SUMMARY: Sun CD-ROM Drive INFO

From: Jason Hargis (jason@PII.COM)
Date: Sat Jan 08 1994 - 02:35:50 CST


        A few days ago I asked the following question:

>
>
> We have a couple of the Sun CD-ROM Drives around that we wanted
> to try on a PC. The SONY P/N of the Drive is a CDU-8012. Sony
> said this is an OEM Drive made for Sun, and they had no
> technical info for me. Now for the questions:
>
>
>
> #1- Anyone know what the Transfer Rate is on this Drive? Access Time?
> (for that matter, anyone have a data sheet on this drive?)
>
> #2- Does anyone know if it is possible to make this drive work on a
> PC? Can you disable the OEM Firmware chip on this drive?

I DID get the CD-ROM Drive to work with the SCSI card that I have. It
happens to be a Media Vision ProAudio Specturm card, however you will
need the latest version of driver. In summary it sounds like it WILL
work on most systems, however you will need to get a driver from your
SCSI Card Manufacturer....

                                        Thanks for all the info!

                                        Jason Hargis

The respones I received were:

From: jason andrade <jason@pest.ctpm.uq.oz.au>
-----------------------------------------------
#1- 150K/sec. sony/sun have new drives doing 300K/sec now out.

#2- dunno. all i know about sun cdrom drives is they do 150K / sec and that
sun put some stuff on them that makes it possible to boot cds orf them that an ordinary
drive doesnt let you do.

From: blenherr@analytics.abb.com (Bill Lenherr)
-----------------------------------------------
I tried this once when we got a new Gateway with a SCSI controller in
it. I was told by Ultrastor that I could do two things and it might
work :

1 - Clip the resistor pack of of the board at the external SCSI port
that they are using for a terminator.

2 - Get Corel-SCSI that might have a driver for it.

I never got a chance to pursue it. I am interested in what you find.
Especially if you find a free driver for it.

From: leg@inel.gov (Lance Eric Greenwade)
------------------------------------------
#1- Sorry, no info of that kind.

#2- I have the same drive connected to a 486 PC that I assembled, and it works
just fine. The only trouble I had was that the original scsi drivers I had
did not recongize the cd-rom. I downloaded new ones from the scsi card
vendor's BBS and everything works fine.

I don't have a lot of experience with cd-roms on pcs, so I can't really
guess as to the speed. If plays videos with sync sound just fine however.

From: johnson@spectra.com (Boyd Johnson)
----------------------------------------
previously Sun.COM!flash@trout.nosc.mil wrote:
> Subject: SunFlash: 61.01 Sun's Hottest Volume 4 Number 1
> sunflash-Send requests, problems to flash@Sun.COM
...
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Subject: SunCD Plus: Dazzling speed, new multimedia capabilities
>
> In September, Sun introduced the new SunCD Plus Pack -- a
> high-performance CD-ROM drive that features improved performance over
> the SunCD drive and support for extended multimedia formats.
>
> * Twice as fast
>
> SunCD Plus is twice as fast as the SunCD drive. Its 300-KB per second
> data transfer rate makes loading your software 60 percent faster. SunCD
> Plus saves magnetic disk space because it can execute many multimedia
> applications directly from the compact disc; and it supports CD-DA over
> SCSI, enabling multimedia applications to transfer audio bits over the
> SCSI bus.
>
> * New multimedia applications
>
> Besides supporting existing CD-ROM standard filesystem formats (High
> Sierra File System, ISO 9660 and Rockridge), SunCD Plus supports two
> new multimedia formats: CD-ROM Extended Architecture (XA) and Kodak's
> PhotoCD.
>
> CD-ROM XA is used to interleaf data and audio on a single track for
> applications such as full-motion video, and PhotoCD transfers 35mm film
> images to a compact disc. These new formats enable you to access new
> data types and integrate them into advanced multimedia applications.
>
> * Complete compatibility
>
> SunCD Plus is thoroughly compatible with all hardware platforms and
> operating system releases. It replaces SunCD drives, effective
> immediately.
>
>
...
> **********************************************************************
> For information about SunFlash send mail to info-sunflash@Sun.COM.
> Subscription requests should be sent to sunflash-request@Sun.COM.
> Archives are on draco.nova.edu, ftp.uu.net, sunsite.unc.edu,
> src.doc.ic.ac.uk and ftp.adelaide.edu.au

From: massie@nfka.norfolk.syr.ge.com (Gerry Massie 858-1775)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Just did this on a PC here. No problems at all. Using an NEC sound/SCSI
card with a SCSI-2 ( new SCSI ) adapter cable. I am using the Microsoft
cdrom extenstion driver ( MSCDEX ) and it all plays just fine. What I have
found on other CDROMs is as long as its 'true' SCSI you treat it like any other
SCSI peripheral. As for thruput and access time, I know that the latest CDROMs
that Sun is selling supposed to be a faster drive and I think Kodak Photo CD
compliant. I would guess the specs for Sony 8012's are around 300 KBS. They
aren't dogs like some drives I have seen.



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