff
expect the users to get some solid professional benefit out of it and
it would be nice to see professionalism on the paert of the net users
get a proper airing.