On Sun, May 17, 2026 at 7:46 PM Robert Armstrong via cctalk < [email protected]> wrote:
> I have a Rainbow 100A with the Univation hard disk. Works (wow!), but > the > Univation HDD controller was not DEC compatible and you have to boot from a > floppy to get the disk drivers loaded. And of course, the 100A ROMs > didn't > support any kind of hard disk, DEC or otherwise. > Correct. > Did anybody ever make an updated ROM image for the 100A that supported > booting from the Univation directly? I think the 100A used 2716 EPROMs, > and it'd be easy enough to burn some new ones. > Not that I ever heard of. But I didn't sail too close to the 3rd party marketplace. The Univation HDD controller connects through SASI to its hard disks (which were sold with a SASI to MFM adapter board). I disassembled the driver in the hopes of using the Univation card I bought on ebay, but I wasn't able to get my card working: the system always hung for me, even when messing with the jumpers (I have a Rainbow 100B from back in the day I take out and play. with from time to time). I had hoped to add Univation sport to Venix, but I gave up on that in part due to the booting issue. Univation also has a different on disk partition table than the DEC controller used. https://github.com/bsdimp/rainbow100.git has my efforts, in 3rdparty/univation. ./rainbow100/3rdparty/univation/src/univdrv.S has fully comments source. I think I use the gnu assembler, not masm, there. It's been a while and I've not checked tonight. It's too late, but I had to reply. Warner > > > And is there any surviving documentation for the Univation? Bitsavers > seems to have nothing. > > > > Thanks! > >
