Idea...

[dalloff@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Dave Althoff)]

Yesterday, I was fuming at a long chain of SCSI devices connected to an
Amiga computer at my workplace, and I was struck with an interesting idea.
On the Amiga, the SCSI chain consists of the SCSI controller and a group
of four hard drives.  But although most of us usually think of SCSI in
terms of hard drives and CD-ROM drives and so forth, SCSI stands for Small
Computer Systems Interface, indicating that it would be a good standard
for other peripherals as well...in fact, it could be argued that the SCSI
standard was developed to provide other platforms (such as Macincrash and
Pee-Cee) with the kind of flexibility we Apple ][ people have in our Seven
Slots (is it a coincidence that SCSI allows up to seven devices?!).

In fact, this is being done by some developers...notice, for instance,
that some scanners connect through the SCSI port.

So I got to thinking...
Why doesn't somebody develop a universal Ethernet interface to conform to
the SCSI standard?  Obviously, I'm thinking in terms of the Apple ][
market, where SCSI interfaces exist, but (for the most part...I wont get
into that discussion...) Ethernet boards do not.  I'm not talking about
connecting machines together in a SCSI chain, but rather some kind of
adapter...Ethernet in/SCSI out.  This would allow machines which do not
have Ethernet capability (such as the old Macs, as well as the ][ series)
to join into the various Ethernet networks.  In fact, it would also be
possible to use such an adapter to form the backbone of a high-speed
Ethernet-like network, capable of higher data rates due to the awesome
transfer rate of SCSI devices.

Now, I'm not the kind of person who can design this sort of thing, so
don't get your hopes up just yet 8-).  But what do you folks think...is
this something we should be pressuring The Industry for?  Or maybe just
watching for?  Hey...look at it this way...it's a larger potential market
than just the A][ world, and if we had this available, we wouldn't even
have to give up a slot for it 8-)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
-- 
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