xerox@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (James Osborne) (10/03/89)
A friend of mine just purchased a LaCie 70 meg hard disk. I noticed that it does not have the standard SCSI connectors on back. Instead, it uses 2 femal 25 (?) pin connecors (identical to those on the back of the mac). Might this non-standard architecture cause problems with compatibility? (especially if you had to replace the Mac to LaCie cable...) James.Osborne@mac.dartmouth.edu
jalden@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Joshua M. Alden) (10/04/89)
In article <15901@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> xerox@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (James Osborne) writes: > A friend of mine just purchased a LaCie 70 meg hard disk. I noticed that >it does not have the standard SCSI connectors on back. Instead, it uses >2 femal 25 (?) pin connecors (identical to those on the back of the mac). > >Might this non-standard architecture cause problems with compatibility? >(especially if you had to replace the Mac to LaCie cable...) > >James.Osborne@mac.dartmouth.edu Not that I've seen. I've had a La Cie for about a year now, and I have yet to notice any incompatibility because of cables (or any other compatibility for that matter). Furthermore, I used to sell the little devils, and none of my customers reported any incompatibility problem. I assume that you're talking software. The rub is when you want to daisy-chain another hard drive onto the La Cie. The way I do it then is to connect the La Cie to the Mac, and then chain the other drives off the La Cie. Seems to work fine. In fact, I happen to think that the 25-pin connector cable that the La Cie has is a better idea all around, since that's the connector in the back of the Mac. As someone who works at Dartmouth repairing peoples' hard drives, and therefore hooking them up and unhooking them alot, it would be wonderful if there were only one kind of connector and hence only one kind of cable. For the technical folks out there: Is there a reason for the 50-pin SCSI connection that seems to be standard? -- /--------------------------------------------------+-------------------------\ |Josh Alden, Consultant, Kiewit Computation Center | HB 48, Dartmouth College| | Private mail: Joshua.Alden@dartmouth.edu | Hanover, NH 03755 | | Virus mail: Virus.Info@dartmouth.edu | (603) 640-5734 |
pcolby@kitten.prime.com (Peter Colby) (10/07/89)
In article <15917@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> jalden@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Joshua M. Alden) writes: > > In fact, I happen to think that the 25-pin connector cable that the >La Cie has is a better idea all around, since that's the connector in >the back of the Mac. As someone who works at Dartmouth repairing >peoples' hard drives, and therefore hooking them up and unhooking them >alot, it would be wonderful if there were only one kind of connector >and hence only one kind of cable. > > For the technical folks out there: Is there a reason for the 50-pin >SCSI connection that seems to be standard? > yes, it IS the standard (as defined in the ANSI standard for SCSI). In fact, as has been mentioned many times before on the net, the mac's DB25 SCSI is highly NON-standard. However, as far as I know, the TYPE of 50 pin connector to use for SCSI is not defined in the standard. The Centronics style connector seems to be as close to a default standard as anything though I have also seen a DB50 used as well as an IDC style connector. Peter Colby = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = UUCP: {sun,decvax,linus}!cvbnet!pcolby ||| "We has met the enemy and he is us." UUCP: pcolby@robbie.prime.com ||| Pogo CSNET: pcolby@robbie.prime.com |||