Wai-Sun Chia wrote:
On 3/24/06, jim stephens <jwstephens at
msm.umr.edu> wrote:
So, what is the exact model name/number?
What systems is this drive meant for (host/adapter/interface)?
In the 83 time frame (which I got from the drive) these drives were
early samples,
and in some cases were productized. I reread the posting, and note that
the seller
says it is 20mb, which may be true. I had sample drives which were 5
10, 20 and
40mb in that time frame. The largest size drives then other than IBM
was around
100mb 14" winchester in this sort of drive. This was probably an early
8" or so
form factor sample drive.
As to what the inteface was. Everyone was trying to break the SMD interface
mold. At the time, the main interfaces were Trident and SMD. I believe
that SMD
had to be licensed, but I never got into that side of the business. I
know we could
and did make a generic Trident and SMD controller, and didn't have to
pay any
license.
The manufacturers would design all sorts of similar interfaces with
"features" but
the real thing was to put in something that would entice users to design
something
other than SMD.
I know that for the CDC drives, we got several drives like this and all
had boxes
with a couple of boards that converted what ever the drive had on it to
SMD. It
was not economical early on to put a full SMD hardware suite on all the
drives,
because the manufacturers were trying to reduce the cost of these
drives, as well
as the size, and other interface methods would let them do that as well.
We recieved at the company I worked for several drives from CDC,
Fujitsu, Toshiba,
as well as a couple from companies around here in Orange County, CA.
there was a really nice little SMD 5 1/4" drive that came out that we
had for a while
too, which name escapes me too.
Jim