[bjames]

I want to add another 68 pin UW scsi controller for my octane. Is the a xio card available that adds an additional scsi port.  I have the Ultra 4 port scsi controller xio but it only works with differential drives.  All my arrays and drives are SE.

I would also be interested in any differential ultra Scsi array models as well if anyone has ideas.

[jan-jaap]

I want to add another 68 pin UW scsi controller for my octane. Is the a xio card available that adds an additional scsi port.  I have the Ultra 4 port scsi controller xio but it only works with differential drives.  All my arrays and drives are SE.

I would also be interested in any differential ultra Scsi array models as well if anyone has ideas.

There's no other XIO SCSI card than the one you have already. I have used it with a SUN StorEdge D1000 array in the past. The D1000 takes regular 80-pin SCA disks internally, and is connected to the host using differential SCSI. Obviously anything that houses 14 disks will have fans you will hear, but it's not a jet engine. They're also relatively easy to find.

Alternatively, you can put something like a QLogic QLA12160 in a PCI shoehorn or shoebox and attach a disk box / array with VHDCI connectors.

[bjames]

I would really prefer to make use of the 4 port scsi card using differential drives. The storedge d1000 and a1000 look like a valid option.

I also have 4 of the sgi 4gig P4G-EXT granite external enclosure drives and was wondering if I can just swap out the drive with a differential drive to make it compatible with the 4 port scsi card.

[jan-jaap]

I would really prefer to make use of the 4 port scsi card using differential drives.  The storedge d1000 and a1000 look like a valid option.

I also have 4 of the sgi 4gig P4G-EXT granite external enclosure drives and was wondering if I can just swap out the drive with a differential drive to make it compatible with the 4 port scsi card.

Beware that the A1000 is a RAID array, where the D1000 is a JBOD. And SUN StorEdge gear from those days often required a SUN workstation to configure. The D1000 doesn't need to be configured.

The HVD differential disks I've seen are from the era of the Onyx1, 9GB size jet engines. You don't want them. At least, I thought they were annoyingly loud in my Onyx. I'll let you do the math about how loud something has to be to be annoyingly loud compared to a system with this kind of blower inside:

[bjames]

I ordered 2 black box differential to single ended ultra scsi converters. I will see how these end up working on my SE scsi devises.