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From: rgc@wam.umd.edu (Ross Garrett Cutler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Floptical from third party
Message-ID: <1990Dec4.044748.14532@wam.umd.edu>
Date: 4 Dec 90 04:47:48 GMT
References: <1990Dec1.152805.27271@vlsi.polymtl.ca>
Sender: usenet@wam.umd.edu (USENET Posting)
Reply-To: rgc@wam.umd.edu (Ross Garrett Cutler)
Organization: University of Maryland at College Park
Lines: 25

In article <1990Dec1.152805.27271@vlsi.polymtl.ca> phil@info.polymtl.ca (test remote acces) writes:
>
> all ,
>
>
>I was wondering if the chip that handle the Floptical that NeXT is shipping
>will be able to handle third party flopticals as well ?
>any idea ?

The VLSI chip that controls the OD in the NeXT is proprietary; it only
works with the Canon OD NeXT chose to use.  Unfortunately, they did
not move toward a SCSI interface, like the rest of the world uses for
OD's.  But this doesn't stop you from putting on a 3rd party OD
(say a Sony ISO drive); you just won't be using their chip (and you won't
be compatible with their cartriages).

BTW, "Floptical" does not refer to an Optical drive; it's a floppy drive
with optical tracking.  Two different technologies...

Hope this helps...Ross.
--
Please email -- I'll summarize.
Ross Cutler
University of Maryland, College Park
Internet: rgc@wam.umd.edu