Date   : Tue, 07 Jun 2005 09:47:42 +0100
From   : "neil f" <faz@...>
Subject: Re: BBC IDE Drive compatibility list 

 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Majordomo List Manager [mailto:majordomo@...] 
> On Behalf Of Jonathan Graham Harston
> Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2005 1:14 AM
> To: bbc-micro@...
> Subject: [BBC-Micro] BBC IDE Drive compatibility list 
> 
> I went through a large pile of IDE drives today and tested 
> them with the IDE interface. The list is on my website:
>  
> Summary information:
>   http://mdfs.net/Info/Comp/BBC/IDE/Drives.txt
>  
> Full information returned by IDE_Identify:
>   http://mdfs.net/Info/Comp/BBC/IDE/DriveData

I get a 'not found' error on both those links.

>  
> The IDE_Identify information is found with the updated 
> IDEDump program at http://mdfs.net/Info/Comp/BBC/IDE
>  
> I used an 8-bit interface, so the device strings have every 
> second character missing. For instance, "Conner Peripherals" 
> comes out as ".o.n.r.P.r.p.e.a.s. ".
>  

The above makes me wonder...

Not sure what's involved in the 8-bit decoding, but wouldn't it be
possible to use the other interleaved half of the disc simply by
'shifting' the address somewhere by one byte? Maybe you could have
'paged drives' like paged roms, just by switching to a different slot
in a look-up table followed by a control/break. Probably complete
nonsense, but it makes you think...


-Neil F.