On Dec 28, 2010, at 9:06 PM, peterh...@cruzio.com wrote: > >> I've looked at the Sonnet Tempo HD PCI card (part # THD-MW). A >> question: What does "Bootability - Not supported" mean? Not (gulp) >> what seems the most obvious, that you couldn't boot up from a drive >> connected to it, right? That wouldn't be good. Especially after I was >> so proud of myself for picking up on the fact that I'd need cables to >> go along with the card. > > Those ATA cards all model the attached devices as if they were SCSI. > > In most cases, at least in the cases where the controlling firmware was > licensed from Firmkek, the actual originator of ATA add-on cards for Macs, > the attached devices are bootable, just as SCSI drives are fully bootable. > > It could be that Sonnet wrote their own firmware, possibly to save the > license fees from Firmtek, and equally possibly they took some shortcuts. > > Whatever the real reason, the Firmtek-licensed cards are bootable, and so > also are the ACARD cards, which use their own firmware, but which is > architecturally compatible with Firmtek's. > > Indeed, Firmtek made some boo-boos in its SCSI implementation, which ACARD > duplicated in order to be compatible. You can initialize a drive on an > ACARD card and subsequently transport it to a Firmtek-licensed card and it > will be plug-and-play. > > Needless to say, I don't buy Sonnet's products because they tend to cut > corners and produce products with incompatibilities or other obvious > limitations. >
Many "non-Mac" drive controller cards can be used on a Mac but you can't boot from them. This is because the ROM on the board (if any) doesn't have code for a Mac. To be bootable the card needs a Mac compatible ROM. Clark Martin Redwood City, CA, USA Macintosh / Internet Consulting "I'm a designated driver on the Information Super Highway" -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
