[comp.periphs] SCSI drives

rademach@tramp.Colorado.EDU (Simon Rademacher) (08/12/89)

I'm a neophyte to hard drives, so skip this article if you're tired of
answering the same beginner questions all the time.





I'm interested in getting a SCSI drive.  Someone told me that drives with 25
pin connectors need controllers while those with 50 pin connectors have the
controllers built in.  This sounds fishy.  I thought all SCSI drives had
controllers--that this was part of their attraction.  Which is the case and
what is the deal with the different # of pins, anyway?

Assuming all SCSI drives have controllers, would a cable be all that is
needed to convert between a 25 pin host adapter and a 50 pin drive, or
vise-versa?  Exactly what is the role of the host adapter (I do have a vague
idea)?  Is it the host adapter that determins how many SCSI devices can be
connected (I've seen 7 and 14)?

Thanks a great deal.  Email would be much appreciated by me and probably
those who are sick of hearing about this.

=======================================
=          Simon Rademacher           =
= rademach%tramp@boulder.colorado.edu =