From: olsone@aix.rpi.edu (Erik G. Olson)
Subject: Re: SCSI & Accelerator
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 03:21:07 GMT

Joseph Cohen (cohen@GOMEZ.phys.virginia.edu) writes: 
>I suppose the drives will need an enclosure with power supply
>and a cooling fan, right? That is another $100 or so, probably.

I would guess that's a good idea, but the price difference between
external and internal SCSI hard drives is around $50. Alternatively,
I bet there is enough power in the P-Box already for one low-power
floppy and a hard drive. I don't have any numbers on that just now, 
but it is common to find SCSI drives engineered to consume no more power
than a 3.5" floppy.

External drives ARE considerably more scarce on the used market than
internals, probably because people can still get use out of them
after they buy a larger upgrade. However, I can confirm Don's estimate
of the cost of an internal, having got 40mb for $110 from someone who
upgraded. (internal SCSI, with installation kit.) 

>If something happens to such an exotic piece
>of hardware, it would be practically impossible to find a similarly-configured
>system in a reasonable amount of time.
...
>I am not claiming that this is a reason NOT to buy the new hardware, but things
>are getting so exotic that somebody should think about a solution to the
>problem (perhaps an international TI UG for data recovery :-)

Although Don just wrote "You need to understand that the SCSI is ONE 
project, and NOT 10" from the moment the SCSI card is in the hands of
experienced assembly gurus, anyone can market a workable backup solution
for the device. It'll cost, however, but the only exotic component will
be the software. Otherwise you can borrow a standard SCSI backup device
or drag your computer to where there is one. (We're talking $500 or more.)
Then thre are always plain old floppies. For alternatives in case your
controller breaks down, you can size up the reputation of Bud Mills 
Services first, and then you can start wondering about pure software
solutions for accessing your Ti data from other computers. For instance,
I could write software on my Mac that would let me plug the SCSI drive
into IT and examine the contents. Similarly for other platforms,
although special software would surely be required. 

Gosh, I'm talking as if I already own one. 

Further, I think there are a few more things to glean from the existing
CD market offerings than just plain text archives (or graphics.) A
long time ago there was a videodisc game called "Rollercoaster" that
essentially burgled the images from that movie to accompany a text
adventure game. The analogy to audio CD is not too abstruse. However,
don't expect too many people to be willing to crack file formats in order
to "port" other people's CD-ware. I think THAT niche market is just an
exercise in imagination. It's asking a lot.

Imagine Ken Gilliland going into business selling programs to
accompany commercially available editions of classical music. You run
the software, slip the CD into the CD-ROM player (It has to be a dual
data/audio type drive) and get pictures and informative text while
you listen. There are a lot of packages like that for other platforms.
But then Ken wouldn't need to program the music... Aw..

-- 
Erik G. Olson                =+ Where am I? Tell the truth--
olsone@rpi.edu               =+ I can bear it. In what quarter of the globe
MapInfo employee             =+ Have I descended like a meteorite?
                             =+ ---Cyrano de Bergerac, Act III