Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

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36
HARDWARE
the m 5
enthusiast will have considered in
one way or another. It may be that
they're interested in benefiting from the gigabytes
of sounds, pictures and files available
on CD-ROM, or they may require a second
hard drive to supplement their internal HD.
Equally, they may be attracted to portable
storage media like Syquest or Flopticals.
For a long lime there have been plenty of
high quality add-ons
available, the
best of
1•
There are 111t5 of ta5ty peripheral5 to add —
to Lau limiga, yet I'M' W15 flWflêf5 haue —
been denied a (heap effertlue way of —
115ing them. bafeth tofthou5e felJOrt5 on —
how ill-5oft5 5ouirrel bridge5 the gap —
new
horieon5
To get an idea of just how much flexibility the Squirrel allows for, here are some of the devices you could be
adding to your Amiga.
1. Hard Drives: SCSI is very
fast, but limitations with the hardware
mean you won't get the benefits
of ultra-speedy Hard Drives.
Nevertheless, that extra space
could prove invaluable_
2- CD Drives: Hi-Soft have their
own range, but you should be able
to use any CD-ROM Drive —
including the latest jukebox disc
changers !
3. Syquest Drives: Highcapacity
storage media with the
advantage over your hard drive of
being portable.
4: Magneto optical's: Again
cartridge based. but this media
uses a laser to readhvrite information.
Rather a pricey option.
5: Tape Streamers: Most
affordable method of backing up
Amiga Computing
MAY 1995
which were SCSI-compatible devices.
Unfortunately. Al200 and A600 owners had
no truly affordable way of using SCSI devices,
which meant their options for expansion were
severely limited.
Now, Hi-Soft have produced the Squirrel
SCSI device as an answer to this problem.
Named after the famous storage-hungry animal,
this utilitarian-looking device certainly isn't
cute, but it could prove invaluable.
The Squirrel package incorporates the
device itself. software to run it, plus a couple
of disks worth of useful PO programs applicable
to using the product. Mercifully, since
SCSI chaining isn't always as simple as it may
appear, Hi-Soft have also Included an
extremely comprehensive manual
The hardware itself is very small, consisting
of a black card connected to a SCSI cable.
This cable is rather short but that's sensible
when you realise the total length of the SCSI
chains cabling shouldn't exceed a certain
length.
The Squirrel fits into the otherwise unused
PCMIA slot on the side of your Amiga.
Physical connection is a precarious procedure
because the pins inside your machine are
extremely delicate, but that's a problem with
the Amiga hardware rather than the SCSI
large volumes of data
6; Printers: Not directly supported
in the software. but if you
do have a printer with a SCSI
interface, connecting it for use
should be simple,
7. SCAMS011111 Some scanners
are also SCSI compatible and
that makes seven devices for
starters.
device. Using me PCMIA slot as the con
tion port has the benefit of leaving the us
more valuable trapdoor slot free.
Unfortunately. the PCMIA interface c
interfere with some memory expansions us
the trapdoor. but again that's an Amiga h
ware problem rather than anything to do
HI-Soft. At least this connection meth
avoids the need to open up your Amiga, wh'
means there's no danger of invalidating
warranty,
The PCMIA is supposed to allow for 'pl
and play', which means you should be able
plug and unplug the Squirrel whether ye
Amiga is on or off This could be slightly m
leading when it comes to attaching the SC
penpherals, however, since the manual r
omrnends that the peripherals and the Co
puler are turned off during the procedure. T
best advice is to err on the side of caution.
GUIDELINES
Setting up a chain of peripherals (SC
allows up to seven to be attached) will g
ally be a problem-free process, providi
some basic rules are followed. RA' each
device on the chain you must select a differ
number between nought and six to allow t
to communicate together without conflict.
This is rarely a difficult task since virtually
SCSI devices have little switches on the ba
allowing adjustments to the ID number to
made quickly. The only possible problem m
arise if there's no external switch at all— ho
ever, there is probably a way of using t
penpheral even if it means using the device
the only machine in your chain,
Termination, on the other hand, can be tril
more problematic issue. Basically, each enill
of the chain must be terminated to avoi
'bounce back' interference. Trouble arises
for example, an internally terminated device -
placed in the middle of the chain or one end
not terminated at all,
Thankfully, Hi-Solt have not taken a gie