Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!jtkohl From: jtkohl@MIT.EDU (John T Kohl) Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec Subject: Re: CD-ROM readers on DECstation Message-ID: <1990Mar9.190225.6280@athena.mit.edu> Date: 9 Mar 90 22:01:00 GMT References: <9867@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> Sender: news@athena.mit.edu (News system) Distribution: na Organization: MIT Project Athena Lines: 31 In-Reply-To: eric@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu's message of 8 Mar 90 14:53:47 GMT In article <9867@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> eric@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Eric Fielding) writes: > We have a CD-ROM reader attached to a IBM PC-AT via a SCSI board. I have > been wondering if it would be possible to connect it to our DECstation 3100. It should "work" "out of the can". I have tested a read-write optical CD on my DS3100 with no problems. > Presumably there is a low-level > driver (perhaps the "generic SCSI driver of Ultrix 3.1?", Yep, the Ultrix driver works fine. > but then is there > also a higher-level program needed? We have lots of CD-ROMs now that are > readable under DOS (I think this means the so-called "High Sierra" format), > what do these look like to an U*ix machine? My guess is that they will look like large files with a strange data encoding format. Since they're obviously not Unix/Ultrix file systems, you will initially only be able to access them via something that interprets the format in user code. You could write a file-system-switch entry to support the High Sierra format if you wished; then you could link this into your Unix kernel and eventually do something like mount -t high-sierra /dev/rz?c /cd-rom and look at the files in a "normal" fashion. -- John Kohl or Digital Equipment Corporation/Project Athena (The above opinions are MINE. Don't put my words in somebody else's mouth!)