c60a-1cu@e260-1d.berkeley.edu (11/14/88)
I had another idea after reading a few articles.... Everyone seems to agree that this system should have a SCSI port on board....It also seems that most people here already own a Mac or PC. Then I realized -- Why not make the system a SCSI-based expansion box ? That is -- Every Mac => Mac+ has a SCSI port, and they cost about $50 to add to a PC (or you can build your own -- SCSI is 1 chip + address decoders and other (minor) glue...[I'm not a PC bus expert, so I don't know how much glue there needs to be, but it can't be that much...] If you don't feel comfortable building a SCSI board for the PC, you probably shouldn't consider building a NS32x32 from scratch, either.) This way the (unnamed) NS32x32 system (with some software on the host side) could share the hard disk you currently own (or upgrade to :-), as Unix tends to be on the large side :-)). SCSI is also fast enough (peak > 1Mbyte/s, if you're fast enough) to handle bitmap graphics.... In my opinion, this is probably the best compromise between building a PC-size compatible motherboard, etc, and building a PC addon card. The system could still use a PC chassis, power suppy, etc., but it would be more universal, as the Atari ST's DMA port is almost SCSI, and SCSI ports are available to Amiga owners, so this system would work in concert to whatever anybody already owns.... Note: I'm not saying that a SCSI port should be the system's ONLY I/O, a couple serial ports and a parallel port would be nice, too. Keyboard port remains optional.....(PC-clone keyboard, that is) Drew Dean Internet: c60a-1cu@web.berkeley.edu UUCP: ...!ucbvax!web!c60a-1cu FROM Disclaimers IMPORT StandardDisclaimer;