Dump your legacy external SCSI peripherals, says Adaptec

YOU DON'T need no stinking legacy external SCSI peripherals. That seems to be the message coming out of Adaptec, - a company famous for selling SCSI kit after silently killing its USB 2.0 to SCSI adaptor.

This must be the "dead peripherals" season. First I INQuire JVC about a great camera model and I'm told it's on death row, then I INQuire Adaptec about its must have USB 2.0 to SCSI adaptor and I'm told it's been killed, too.

It seems that in today's upside-down world where the "big picture" analysis is replaced with knee-jerk reactions to the last quarter sales figures, some big companies immediately kill products, as soon as they stop being "hot sellers" and become "niche" products -although this scribbler thinks there's plenty of small companies which are more than happy selling products to small market segments.

I mean, I don't think I'm the only computer geek who still has a few working external SCSI peripherals around being used on a weekly if not daily basis. The Adaptec "USB2Xchange" made life easier for geeks with old SCSI peripherals by converting them to the ubiquitous USB 2.0 interface. Reviewers on Amazon.com praised the product, too: "This Adaptec product is true to the excellence of Adaptec. Easy to install, connect and use", said one buyer just four months ago.

Yet earlier this month, a PR contact for Adaptec confirmed the product's demise by saying that the company stopped selling it: "the Adaptec USB2Xchange is no longer sold in Europe since July 1. I am therefore unable to send a review unit for you". Later, Naser Mgariaf, product manager at Adaptec U.S. explained to the PR contact that this applied "not just in Europe but also world-wide".

If you want one, Amazon UK still seems to have a few boxes.

So there you have: "It's dead, Jim". Terminated like the SCSI bus. The only good news coming out of this product demise, is that if you want one, you can still order it from Amazon UK, which still seems to have a few boxes in its depot, currently selling at £49.72 and delivered free in Blighty. µ

See Also
My mouth is my USB