Re: PCI bus I/O expansion cards and/or modems

["Jim Holeman" <holeman@lumeria.mpd.tandem.com>]

Bob Gaydos wrote,

> I'm hoping that someone manufactures an I/O expansion card -- that plugs
> into a PCI slot, mind you -- which will at bare minimum provide me with 
> one additional parallel port.  It would be even better if I could find a
> PCI SCSI adapter card which provided an internal SCSI connection, an
> external SCSI connection and a parallel port; this would service the Zip
> drive *and* provide the parallel port, leaving that lone ISA slot open
for
> the faxmodem.  And I'd still have one PCI slot open for the future.
> 

1) It would seem that PCI is where you would want your SCSI interface to
live.
 
2) SCSI is designed to allow long cables in between each drive.  In fact,
the
specification requires a minimum length of 12" (I think) between each node
on a SCSI chain.  
With a little research and some imaginative cabling, it should be possible
for you to attach all of your SCSI devices (internal and external) to one
SCSI port.

     Unless there are artificial limitations imposed by software, or
     Unless you have different internal versus external SCSI requirements
       (e.g. Single-ended vs Differential)

If this doesn't work, then I believe several manufacturers provide PCI
cards
with 2 SCSI ports.

3) Then find an ISA card with faxmodem and parallel port (may be difficult
   to locate) OR find an ISA card with 1 or 2 serial ports and a parallel
port 
   (easy to locate) and buy an external faxmodem which connects to the
   serial port.

  holeman

 
____________________________________________________________________________


  Jim Holeman                                          Tandem Computers,
Inc.
  (512) 432-8755 (fax 8247)                            14231 Tandem
Boulevard
  holeman@isd.tandem.com                               Austin, Tx  
78728-6699

  "A gentle answer turns away wrath"



³4!