Original question:
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I have an easy for you: We have an Alphastation 500 workstation. It has
a fast-wide SCSI. We have a wide internal disk and the standard CD-ROM
(Toshiba?). I'd like to connect a *narrow* fast SCSI device to the SCSI
bus (external). I do not plan to use external wide devices. Pre-sales
statements:
A. No, it does not work (can't mix wide and narrow), and will not in the near
future
B. Works with a special adapter
C. Works with a cable that goes from the 68pin connector (back of the machine)
to the centronics that I have on the external drive (BN32-W-01)
Which is the right answer?
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As it seems all of them are correct in special cases:
1. With differential SCSI, you need a special converter (DWZZA) that does
the trick.
2. With single ended, you can 'mix' (to be more precise: you can have
wide devices and put narrow ones *after* them -- the wide->narrow
cable is a one-way conversion).
In the case of the ALphaStation 500 it's the easy way, based on the answers.
Many people reported that they actually do this, so this box seems to
have a single ended wide SCSI controller (my SCSI terminator that came
with the box explicitly has 'single ended' written on it -- also the
20M/sec peak may suggest single ended).
As it stands now, I will just give it a try.
Thanks to:
warren_at_atmos.washington.edu (David Warren)
alan_at_nabeth.cxo.dec.com
spider_at_umd5.umd.edu (Jeffrey S. Jewett)
em_at_icess.ucsb.edu (Ed Mehlschau)
webster_at_ssdgwy.mdc.com (Tom Webster)
Gyula
P.S.: All this is strictly for the ALphaStation 500 -- other boxes may
have differential wide SCSI (like the 8400), in which case you do need
the converter box.
Received on Tue Jul 02 1996 - 22:44:37 NZST