[SunRescue] SCSI: Active vs. Passive termination in SPARCstations 2, LX

[Matthew Haas]

Good morning,

 I seem to recall a conversation long ago on this list of being encouraged
to use Passive SCSI termination on an SS-2, vaguely remembering something
about blowing fuses on motherboards if warning is not heeded.

 Glancing through "the book of SCSI" at the local Barnes and Nobles, I
read across an interesting chapter on termination that seemed to propagate
that 1) active termination is better as it keeps the bus quieter 2) active
and passive can be mixed (?!!) for performance..

 Not that I'm about to go out and buy an active terminator to try it out
myself, I'm wondering the merits of such information, as well as if one
should avoid this 'book of SCSI' with great effort.

 That said- by default, is the SCSI host adapter (even on above mentioned
machines) have termination disabled? (since it would be in the middle of a
SCSI chain of internal and external devices) and is there a way to
toggle/determine the current setting of such a thing?

 I'm going to be upgrading the fleet this summer, and one of my goals is
to tweak as much as possible, including my tower of 411 cases + LX :)

 Thanks.

  ----|||-------------------------------------------------------------
 -    |||       Atari 8-bit!  Star Wars * SPARCbook 3GX * SUMMER!!    -
-     |||      400/800/XL/XE  Battlestar: Galactica * SPARC * Linux    -
- |  | | |  | 2600/5200/7800  NetBSD1.4.2 * StarTrek * Galaga * SCSI   -
 - ||  |  ||     Lynx/Jaguar  Star Raiders * Descent * Voltron * UNIX -
  --------------------------------------------------------------------