brian@cbw1.UUCP (Brian Cuthie) (01/05/89)
In article <2793.23E998ED@mailcom.FIDONET.ORG> postmaster@mailcom.FIDONET.ORG (Bernard Aboba) writes: >As a Mac user, I've become very enamored of the SCSI bus. In particular, >I like the ability to attach (and easily remove) hard drives, and other >devices from the bus, and trasport them to other computers. >Now I'm looking into getting a SCSI controller for my PC. I thought that [...] >actually implement the full SCSI standard. Therefore the embedded SCSI >controllers often don't or can't respond to the full SCSI command set. > This is true. Almost NO controllers implement all SCSI commands. For one thing, there are different command sets for different devices, like printers and tapes. There is however a subset called the Common Command Set (CCS). Almost all devices today (especially disks) will handle CCS commands correctly. The full SCSI spec and the CCS are available from: William E. Burr (X3T9.2 Chairman) U. S. Department of Commerce National Bureau of Standards Technology A-216 Gaithersburg, MD 20899 (301) 921 - 3723 -brian -- Brian D. Cuthie uunet!umbc3!cbw1!brian Columbia, MD brian@umbc3.umd.edu
jlohmeye@entec.Wichita.NCR.COM (John Lohmeyer) (01/05/89)
In article <127@cbw1.UUCP> brian@cbw1.UMD.EDU (Brian Cuthie) writes: >The full SCSI spec and the CCS are available from: > > William E. Burr (X3T9.2 Chairman) > U. S. Department of Commerce > National Bureau of Standards > Technology A-216 > Gaithersburg, MD 20899 > (301) 921 - 3723 Thank God you got Bill's old phone number here! He would not appreciate the flood of phone calls. First, Bill is the former Chairman of X3T9.2 (I replaced him last year). Second, neither Bill nor I can provide copies of SCSI or CCS -- the demand is just too great. What follows is part of a file from the SCSI Bulletin Board (316-636-8700) on how to get SCSI standards. You can also get CCS from Global Engineering Documents (ask for "CCS"), although I would recommend getting SCSI-2 instead. Global also sells photocopies (under license with ANSI) of SCSI-1 for $40 (Why pay more for a copy? Global has same-year service. Sorry. Flame off.) ----------- clip here --------- How to Get SCSI Standards This file has information on obtaining the various SCSI standards. American National Standard (ANSI) for Small Computer System Interface (SCSI), X3.131-1986. This approved standard is available from: American National Standards Institute 1430 Broadway New York, NY 10018 Sales Department: (212) 642-4900 The price is $25.00 each for 1-9 copies. Quantity discounts are available. The enhanced Small Computer System Interface (SCSI-2) is not an approved standard. It is a working document of the X3T9.2 Task Group that is intended to revise and enhance X3.131-1986. Copies of the most recent version of this document can be obtained from: Global Engineering Documents 2805 McGaw Irvine, CA 92714 (714) 261-1455 (800) 854-7179 Global has identified this document as X3.131-198X. (The latest revision is Rev 6 with a date of 10/29/88) The European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) has also prepared a standard on SCSI. It is known as: Standard ECMA-111 and was published in December 1985. Free copies are available from: European Computer Manufacturers Association 114 Rue du Rhone 1204 Geneva (Switzerland) (File HOW2GET.TXT last updated 11/14/88) ----------- clip here ---------- John Lohmeyer J.Lohmeyer@Wichita.NCR.COM
postmaster@mailcom.FIDONET.ORG (Bernard Aboba) (02/03/89)
As a Mac user, I've become very enamored of the SCSI bus. In particular, I like the ability to attach (and easily remove) hard drives, and other devices from the bus, and trasport them to other computers. Now I'm looking into getting a SCSI controller for my PC. I thought that this would make it possible to attach Mac SCSI hard drives to the bus, assuming that I could reformat the drives for the PC. As I thought that all SCSI peripherals were supposed to have an embedded controller, they should be interchangeable among computers, only requiring reformatting. I am now told that this isn't the case, because very few manufacturers actually implement the full SCSI standard. Therefore the embedded SCSI controllers often don't or can't respond to the full SCSI command set. Is there someone out there who can explain what commands Macs and PC's can and can't respond to, and can clear up this confusion? As I understand it, no micros implement the device-device communications part of the SPEC.