50 pin SCSI to 50 pin centronics

From: Don Maslin <donm_at_cts.com>
Date: Wed Apr 11 16:11:23 2001

On Wed, 11 Apr 2001, Russ Blakeman wrote:

> The 50 pin with the hooks on the side is actually referred to as a
> Centronics 50 pin, or SCSI-I (external SCSI as well on older machines before
> SCSI-2 came along)

What are colloquially referred to as Centronics connectors are, I
believe, properly called Ribbon connectors, derived from the name "Blue
Ribbon" that Amphenol gave them originally.
                                                 - don

> Most companies in the way back used either what was cheap or had specials
> made up just to keep you coming to them for cables, connectors, etc. Why
> does Apple had a different AUI port than anyone else? Why are there 9 pin
> and 25 pin RS-232's.....Why is Apple's on an 8pin mini-din?
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org
> > [mailto:owner-classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Tony Duell
> > Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2001 1:53 PM
> > To: classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org
> > Subject: Re: 50 pin SCSI to 50 pin centronics
> >
> >
> > >
> > > What's causing all the confusion here is the nomenclature.
> > First of all,
> > > there's only one Centronics connector I've ever seen and that's
> > a 36-conductor
> > > type. It was made for Centronics, which was at one time, a
> > pretty good printer
> >
> > Are you sure the 36 pin one was _made_ for Centronics? I've seen the 14,
> > 24 and 50 pin ones on equipment a lot older than Centronics printers, and
> > I wouldn't be suprised if the 36 pin one wasn't used somewhere else as
> > well. Back then, it wasn't that common to have a custom connector made up
> > if there was a standard part that would do the job.
> >
> > After all, 36 pins is not an ideal fit for the Centronics interface.
> > IIRC, there are some unassigned pins. If they were going to have it
> > custom-made, they could have had a 30 or 32 pin one made instead.
> >
> > > maker, though the Centronics line was pretty much killed off by
> > the much better
> > > and less costly substitutes imported for the PC market some
> > years before there
> > > even existed any notion of a standard for SCSI. The old SCSI-1 uses a
> > > 50-position connector that looks like the Centronics type.
> > Prior to SCSI fame,
> >
> > Sometimes. Sometimes (and this is in the standard IIRC), SCSI-1 used a
> > DD50 connector.
> >
> > > it was, and still is, widely used in the telecom business. Not
> > being a telecom
> > > type, I'm not aware of a generic name for that type of connector.
> >
> > Nor am I. HP called the 50 pin one a '50 pin Telco connector' at one
> > point. But I've never heard that name used for any of the smaller ones.
> >
> > Over here the catalogues are split between 3 'generic' names for this
> > series of connectors :
> > 'Centronics' (after the most popular use for the 36 pin one)
> > 'IEEE-488' (after the most popular use for the 24 pin one)
> > 'Amphenol' (after the company that IIRC first made them, even though they
> > make many other types of connector).
> >
> > I tend to buy them by stock number :-)
> >
> > > SCSI, however, in its various versions, uses connectors ranging from the
> > > well-known and popular DB25 ( and a special smaller variant for
> > APPLEs ) to the
> >
> > Well, the Mac+ used a normal DB25 for the SCSI port, just with a
> > different pinout to that which some other companies used at about the
> > same time...
> >
> > -tony
> >
>
>
Received on Wed Apr 11 2001 - 16:11:23 BST