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From: ianm@qualcomm.com (Ian McCloghrie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc,comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: Re: IDE bad? was Re: List of recommended hardware components
Date: 6 Feb 1995 16:09:45 -0800
Organization: QUALCOMM, Incorporated; San Diego, CA, USA
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Message-ID: <ianm.792114880@eldritch>
References: <3g890k$cbl@ionews.io.org> <3gjhe1$ced@pentagon.io.com> <3gm6rh$moc@newsflash.concordia.ca> <D3AvMr.JL0@bonkers.taronga.com> <mreg.137.00270D6C@panix.com> <3h5qop$9t2@park.uvsc.edu>
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Terry Lambert <terry@cs.weber.edu> writes:

>mreg@panix.com (Mitchell Regenbogen) wrote:
>] I'm not saying run out and buy Conner, but the idea that IDE is "WORSE than 
>] MFM or RLL" is ludicrous.  IDE was the basis of a virtual revolution in the 
>]hard drive industry, bringing larger, faster, easier to connect hard drives to
>] millions of computer users.  And it was and is certainly more "interoperable"
>] than SCSI or ESDI.

In what way is IDE more "interoperable" than SCSI?  SCSI has, for
years, been the de facto standard for hard disk interfacting on
all small computers except for the PC architecture.  Amigas, Macs,
and just about every unix workstation there is all used SCSI.
SCSI didn't require you to entire esoteric drive geometries into
the BIOS in order to work, it's got a much longer allowable bus
length, and standards for connecting external drives.  It's got
support for tapes and cdroms, and you can even connect two computers
together with a SCSI bus.

IDE is a specification for how to let a drive talk to an ISA AT bus.
It is good enough for many applications, and its comparative pricing
makes it a the right choice for single-user PCs and smaller PC-unix
systems.  It's certainly better than MFM or RLL.  But it is in no
way more interoperable than SCSI.

--
Ian McCloghrie    work: ianm@qualcomm.com     home: ian@egbt.org
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  \bi/   L+++ 3 E+ N++ K--- !W--- M-- V-- -po+ Y+ t+ 5+++ jx R G''''
   \/    tv- b+++ D- B--- e- u* h- f+ r n+ y*

The above represents my personal opinions and not necessarily those
of my employer, Qualcomm Inc.