Lil writes:
The question is, does it really need the
termination? Its ID is 0. Bus 2.ANSWER:
Termination is not a logical issue, it is a physical electrical issue (and therefore illogical and more like witchcraft). Any kind of electrical signal transmission lines (like networks etc) need termination to reduce or eliminate reflection of the electrical signal pulses--which are supposed to be square waves--to prevent corruption of the signal.
The shorter the cable, the less likely a termination is as important, especially if the bus is terminated internally as are MOST (BUT apparently NOT ALL) mac SCSI busses.
Most SCSI busses have mechanisms to deal with bad signals, but odd things can happen with those rounded square waves sloshing around in the bus. Some old macs, (the 5xxx series, I think, and the starmax) have been known to dramatically improve performance if you terminate the unused SCSI port. I believe OWC has internal terminators as well as external terminators, because in theory you should terminate both ends. Mr. Stewart uses the word grief to describe the potential consequences of inadequate termination and I think his choice of words is apt.
So the answer is: in my youth I often successfully ran external SCSI disks without termination and without incident, but deep in my heart I know that what I did was wrong.
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