SMD (was Re: All things ESDI)

[der Mouse]

> If we want to get into the "drive interfaces that were the next big
> thing but never quite caught on in the wide world", we can start
> talking IPI :-).

Oh, that brings back memories.

Back when our SPARCserver 470s were new, I think we had IPI disk on
them.

> IPI cabling looks a lot like SCSI cabling but that's about all I can
> say about the interface standard.

Well, a lot like Sun SCSI cabling of the time, in that it used DD-50
connectors.  But the cables were DD50M on one end and DD50F on the
other, unlike the SCSI DD50M on each end.  Similarly, each drive had a
DD50F and a DD50M, instead of the SCSI way of 2xDD50F on drives.  I
remember noticing this specifically because it was the only obvious
difference between the IPI cables and short SCSI cables.

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