strange cdroms...

[RuStY8]

i was at class today and they have a table in the lab with free stuff, usually its busted hardware, or ancient hardware for parts or whatever. anyway the guy there puts out like 20 sony (model CDU33A) cdrom drives and says they all work, and im like damn, ill take um all if they're only 2x (gotta be useful for something). so i get home and im looking at the backs of the drives and they all have a 10 pin "SUB I/F" and a 34 pin "MAIN I/F" connections. needless to say i was like wtf? i have absolutely no idea what kind of interface this is, any info would be great.

thanks
RuStY

 

[XeonTux]

Unless you have a Pro Audio Sectrum or another sound card with an interface for these (and 20 of em), you'll probably want to eGay them.

 

[RuStY8]

why would a cdrom be connected directly to a sound card? sounds strange to me, unless they only read audio cds...

 

[bacillus]

<< why would a cdrom be connected directly to a sound card? sounds strange to me, unless they only read audio cds... >>


that's how it was sometimes done in the past & it wasn't only for audio cds!

 

[KevinMU1]

Yup, back in the day the controllers were on the sound card, probably had something to do with sound card/CD-ROM bundles are trying to get into both markets with one sale. Later, some sound cards had an IDE port on them, that was really interesting, although that didn't last very long.

 

[RuStY8]

thanks guys, i guess its off to ebay for these poor fellows.