SASI device <-> PC ?

[Ethan Dicks]

On 6/30/05, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> I was under the impression that SASI was sufficiently close to SCSI that
> a SCSI interface could talk to a SASI device given the right software. It
> would probably make things simpler if the SASI device and the controller
> were the only things on the bus.

Your postings probably crossed in the aether, but I think that's what
Allison was saying - the interfaces are close, electrically (ISTR
parity was new with SCSI), but there can be some incompatibilies at
the command-set level. - i.e. - changing the firmware for the
controller (or host) can allow one to use the other type of device
from what was originally intended.

To tie this in to what I was saying earlier, I've wanted to recode the
firmware for the D90x0 drives for a number of years, but have never
torn it apart far enough to consider reconstructing it for SCSI, plus
there's the 512-byte/256-byte issue (the D90x0 instructs the SASI
bridge card to format the tracks as 32 256-byte sectors rather than
the more ordinary and more modern 17 512-byte sectors).  That, to my
level of understanding about embedded SCSI drives, is a show-stopper.

-ethan