4 Jun
2003
4 Jun
'03
1:32 a.m.
Patrick Finnegan wrote:
Is there a similar document for the RL8A, RL11, RLV11
or RLV12? I'd
really like to get enough documentation together to build a controller
that can work with other machines (maybe ISA bus, or more likely a
microcontroller with a nice sized chunk of cache ram and a serial port) to
facilitate getting data onto/off of RL02 disks. Really, I'm just looking
for the microcode PROM dump, or specs on the drive<->controller bus that
are detailed enough to contain a 'protocol description'.
Jerome Fine replies:
I don't want to rain on your parade, but just a suggestion - a motherboard
with an ISA slot is now almost impossible to find, new of course. And
a serial port is a bit slow.
Far better would be a PCI slot, although how much longer they will last
is hard to know.
BUT, if you are so inclined, FAR FAR more useful would be an MSCP
implementation for IDE (now EIDE) drives which are themselves threatened,
but should last for a few more years. Since the MSCP patent has expired,
there will not be a conflict with DEC/Compaq/HP. If you are so inclined,
ask for some help since a number of individuals have already considered
this - especially for an ISA slot.
Of course, even more useful might be a Qbus controller for EIDE hard
drives that can be used on real DEC Qbus PDP-11 system that uses
MSCP. This has also been looked at, but back 10 years ago before
the patent expired was not allowed for hobby users. Note that there
are no NEW Qbus host adapters for use with SCSI hard drives and
the price of a Qbus host adapter is still quite high. A Qbus controller
for "small" EIDE drives of 40 GBytes might be useful for a hobby user.
Sincerely yours,
Jerome Fine
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