1 Feb
1999
1 Feb
'99
3:59 p.m.
On Mon, 1 Feb 1999, Allison J Parent wrote:
The 8bit IDE looks like the 1002WA ISA 8bit
controller. The 1002HDO host
interface however does not. In the 8bit worlds there seems to be three
different schemes.
Gee, you are discouraging me, Allison! Out here, ST-351A/Xs have been
common as armpits. Everyone seems to have a couple! Seemed like a
neat/cheap idea. Guess not, though, as you point out below.
It's not easy. The host interface only allows for
a few address lines and
8bit IDE is both scarce ands strange. For practical use and the difficulty
of interface doing a 16bit IDE converter is more practical. The real
problem is you no matter what will be writing a bios for the kaypro.
People with the correct controller and MFM disk are already faced with
things like the drive needs replacing and there is no formatter or partition
utility if the drive is greater than 8mb.
But again, if you have the TurboRom - and it is readily available - you
have all that.
Oh, 40mb would have to be sliced (partitioned) into 5
8Mb logical drives
under cpm. I know as my SB180 and AmproLB both have 20 and 45mb drives.
Of course, it's still CP/M. We haven't changed that. I have an ST-125N
on my Ampro and it makes a LOT of partitions. Many more than I use, in
fact, but I think I paid $5 for it, so who cares.
Under CPM even 5mb is a lot of space and a 1.44mb
floppy is very roomy.
The 781k format allows me to have all of my most common utilities and
programming tools on one drive and work space on another. That good
enough.
Not too shabby, I agree.
- don
Allison