Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!apple!usc!samsung!uunet!auspex!yuping
From: yuping@auspex.auspex.com (YuPing Cheng)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs
Subject: Re: Low Cost IPI-2 Drives?
Message-ID: <5704@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 4 Feb 91 17:35:14 GMT
References: <1991Feb1.113445@mathcs.emory.edu> <248@xstor.UUCP>
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 27

In article <248@xstor.UUCP> billbr@xstor.UUCP (Bill Brothers) writes:
>In article <1991Feb1.113445@mathcs.emory.edu> km@mathcs.emory.edu (Ken Mandelberg) writes:
>] The price of reasonably fast SCSI drives has really come down. 1.2GB
>] drives are well under $3K. However, ....
>
>The Seagate Elite drives are available in the 5.25 inch form-factor.
>However, they are still expensive. You don't get IPI-2 performance
>from a drive for nothing.......
>     Bill Brothers Engineering Mgr.  Storage Dimensions, Inc.

With the exception of 8" IPI drives, most 5 1/4" IPI drives are built with
the same HDA (Head Disk Assembly) as the SCSI drives, therefore, offer exactly
the same performance and quality as the SCSI drives. Only the interface
electronics are different.  The only reason for the IPI drives being expensive
is the low volume production.  To justify its high price, IPI drive
manufacturers double the drive data transfer rate from 3MB per second to
6 MB per second by simply transfering data from two disk recording
heads at the same time and claiming higher performance.  Naturally, the
same game can be played by the SCSI drives too.

In addition, IPI drives do not offer many advanced SCSI functions such
as track buffering, data read ahead, defect management, zero latency read,
and constant density recording, etc. 

You are better off using SCSI drives.

	Yu-Ping Cheng, Auspex Systems Inc.  ycheng@auspex.com