non-SCSI disks on a SCSI disk interface (was Re: Space, the next frontier)

From: Frank McConnell <fmc_at_reanimators.org>
Date: Wed May 26 16:51:59 1999

ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote:
> Most later workstations had SCSI interfaces for the hard disk (even if
> they then broke that by insisting on an ST506 drive on the other side of
> a SCSI->ST506 interface, as ICL and Torch both did). Some older

Sun did this too. It wasn't 'til SunOS 4.0 that the SCSI-disk driver
would actually talk to SCSI disks. Before that, it wanted to talk to
an Adaptec ACB4000 or an Emulex MD21 (for ESDI disks).

I think I remember reading somewhere that this was done because the
SCSI-to-whatever interface had the intelligence for bad-block
remapping. But I wouldn't be surprised to find that the cost of the
drives had something to do with it; I remember Amiga folks scheming to
use ACB4000 boards with their SCSI interfaces because it was cheaper
than buying a SCSI disk, and I've opened a few Mac SCSI hard disk
boxes to find the same sort of thing inside.

-Frank McConnell
Received on Wed May 26 1999 - 16:51:59 BST