Subject: Re: Can't partition and format Sun3 disk
To: Tom Samplonius <tom@sdf.com>
From: Keith Moore <moore@cs.utk.edu>
List: port-sun3
Date: 12/31/1995 00:10:16
> > >   Doesn't the shoebox use standard SCSI DB50?  So any SCSI 
> > > centronics or mini50 to DB50 cable should work?
> > 
> > 	The Sun3 shoebox uses a DB50.  
> 
>   The key part of my question is whether it is a _standard_ connector, or 
> whether Sun messed with the pin assignment.

Sun did the obvious thing: within a shoebox, they crimped DB-50s onto each end 
of a 50-conductor ribbon cable (the connectors labeled "scsi in" and "scsi 
out") and a 50-pin header onto the middle, then connected the header to the 
SCSI controller.  (It's easier to think of it this way than to figure it out 
by looking at connector pin numbers, because the connector pin numbers don't 
correspond to a linear arrangement of conductors on a ribbon cable.)  
You can also crimp a DB-50 and a 50-pin "centronics" connector on the same 
ribbon cable and all of the SCSI signals end up in the right places.

I do not know whether this is "standard" or not, but every DB-50 SCSI 
connector I've ever seen (some from Sun, some from other sources) was wired 
this way.

Keith