Excerpts from internet.computing.netbsd.port-i386: 23-Sep-95 IDE CD-ROM
support by arthur@netspace.net.au 
> You list Mitsumi CD-ROM drive compatibility for NetBSD, before I bought one
> I checked with their tech people that there had been no recent changes (none)

The Mitsumi drive compatibility that is listed is for the old-style Mitsumi
1x and 2x drives that used a proprietary controller.  Their 4x drives are
IDE-based (using ATAPI), which I don't beleive NetBSD has support for yet.

> They advised that their drives use the IDE hard disc controller "like most 
> other Quad spin Drives" "IDE has become a quasi standard for quad spins" ie 
> NEC etc.

This does seem to be true.  Its too bad, SCSI seems like a better choice
(because it supports disconnection, etc, which I don't think even EIDE
supports).

Your best bet is probably to get a SCSI-2 drive.  The cost is higher, but
its proven technology.  I have an NEC 2x SCSI-1 drive which works fine 
for me under NetBSD, WinNT and Win95 with an Adaptec 1542.

There is ATAPI support for CD-ROM drives on FreeBSD-current and Linux,
so if you really want an ATAPI drive you might look into those or porting
their driver to NetBSD (maybe someone is working on this already?).

alex