27 Nov
2008
27 Nov
'08
2:13 a.m.
On Wed, 26 Nov 2008, Jules Richardson wrote:
Fred Cisin wrote:
That doesn't make sense. IDE stands for Integrated Drive Electronics,
which means that the controller is located on the drive. Therefore IDE
controller cards don't exist, and you can't bride IDE to an ST-412
interface type drive.
And the (original) IDE controller is just a plain old WD1003 integrated on
the drive PCB. "MFM" and "IDE" are register compatible, the
programming is
the same, otherwise you would need an extra extension BIOS for your IDE
drives. And an IDE HBA can be built with just an address decoder and some
drivers/receivers (usually 74LS245).
Christian
IIRC, my Compaq "Portable 286" (NOT the
"Portable 2")
had a pre-standardization ISA IDE "controller" that cabled to a bridge
board on an MFM drive
Isn't that the other way around, though: IDE controller -> bridge -> MFM
drive? The previous poster's saying* they're doing this the other way