[comp.sys.next] SCSI cables for NeXTStation

b645zai@utarlg.utarl.edu (Jay Finger) (12/18/90)

Well, my station finally arived.  For those of you keeping track of
deliveries, U.T. Arlington received its first 4 units on 12/14/90.

I've got an 80Meg SCSI-1 drive that I want to add to the station, but I'll
proabably add yet another drive later on, maybe SCSI-2.  Does anybody know
what differences there are between the SCSI-1 and SCSI-2 cables?  I
thought that the only time the two were different was when you added an
additional cable to support the 16-bit and 32-bit wide SCSI-2 buses (which
is optional), and since NeXT's SCSI-2 is still only 8-bit the cable's would
be identical.  And SCSI-2 drives are supposed to be designed so that they
can still plug onto a SCSI-1 bus.  So what give?  I haven't seen these cables
yet, so the difference may be really obvious; I just don't know.

Another related question:  If I get the SCSI-2 cable now, is it OK to use
it with only a SCSI-1 drive, and maybe add the SCSI-2 drive later.
----
#include <stddisclaimer.h>
Jay Finger
Computer Science and Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington
b645zai@utarlg.utarl.edu
finger@csun5.utarl.edu

irv@happym.wa.com (Irving Wolfe) (12/19/90)

Following up on this, does anyone know where to get the SCSI-SCSI2 converter
cables right now?  NeXT says they won't have any until 1991, HSD (the folks
that made my SCSI scanner) say they have some on order (no firm date), and we
can't find them anyplace local.

I _need_ one right away to use the scanner again since I stupidly installed
the upgrade to 68040 and returned the old board before I realized I was in
big trouble.  And if the price were tolerable, I'd take three or so to allow
for extra peripherals being connected later.

Can anyone help?
-- 
 irv@happym.wa.com (Irving_Wolfe)    Happy Man Corp.    206/463-9399 ext.101
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lacsap@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Pascal Chesnais) (12/20/90)

In article <1764@happym.wa.com>, irv@happym.wa.com (Irving Wolfe) writes:
> Following up on this, does anyone know where to get the SCSI-SCSI2 converter
> cables right now?

>  irv@happym.wa.com (Irving_Wolfe)    Happy Man Corp.    206/463-9399 ext.101


call Applied Digital Systems in New York (716) 377 7000 ask for Andy
Ernst... I just bought and connected a shoebox from them onto a NextStation.
Tell him you want a 50 pin micro-scsi to 50 pin centronic for a nextstation.
It is the same cable used by sparcstations and decstations 5000 (note that
the decstation 3100 uses a 68 pin connector and is useless for NeXTs:-) ).
Make sure also to specify the length you want, or they will ship you
a 6' cable which is the maximum length of a scsi bus cable...

I of course have no connections with the company other than having bought
a bunch of diskdrives from them, and a cable that happened to work on a
NextStation.

pasc
ps: the news about NeXT not shipping cables until 91 is really bad, what
about all us folks who want upgrades and actually use external scsi devices?

-- 
Pascal Chesnais, Research Specialist, Electronic Publishing Group
Media Laboratory, E15-348, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge, Ma, 02139 (617) 253-0311
email: lacsap@plethora.media.mit.edu (NeXT)