On Fri, 24 May 1996, Michael L. VanLoon -- HeadCandy.com wrote:

> Well, everyone who wants good performance, and is willing to save up
> and spend a little.  :-)  Seriously, SCSI is the way to go if there's
> any way that you can.  But, if you already have IDE and want to use
> it...
> 
> Windows NT 4.0 has an EIDE driver that actually looks like a SCSI
> device to the system.  I think that's an intriguing and promising
> direction to pursue.  If you could put a decent bottom-end EIDE driver
> under the SCSI subsystem, you'd probably have a very nicely functional
> system.  EIDE still has more limitations than SCSI, but this would
> bring it a lot closer.

The same is true of the Amiga4000 and its built in IDE interface.
Commodore went so far as to call the IDE driver `SCSI.device', the same
name they give to all of their other SCSI interface cards.

I have yet to see any software that can tell the difference - formatters,
prepping, disk repair utils, defragmenters, and so on....
 
> Also, remember that not only do you need an EIDE-capable controller,
> but you need drives that can support everything you want to do, as
> well.  A couple 5-year-old 200MB Conners probably aren't going to do a
> helluva lot, even if you get a nice EIDE/SCSI bottom-end driver and a
> fast VLB EIDE controller.

But some people may be installing NetBSD as a 2nd OS, not their primary
one.  They may want to shove it on an old 200 - 300MB drive, or on a few
100MB drives...

> Given this fact, to get the promises of ultimate EIDE performance,
> many people are going to have to spend money on new equipment anyway.
> If you're going to do that, spend a little more and get SCSI.  It
> works better, it's more flexible, it's more "powerful", it's more
> extensible, and it's just more pleasant to work with.

A lot of new motherboards have built in interfaces that support ATA mode 3
drives.  They are practically free equipment on there.  Why not let people
use them?  Some people have better things to spend money on than a $100
SCSI-FAST interface when they have something that will do the job just as
good.

> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>   Michael L. VanLoon                                 michaelv@HeadCandy.com
>         --<  Free your mind and your machine -- NetBSD free un*x  >--
>     NetBSD working ports: 386+PC, Mac 68k, Amiga, Atari 68k, HP300, Sun3,
>         Sun4/4c/4m, DEC MIPS, DEC Alpha, PC532, VAX, MVME68k, arm32...
>     NetBSD ports in progress: PICA, others...
> 
>    Roll your own Internet access -- Seattle People's Internet cooperative.
>                   If you're in the Seattle area, ask me how.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

                       Greg Baldwin (drizzit@eskimo.com)
     Amiga junkie and user since 1987    Computer Science & DTV Student
     Commodore64 fan since about 1983    http://www.eskimo.com/~drizzit
               Tyranical EFNet #Amiga Channel Operator "Drizzit"