SRFERGU%ERENJ@PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU (Scott Ferguson) (01/19/91)
Michael Lampi sent me a name/number of a company called Paralan (619) 560-7266. I called them, and they offer exactly that: A SCSI/Fiber Optic converter. You buy two boxes at $1375.00 apiece, and standard AT&T 52.5-micron (or something like that) fiber optic cable, and run it up to 1000 feet with complete transparency. You run two cables between the boxes for bi-directional signals (although ISDN-type telephone systems have an echo canceler circuit which allows bi-directional communication on a single FO cable, maybe REV 2 of their system'll do that). So, for $2750 and the price of 2000 feet of Fiber Optic cable, you can put your hard disk in your next door neighbor's house! There is no degradation in performance whatsoever, according to the sales rep I spoke with. I'm very excited about the product, now I've just got to figure out how to get my sr9.7 DN4000 to talk to a SCSI board. Time to learn GPIO once and for all... Scott Ferguson srfergu@erenj.bitnet