Date   : Mon, 12 Jan 2004 18:27:14 +0000
From   : Richard Gellman <splodge@...>
Subject: Re: IDE Interface for BBC

As I mentioned in a previous email, the Acorn ADFS is very simplistic, 
relying on the drive/SCSI/SASI subsystem to keep itself in check. The 
only commands the ADFS implements is &1B (Start unit), &08 (Read 
sector(s)), and &0A (Write sector(s)). The Acorn ADFS has no built-in 
formatter (the floppy formatter came on a floppy disk, and wasn't 
exactly fault-tolerant), so I have no idea what commands an ADFS 
hard-drive formatter uses to format a HD, if such a piece of software 
exists (drives come pre-formatted?).

-- Richard Gellman

Eelco Huininga wrote:

>I've been thinking about creating an IDE interface for the beeb
>as well. I believe it could be possible to make some sort of
>adapter which translates the native ADFS SASI commands
>to IDE commands and back, using a small microcontroller.
>
>This would be, i believe the 'neatest' solution since there's
>no need to modify existing software or ROM's. It would be
>100% compatible with existing ADFS-es.
>
>I've searched the web for some good documents on the SASI
>standard, and I couldn't find them. As a last resort I mailed
>Xerox (the company who bought Shugart Associates) and they
>were kind enough to mail me the documents :-)
>
>The only problem would be to find out what SASI commands
>are implemented in existing ADFS-es and writing the code
>for the microcontroller.
>
>
>Cheers,
>Eelco Huininga
>
>
>
>
>  
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