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

From: CLASSICCMP_at_trailing-edge.com <(CLASSICCMP_at_trailing-edge.com)>
Date: Wed May 26 19:26:47 1999

>I've had decent results with the ADAPTEC 4070's too. What I'm mainly
>interested in is having a boxed drive, in this case, complete with bridge
>controller, which moves from system to system, as I do with my native SCSI
>drives. Unfortunately, there aren't any MFM/RLL drives big enough to be
>interesting.

Someone should correct me if I'm wrong (I'd be interested in knowing that
I'm wrong!), but the largest capacity MFM geometry is that of the Maxtor
XT2190 (1024 cylinders * 15 heads), giving you just under 150 Mbytes (M=10**6)
after formatting at 19 sectors/track. And the RLL version gets
another 30% or so of capacity.

Hitachi ESDI drives are available up to 1.5Gbytes or so, and work well on
Emulex ESDI<->SCSI controller.

All the above was assuming you meant size=capacity. If you meant
size=cubic feet or pounds, I'm sure you could put a 14" CDC SMD drive
on the other side of a SMD<->SCSI controller.

Of course, large embedded-controller SCSI drives are readily available on the
surplus market these days. 9 Gbyte drives start below $150.00, and
2 Gbyte drives seem to get around $40.

-- 
 Tim Shoppa                        Email: shoppa_at_trailing-edge.com
 Trailing Edge Technology          WWW:   http://www.trailing-edge.com/
 7328 Bradley Blvd		   Voice: 301-767-5917
 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817           Fax:   301-767-5927
Received on Wed May 26 1999 - 19:26:47 BST

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