--- billy j <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> yea, i know what scsi looks like 50 or 68 pin
> ribbons. what i can't
> remember is what did the older IDE look like? they
> didn't have ATA back
> then, did they?
>
> hell, i should know i'm 50 year old EE!
IDE/ATAPI has always used a 40 pin dual row 0.1"
spacing pin header. The newer UDMA 66 or 100 drives
use an 80 wire cable but still with the same 40 pin
connectors and will work in UDMA 33 mode (or the
highest mode supported by the computer) when used
with a 40 wire cable. Early UDMA 66 drives often had
problems detecting non-support of UDMA 66 by the
computer or the 40 wire cable so drive makers released
utilities to program the drive itself for those
situations.
Very few 68k Macs used IDE. There was never an IDE
card for a NuBus slot. :(
Hmmmmm, you're an EE, any chance you might be able
to make a design for a NuBus IDE card if a suitable
stand alone "generic" IDE controller chip can be
found?
The newer ones in PCs and Macs are all integrated
into the chipset and designed to interface only
with a PCI bus. I know there used to be such chips
because someone created an IDE interface for CP/M
computers that fit between the Z-80 CPU and
logicboard.
(Unfortunately each model of CP/M computer needed
custom drivers.)
On to another "pie in the sky" project. USB for NuBus
Macs, at least the NuBus PowerMacs. There probably
are some stand alone USB controller chips that can
be interfaced with anything you care to hack it to.
The ones used in Macs and PCs are designed to "plug"
directly into the PCI bus.
The catch with IDE and/or USB on vintage Macs is
the software would need to be written. Macs with
built in IDE have the driver support in ROM so
a NuBus IDE card would need code in a ROM chip if
you wanted to boot from it. USB is handled by software
but the existing Mac USB drivers are PPC only. :(
Maybe a USB driver in ROM too? :)
=====
"The earth swarms with inhabitants. Why then should nature,
which is fruitful to an excess here, be so very barren in
the rest of the planets?" Bernard de Fontenelle, 1686
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
My ICQ# 16024947
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