Date   : Mon, 29 Oct 2001 13:42:51 -0500 (EST)
From   : Victor Rozanov <vic792r@...>
Subject: Re: IDE interface for the beeb

Hi,

Before you start this project I may  suggest you
to think about the idea I have for a long time.
Unfortunatelly I do not have time to bring it to life.
>From the first sight the idea of building an IDE interface for the
Beeb looks cool but there will be a lot of problems with the
software (like games) after that. Most of the software titles
will not work with the ADFS with the hard drive support
without special patches. Also we have very good and big collection
of the disk images on the internet.
Why do not we use it?
The only problem is we can not use the disk images the convenient way.
(You have to put them on the floppy first and only than
you can use them with your real Beeb.)
My idea is very simple:
We can use the parrallel port on the PC to emulate the BBC floppy drive.
Than the only thing we need is just a cable to connect
the parallel port to the Beeb floppy disk port.
Technically it is possible to use two way LPT port this way.
Current parrallel port controllers have enough speed and flexibilyty
to drive this thing . What else you need? Of cource  you need to write the
PC driver for the port and very easy GUI which will allow
you to manage your disk image collection.
I would appreciate for everybody's point of view on this idea.
Advantages, disadvantages and everything else you might think
about it.

Best regards.

Victor.

On Mon, 29 Oct 2001, Kris Adcock wrote:

> Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 13:34:05 -0000
> From: Kris Adcock <krisa@...>
> To: bbc-micro@...
> Subject: [BBC-Micro] IDE interface for the beeb
>
> Afternoon all,
>
> For a while now I've wanted to build a HD interface for the Beeb. I thought
> I'd ask here first: is there anyone already working on this (or something
> similar)? It would be a waste of time for me to do it if someone else was
> about to release their own project. Or, has anyone started such a project
> but lost interest, and would be prepared to pass on any notes on the
> subject?
>
> Also, does anyone have the EPE/Elektor article on using small hard-discs? I
> bought the magazine myself (with this project in mind) but I can't find it
> /anywhere/. If you're able to scan it and e-mail it, that would be
> brilliant.
>
> Cheers, and thanks in advance,
>
> Kris.
>
>