18 Jan
2011
18 Jan
'11
3:13 p.m.
Tom Gardner wrote:
I believe it was the first HDD of any sort to use a
floppy disk type of
interface. It was followed by the SA1000 interface, which in turn became
the ubiquitous industry standard ST506 interface. Since it was first, it is
not surprising that it had problems, many of which it inherited from the
Shugart floppy interfaces it was trying to resemble so as to reduce design
in times.
Was it really done that way because it was supposed to look just like a big
floppy at the interface level? Is that actually documented somewhere?
What would be needed to add a parallel address interface? A counter,
comparator, maybe a latch for the address? Anyone care to estimate parts cost
to have done it that way at period prices vs. what an actual drive cost? I
suspect it wouldn't have added a significant amount to the cost, which does
perhaps suggest that it was done the way it was on purpose.
cheers
Jules