[comp.sys.mac] Can a Mac talk to a Sun SCSI Hard Drive?

quinnt@rpics (Tom Quinn) (02/15/89)

Does anyone know if it is possible to use a Sun SCSI drive on a Mac?
I seem to recall there being a list of differences between Apple's
implementation of SCSI and other implementations.  If this has been
discussed here before, could someone please e-mail a summary of the
discussion?

Thanks.
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Thomas F. Quinn					quinnt@turing.cs.rpi.edu
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Computer Science Department

pcolby@kitten.prime.com (Peter Colby) (02/16/89)

In article <596@rpi.edu> quinnt@turing.cs.rpi.edu (Tom Quinn) writes:
>
>Does anyone know if it is possible to use a Sun SCSI drive on a Mac?

Yes, it is possible to use a Sun SCSI drive on a Mac. Sun does not make
either their drives or their controller boards as far as I know. What they
use for SCSI are embedded SCSI drives (like the CDC WREN III) or standard
ST502 drives with an Adaptec 4000A (or 4070) controller. The WREN III and
similar drives may not boot on the beige Plusses but any drive using an
Adaptec controller will work perfectly on all Macs.

As far as the Macs SCSI not being "standard", the only differences I
know of are the foolish DB25 SCSI port on the back of the machine (instead
of a 50 pin connector) and the fact that the Mac (Plus anyway) doesn't do
either DMA or allow the "reconnection" sequence.

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wert@cup.portal.com (robert scott comer) (02/21/89)

Why would you want to put a sun drive on a mac? They are big an ugly and
noisy! I suppose of someone left a 140 meg shoebox on my doorstep I would
plug it in...

All you gotta do is wire up the cables. If you want a pin out or help,
drop me a line, I've done this a couple of times.

For anyone who is tired of paying outrageous prices for sun disks, use
a mac one instead. They work great, cost much much less.

scott out