Date   : Wed, 11 Jan 2006 00:12:11 GMT
From   : Pete Turnbull <pete@...>
Subject: Re: eBay What is this?

On Jan 10 2006, 23:10, Andrew Hancock wrote:
>
> Anyone got any clues as to what this item is?
>
> Just curious, wasn't going to bid on it. Honest!
>
<http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BBC-Micro-Computer-20meg-Hard-Disk-Controller-Board_W
> 0QQitemZ8250095905QQcategoryZ50217QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem>
>
> Looks late on because of the Master logo on the box?

The box is for a Master Econet module.  The 3.5" NEC drive[1] also
suggests it's mid-to-late(ish) 1980s.  The controller board is unusual,
though.  It's not an Adaptec, which is what most Beeb stuff used, nor
is it a Xebec S1410, which was common on other systems.  I remember
once seeing one that was made (or badged?) by Amcom, and that might be
the same type.  The Adaptec board is a SCSI bridge board, but the Xebec
and Amcom are SASI bridge boards.

Either way, what's shown wouldn't connect directly to a BBC or Master.
 There would be a small 1MHz Bus adapter to go between the Beeb/M128
and the bridge board.  Also, I don't remember a commercial 68000/68008
2nd processor for a Beeb (OS/9 is a vaguely Unix-like 6800/68000
operating system) so that doen't look very likely either.  It could, of
course, be from someone's development system.

[1]  It's an NEC 3126 which is a 20MB drive similar to an ST125.  It
has 615 cylinders, 4 heads, 17 sectors per track in normal operation,
doesn't autopark, does do buffered seeks (ie, a la ST412 rather than
ST506), expects write procomp after cylinder 128, has a landing zone at
cylinder 664, and an average seek time of a whopping 85ms.

-- 
Pete                                           Peter Turnbull
                                               Network Manager
                                               University of York