23 Nov
2006
23 Nov
'06
2:48 p.m.
On 23 Nov 2006 at 14:01, Chris M wrote:
--- Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com>
wrote:
I was mainly wondering if an ISA card exists that has
a ATA100 or 133 interface. Not that it matters that
much, any drive of that type is going to be at least
40 gigs I would imagine. I just can't erase some of
these drives I have laying aroung (probably
approaching 1 terabyte worth), but I'm truly wondering
whether the Western Digital overlay software would
work on a 486 (386? 286?). Ah well. Maybe I'll have
the time to explore it next Thanksgiving!
I rather doubt that they exist. Pwrt of the ATA 100/133 spec is fast
DMA mode transfers over the PCI bus. I don't think the ISA bus has
the bandwidth for it.
But accomodating large drives (even ATA-6 drives) is mostly a matter
of software. What hasn't changed much at all is the electrical
aspect of the parallel ATA hookup. Even the UDAM4 cable (presence or
absence) is mostly invisible to the host. And every ATA drive ever
made will perform mode 0 PIO transfers.
Cheers,
Chuck