From: oneil@worf.arc.nasa.gov.arc.nasa.gov (Don O'Neil)
Subject: RE: SCSI & Accelerator
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 16:12:13 PST
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In regards to the questions about SCSI costs and obsolesence (a RE to Will
McGoverns SCSI comments) and the Accelerator, I respond with the following:

Being one of the designers of the WHT SCSI (as well as being the owner of
WHT) I can answer any questions you have in regards to it. The price of
the WHT SCSI is $170, and is currently available for sale through Bud Mills
Services or WHT.

WHT can be reached at:

WHT 
10225 Jean Ellen Drive
Gilroy, CA 95020
(408)-848-5947

SCSI is the future for mass storage. It is WIDELY accepted on computer systems
and ANSI is trying hard (and so for succeeded) to keep all revisions
backwards compatible. If you buy a SCSI peripheral for your TI, rest assured
it will work on your MAC, PC, AMIGA or UNIX workstation with the appropriate
drivers.
Not all SCSI peripherals are expensive. You can purchase USED 20 MB hard drives
(SCSI of course) for $80-$100, well within the reach of most TIers, and new
52 MB units only run $200.
SCSI is a performace BUS, with calculated thruput rates on the TI in excess of
100k a second (MUCH faster than the HFDC) and built in CACHE on EVERY drive 
(it's an ANSI requirement) you will be GUARANTEED better performance than it'e
MFM or IDE counterpart.
CD's are in our future. I've spoken with several mftr's and read articles on 
CD Rom authoring. A single CD run costs approximately $1000 for 100 disks plus
the master, for $20 a disk, it is WELL worth the cost of making a "master"
fareware disk, I'm sure you could sell more than 50 to recover your costs,
maybe not today, but in a year or two when CD ROM's are more prevelant with 
people who own both TI and PC's. 
You need to understand that the SCSI is ONE project, and NOT 10. It's true that
SCSI can support a number of different features, but the primary use of the
SCSI card is for a RELIABLE hard drive interface. For about $250, the average
TI user (who allready owns a floppy drive or 2) can expand his system to 
a 20 MB used SCSI drive and NEW WHT SCSI Controller card. If he/she wishes,
they could expand to higher performace SCSI Floppies and gain speed, storage
space (up to 3.6 MB per floppy) and IBM file compatiblity. You cannot and
will not get this any other way. 

As for the accelerator, it's dead. Due to complications in TI's console design
it was not feasable for the average user to install the device. It required
over 30 lines to be installed, traces to be cut and the like. The cost was TOO
high, and the returns TOO low. We have discontinued the Accelerator and        
returned all checks sent to us. We are NOT giving up on the idea of a faster
4a though. We are working on other alternatives to speading up your system.
Most likely these will be in a standalone configuration and not in a       
upgrade to the current console. We cannot release any information about this
product at this time.

TI writer works great with the HP Laser Jet series. I own a LJ IIP+ and use it
to print out all my stuff from TI Writer. The commands are nearly identical
(for 99% of the formatting) but graphics is not supported. If I wanted,
I could purchase an EPSON emulation cart for my LJ and be able to use the
printer from any TI program that uses EPSON commands. I love my laser and don't
know what I'd do without it.

Don O'Neil
Owner- WHT