Re: IIGS & floptical drives?

[nathan@cco.caltech.edu (Nathan Mates)]

In article <ajcohen-1202960938490001@ntcs-ip3.uchicago.edu>,
The Fog <ajcohen@quads.uchicago.edu> wrote:

[Lemme answer these out of order...]

>Also, is the Sequential Systems RamFast SCSI card better than Apple's
>high-speed scsi card in terms of performance?

   Heck yes. My boot time got cut by about 15-20 seconds (pretty much
30-50% off) when I switched up from an Apple HS SCSI card to a RamFAST
256K Rev C. With the latest ROMs (3.01e is the latest), the RamFAST
can deal nicely with removable drives such as flopticals/CDs, etc. I
have 3.00l in my RamFAST now, which was one of the first versions to
fully support removable disks.

   You might be able to make certain (physical) modifications to a HS
SCSI board to provide termination power or other gunk if you really
want, but unless you're a hardware freak, this doesn't matter.

>   I was wondering if anybody has any information regarding IIGS's and
>floptical drives: compatibility, what driver software to use, what brand
>of drive, etc.

   The GS should be able to use any form of SCSI Floptical
drive. Tulin (sorry, forget their email address) sold an external one
along with some disks that included drivers for the Floptical and the
Apple HS SCSI card.  With the right ROMs, the RamFAST SCSI card can
access them, no software drivers needed. I initially bought an
external Floptical from Tulin a few years back, but then bought an
internal one (made by Iomega, bought mailorder) for my system. Both
have worked great; it's only that I wanted the drive inside the
minitower I use for my SCSI chain that I switched.

Nathan Mates
-- 
<*> Nathan Mates http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~nathan/      <*>
# And he said to them, "To you has been given the secret of the
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