In a message dated 10/18/01 9:49:30 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< BTW, the thing about it seeing the drives as ATA is from Sonnet's website. I haven't booted into OS X with it yet. >> General comment ... On Linux and other variants of Unix, a PCI UATA card on a Mac is seen as an UATA card, not as a SCSI card. It is a combination of MacOS's SCSI Manager 4.3 and the card's firmware which makes the card appear to be a SCSI card, and the attached drives appear to be SCSI drives. Linux cannot see those cards as SCSI cards unless they are really SCSI cards, which they can never be. And, Linux cannot see those drives as SCSI drives unless they are really SCSI drives, which they can never be. Therefore, it is mandatory when using an UATA card to install the proper parameters for that card. Each one will be different ... not all alike as they are under MacOS plus the card's firmware. Being a Unix derivative, OS X would have the same or a similar problem as Linux. >> > I'm probably going to get a Sonnet ATA/100 to replace my VST Ultratek > ATA/66, which is not and probably never will be OS X compatible. Thanks a > lot VST/Smartdisk. >> Sonnet's UATA/100 card is made by Promise, just as VST's UATA/66 card was. Why Sonnet jumped ship in midstream is anyone's guess, as ACARD, Sonnet's previous UATA/66 card suppler, had an UATA/100 card coming, just as Promise did. The firmware for these cards was *not* developed by Sonnet or Promise, but was developed by the same group of software contractors. Given that this group of contractors will be developing Sonnet's UATA/100 firmware, it is not completely out of the question that these same contractors could develop OS X-compatible firmware for the quite similar VST UltraTek 66 card. The designs of the Promise chip used in the Sonnet UATA/100 card and the Promise chip used in the VST UATA/66 card are remarkably similar. So far, the Sonnet UATA/66 card is the only one I have physically seen which claims OS X compatibility ... and that card is made by ACARD, not by Promise. And ACARD developed its own firmware for that UATA/66 card (and I would presume also for its UATA/100 card). ACARD's UATA/33 firmware (used on the ProMax TurboMax card) was developed by the same contractors who are now working for VST on its UATA/66 card, and for Sonnet on its UATA/100 card. If you can figure all these incestuous relationships out, you might see that OS X compatibility is a possibility for the ProMax TurboMax UATA/33 card and the UATA/66 VST card. But don't hold your breath. One thing seems certain ... Linux parameters are available for just about every UATA card out there. My $0.02 ... YMMV. -- G-List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- We have Apple Refurbished Monitors in stock! | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-List list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Macintosh? Get free email and more at Applelinks! <http://www.applelinks.com>
