mdixon@parc.xerox.com (Mike Dixon) (05/14/91)
like many other pioneers, we're in the position of having a bunch of cubes
upgraded to 040s & 2.0, but without any way of reading next's latest fad
for distribution media (2.88M floppies).
next says we should buy a 3rd party scsi-mounted floppy drive, but judging
from the experiences reported here they're flakey, not perfectly integrated
with the rest of the system, and somewhat overpriced.
it seems to me that we ought to be able to buy one of the floppy
drives next installs in new machines, free up a bay on one machine,
plug it into the controller hardware and power supply that are already
there, and have a 100% compatible cheap floppy drive. of course, we'd
probably have to pull one of our ODs to make room, but we don't really
need one on every machine.
has any one tried this? is there any reason it wouldn't work? why doesn't
next encourage it, instead of promoting the scsi "solution"?
(of course, this would be easier if the opening required for the floppy
drive was exactly the same size as the opening provided for an OD; i'm
hoping that they're close enough that i don't have to hack up the face
plate.)
(i suppose the floppy drive might also require different mounting holes
in the drive bay, but i'm not above drilling a few myself.)
--
.mike.madler@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Mark Adler) (05/14/91)
In article <mdixon.674155679@thelonius> mdixon@parc.xerox.com (Mike Dixon) writes: >next says we should buy a 3rd party scsi-mounted floppy drive, but judging >from the experiences reported here they're flakey, not perfectly integrated >with the rest of the system, and somewhat overpriced. One tends to only see problems on comp.sys.next, not successes. The PLI drive I bought has worked like a charm since I plugged it in (I didn't even read the documentation that came with it), and works very well as a Unix floppy drive. The DOS drivers also work pretty well, but are rather slow and don't always translate dates correctly. The thing is rather expensive for a floppy drive, but I needed floppy transfer right away. >it seems to me that we ought to be able to buy one of the floppy >drives next installs in new machines, free up a bay on one machine, >plug it into the controller hardware and power supply that are already >there, and have a 100% compatible cheap floppy drive. of course, we'd That's what I originally wanted to do, but it after many phone calls, I got the Sony headquarters in the USA that deals with floppy drives (among other things) and the fellow told me that the "X" in MPX-111N (the number of the internal NeXT drives) means experimental, and that is a special part that can't be ordered. There is this 34-pin (if memory serves) berg connector on my 040 upgrade board that's just begging to have a drive plugged into it, but it remains unsatisifed. The drive in my PLI has a different part number (which I don't have handy right now--I can post it on request), and that drive should work in that socket as well, though I haven't tried this. By the way, the drive in the PLI has no power connector, so it apparently gets power through the ribbon cable. Mark Adler madler@pooh.caltech.edu
izumi@mindseye.berkeley.edu (Izumi Ohzawa) (05/14/91)
In article <1991May13.214125.26544@nntp-server.caltech.edu> madler@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Mark Adler) writes: >... There is this 34-pin (if >memory serves) berg connector on my 040 upgrade board that's just >begging to have a drive plugged into it, but it remains unsatisifed. > >The drive in my PLI has a different part number (which I don't have >handy right now--I can post it on request), and that drive should >work in that socket as well, though I haven't tried this. By the way, >the drive in the PLI has no power connector, so it apparently gets >power through the ribbon cable. Wait. As I understand it. The PLI drive and other external floppy drives are SCSI devices, while Sony MPX-111N is NOT. Therefore, I don't think you can plug in the bare drive used in PLI to the socket on the 68040 CPU board. Izumi Ohzawa [ $@Bg_78^=;(J ] USMail: University of California, 360 Minor Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720 Telephone: (415) 642-6440 Fax: (415) 642-3323 Internet: izumi@violet.berkeley.edu NeXTmail: izumi@pinoko.berkeley.edu
madler@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Mark Adler) (05/14/91)
Izumi Ohzawa believes: >> Wait. As I understand it. The PLI drive and other external floppy >> drives are SCSI devices, while Sony MPX-111N is NOT. >> Therefore, I don't think you can plug in the bare drive used >> in PLI to the socket on the 68040 CPU board. The socket for the floppy on the 040 CPU board is not a SCSI port--it is for a raw drive since it goes to an Intel N82077-1 floppy controller chip. Externally, the PLI SuperFloppy 2.8 is a SCSI floppy drive. However, there is a good-sized circuit board inside to interface the raw floppy drive to the SCSI port. This board has a Z8 processor, 32K of ram, 16K of rom, a Zilog SCSI controller chip, and an Intel N82077-1 floppy controller chip--the same one used on my 040 cpu board. The drive, which is a Sony MP-F40W-1Y, connects to this board using the same connector (34-pin berg) as the socket on my 040 board. It seems quite clear that the floppy in the PLI drive is much like, if not identical to, the internal NeXT floppy drives. One of these days I'll plug the puppy in there and see what happens. Mark Adler madler@pooh.caltech.edu