From: Conrad_Nobili@Harvard.EDU (Conrad C. Nobili)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.aux
Subject: Chinon CDA-431 CD-ROM drive is A/UX compatible... (long)
Date: 10 Sep 92 17:40:51 GMT
Followup-To: comp.unix.aux
Organization: Harvard University Office for Information Technology

Sorry about not giving this update earlier, but I have been busy with too
many non-A/UX things recently....  (I lost most of the summer to the
beginnings of an effort to learn Chinese....)

I had previously reported that the Chinon CDA-431 CD-ROM drive worked fine
for installing A/UX 3.0 and worked fine for mounting file systems under
A/UX 2.0.  I was being very cautious not to report anything I hadn't tested
yet even though I was pretty sure of the results.  Seeing the vagueness
that got conveyed to Jim's FAQ, I finally made time to do a quick test, as
I felt responsible for one of the few weak spots in Jim's most excellent
file....

So, I had at A/UX (3.0) again last night and mounted up the 3.0
installation CD-ROM (it's the only one I've got with a UNIX file system on
it, I think...).  It worked like a charm.  I just created /cdrom and
mounted the sucker.  I snooped all around it and ran programs from it on
data on it (bin/wc usr/dict/words, &c....).  I didn't bother copying files
from it, but I expect that to work fine too (they got into memory fine;  I
*did* test this under 2.0 and it was fine...).

Are there any specific issues with cpio and blocking or anything else that
I should test?  Or does running programs and reading data and using cp
constitute a valid test?  Let me know if I should test more....

I guess I should give it a test with QuickTime under A/UX....

I did not claim that this drive could *install* A/UX 2.0, as I never
succeeded in getting that version installed properly with Apple's
installer.  I had problems that I and A/UX technical support and the net
couldn't resolve with getting 2.0 to install on my machine.  It could have
been my old HD 80 SC or one or more of my 2.0 installation floppies or
something else that might have been the source of the problem.  I just want
to be perfectly clear that it *could* have had something to do with the
CD-ROM drive, even though I was able to mount it fine from my
partially-installed, sick 2.0 and begin to correct and complete as much of
the installation as I had patience to by hand....

As I mentioned in a previous posting, I am not sure I would recommend this
CD-ROM drive to people, but it *does* have some interesting features and
capabilities that some may be interested in....  First, it is widely
advertised and discounted, and should be readily gotten at a bargain
price....  (This is often the most important reason of all....)

It is claimed to be a ~350 ms drive.  I bought it back when there weren't
many that claimed to be this fast and before there were any good
comparative reviews of CD-ROM drives.  Since then I have seen several
reviews in which the Chinon CDA-431 has sucked badly.  I do think this is a
driver issue though, as one review mentioned that this drive was
significantly speeded up with the addition of some software to help it out
(perhaps SpeedyCD? or a different driver altogether?)....  And I do note
that the drive seemed *much snappier* last night under A/UX than I am used
to it being under MacOS (where it uses its lousy driver)....  Note that it
seems to suck wind at dealing with QuickTime....  But then I also have an
SE/30 (wimpy) and a mono monitor (dithering takes time)....  I will have to
check out QuickTime under A/UX....

The drive also had better audio capabilities than the drives of the time
when I got it.  It has both left and right RCA (I think that's what they
are called) jacks on the back and a stereo mini phone jack with volume
control on the front.

Another thing worth noting is that just weeks after I got my drive (yeah,
doesn't it figure...) Chinon came out with the CDC-431, which comes with an
infrared remote control.  I imagine this would be very nice!  I don't know
if one can use one of those drives without the Mac being on, but I wouldn't
be surprised, and it would sure be nice not to have to get up from reading
in bed to go and diddle with a desk accessory....  (Oh, I forgot, you guys
never use MacOS any more and probably don't remember that you can play
audio CDs with a CD-ROM drive....  ;-)  ;-(  )  I expect this drive to have
a very similar mechanism at its heart;  I would *expect* it to be A/UX
compatible....

Other news is that someone from Chinon with whom I spoke at MacWorld said
that there are or are soon to be new faster models from them.  And maybe
even some sort of upgrade path.  So, if they continue to make A/UX
compatible CD-ROM drives then that is a good thing....

I hope this is useful to someone....  I am sorry about it being so long....
 I prefer to think of the length of my posts performing some sort of
Forward Error Correction -- if I put in everything I know and make it clear
what I do and don't know, then I will ultimately save bandwidth by reducing
the need for lots of people to clarify things I should have said in the
first place....

Conrad C. Nobili  N1LPM  Conrad_Nobili@Harvard.EDU  Harvard University OIT