30 May
2007
30 May
'07
7 p.m.
--- Chris M <chrism3667 at yahoo.com> wrote:
I think I've even asked this question before, but
got
no response. Or at least no suitable ones. Hosers.
Though I was recently told that the first IDE card
appeared in a Compaq Deskpro. Can anyone confirm or
deny?
Well, if you want to get technical (and I do)... IDE
is nearly an extention of the ISA bus. Some of the
earliest and/or cheapest IDE controllers were mostly
buffers to connect the drive to the ISA bus. IDE
stands for Integrated Drive Electronics. So, kinda
like an MFM controller and drive bolted together, with
a 40 pin connector leading back to the ISA bus.
Now, obviously this is over-simplifying the whole
thing, but it's not _too_ far off.
And yeah, I think the earliest machine I ever saw with
an IDE drive was a Compaq Deskpro 286. There was a
flavor of IDE for XT class machnes too - the drives
aren't really compatible with AT class IDE, however.
-Ian