Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!bellcore!usenet From: usenet@bellcore.bellcore.com (Poster of News) Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi Subject: Re: Are CD ROM drives interchangeable? Summary: Probably not Message-ID: <1990Dec12.192144.1048@bellcore.bellcore.com> Date: 12 Dec 90 19:21:44 GMT References: Reply-To: marc@breeze.UUCP (Marc F Pucci) Distribution: usa Organization: Bell Communications Research, Morristown NJ Lines: 21 tim@gumby.cs.caltech.edu (Timothy L. Kay) writes: >... My question is, do CD ROM drives conform to some >common command set? For example, are they simply treated as regular >disk drives? .... >Tim The CD ROM specification is defined, but experience says the drives aren't all compatible; I played with the Sun CD ROM and the drive doesn't seem to follow the SCSI 2 standard on CD ROM devices (section 13; dated 6/89). I couldn't get the Table of Contents instruction to work, although I know the drive can return such data since it is described in the Sun documentation. I believe Sun had SONY modify the internal drive microcode to fit their mold ofdevice drivers. Has anyone tried any other devices, or found similar experiences? I am waiting for the specs on the DEC drive. Are there other units available? Marc Pucci marc@bellcore.com Bellcore Morristown, NJ