Due to the replies I have received after I sent the SUMMARY, I'll
summarize a summary of summary replies.
Thanks a lot!
Original question: Who knows about a *good* CD writer for OSF/Alpha?
Replies (others than the first SUMMARY):
+ Martin MOKREJS <mmokrejs_at_natur.cuni.cz>
Look in the apha-osf-managers_at_ archive for messages from Thomas
Leitner, on his ftp site is cdwrite package compiled for DU 4.0
+ "V.S. Glukhov" <glukhov_at_sequence.Stanford.EDU>
I want to reproduce his email entirely, he explain very well
the advantages/disadvantages of distinct alternatives:
"A couple of words about my experience with YMI prodicts. I breif, I am
glad I bought their cd studio. The real problem with cd writing on a unix
machine is that this process requires continuous flow of data to the
writer. Once this flow is interrupted your session is over and your
freshly burned cd can be thrown away. Unix is a multi-user, multi-tasking
system and therefore it is very hard to provide this continuous flow of
data. For instance, I had to disable all logins on my sparc during a cd
writing session with gear software. Even so, the failure rate due to
"buffer underflows" was about 10-15%.
With YMI cd studio you are given a small PC that connects to your Alpha
via SCSI. To the Alpha it looks like an Exabyte 8200 tape drive. Inside,
there are a high-speed cd writer, a hard drive and usual pc paraphernalia
like scsi controller etc. YMI software makes an image of the future cd and
dumps it into this little pc hard drive. Then it sends the command to the
cd writer to start taking data from the internal hard drive and burn a cd.
As you can see, unix and cd writing are separated and no "buffer
underflows" can occur.
Problems: like any pc, YMI device can fail. Mine had a faulty power supply
that had a nasty habit of stopping blowing the hot air from the YMI
device. Despite overheating it worked pretty well. I replaced the power
supply with an off-the-shelf one and it works like a charm since. Second,
some cd writers are picky with regard to the cd media. I could not use
cheap maxell blank cd with YMI's yamaha 600 cd writer.
If you can afford the price and the hassles - buy a YMI cd studio. If you
can't - use freeware mkisofs and a separate computer with Yamaha or
Philips cd writer."
VSG
---sram
++ Salvador Ramirez Flandes mailto:sram_at_udec.CL ++
++ Unix/Internet System Administrator
http://www.profc.udec.cl/~sram ++
++ PROFC, UDEC - CHILE Voice: +56 (41) 203737 ++
Received on Wed Aug 12 1998 - 15:00:27 NZST