23 Jul
2001
23 Jul
'01
7:29 a.m.
It's a little hard to guess what sort of interface would have been used to
effect a HDC<=>Host-Adapter interface with 26 conductors, though SCSI/SASI is a
possibility, since there does exist a fairly widely used 25-conductor interface
to that one. It wasn't popular back in the Apple-][ days, though. If it's
intended for internal use only, however, i.e. if there's a box this board goes
in, with the drive and PSU, and a mount for the board on top or bottom of the
drive, or some such, then it's possible that the 26-conductor cable is intended
for use inside the box only and there's some other interface cable configuration
outside the box. Also, it's worth considering that the Apple-][ didn't have a
lot of height to support a 50-conductor, or even 40-conductor cable connector.
Perhaps it's another Apple-ism, forced on the designers by the shape of the box.
I found on GOOGLE that there was once a KONAN HDD Kit for the Apple, ( see
http://download.franklin.com/cgi-bin/franklin/ebookman_free_preview?price10 ).
This might be a clue. I found mention of a"$3,000 price for the Konan 5M
External ST506 Apple Hard Drive Kit in 1979 " that supports this notion.
That same GOOGLE search produced a reference to a SCSI spec of which this table
is a part ... http://dan.emsphone.com/SCSI2/Docs/FTables/s2tabE.1.html
... and this might also be of interest ...
http://www.classiccmp.org/mail-archive/classiccmp/1998-04/0198.html
A little more digging (I spent about 2 minutes on this) might turn up something.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Duell" <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2001 12:29 PM
Subject: Re: Apple ][ boards -- what have I found?
>
> I don't know anything about these boards that you don't, but since the name
is
> hard to read, do you suppose that that
"RONAN" board could be from KONAN?
They
I am almost sure you're right. The label is in the silkscreen along one
edge of the board, and the top half was cut off when the board was
trimmed. KONAN would fit the parts of the letters I have.
> made disk controllers. Is there enough stuff to suggest it's a disk
controller,
e.g. PLL
components?
I am almost sure it is a disk contorller. As I said, it's not an Apple ][
card -- perhaps I should also have said that it doesn't fit a backplane
at all. The external connectors are a 26 pin header for the host
interface (I think), a 34 pin + 2 * 20 pin headers (ST506 hard disk would
look likely), and a power connector, like those found on disk drives. No
card edges. I think this one is a hard disk controller that possibly
links to one of the Apple ][ cards as its host adapter.
-tony