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From: berger@datacube.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.periphs
Subject: Wanted: SCSI Disks for Sun3's
Message-ID: <104400007@datacube>
Date: Fri, 25-Sep-87 18:12:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: datacube.104400007
Posted: Fri Sep 25 18:12:00 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 27-Sep-87 10:14:14 EDT
Lines: 40
Nf-ID: #N:datacube:104400007:000:1971
Nf-From: datacube.UUCP!berger    Sep 25 18:12:00 1987


Well  I  have  not  heard  anything  from  anyone  on  the  net about
connecting generic SCSI peripherals to Sun's.  

I want to add Disk and Tape to Sun 3 computers.   I would  like to do
it with as little pain as possible and the priceing should be in line
with the cost of the computer.   Currently  if I  get a  Sun 3/50 for
under  $5k,  I  have  to  pay  $8k  for 140Meg  Disk and  60 Meg tape
subsystem.  The  amount of  disk is  barely enough  and the subsystem
cost much more than the computer.  

The question is:  Can I hook generic SCSI  peripherals up  to the Sun
3's SCSI port?  I've been told by one  source that  we could purchase
Maxstor disks and either  Emulex or  Adaptec SCSI  controllers and it
should  all plug  and play  with the  standard sun  drivers.  Another
source though, said that there IS some magic in the firmware Sun uses
in  the SCSI  controlers in  their shoebox  disk subsystems.   If you
don't  have  the  special firmware,  you will  have some intermittant
errors.  Is this true?  

Another  possibility  would  be  to  take  one of  these lovely large
capacity winchester from Maxstor,  Rodine, Toshiba,  or Fujuitsu that
have built in  SCSI interfaces  and hook  them up  to the  Sun 3 SCSI
ports and have them work with the standard  Sun drivers?   This would
be a very cost effective solution.  

Has anyone successfully done any of the above?  Are there any tricks?

One last thing I'm looking for is an alternative source  for VME SCSI
interfaces  that  is  compatable  with  the  one  Sun  uses  in their
3/{140,110,160,260,280}  seires.    Or  a  company that  makes a high
performace SCSI VME interface that comes with drivers  that are known
to work with Suns.  

				Bob Berger 

Datacube Inc. Systems / Software Group	4 Dearborn Rd. Peabody, Ma 01960
VOICE:	617-535-6644;	FAX: (617) 535-5643;  TWX: (710) 347-0125
UUCP:	berger@datacube.COM,  ihnp4!datacube!berger
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