Date   : Sun, 12 Mar 2006 16:28:12 +0000
From   : Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk@...>
Subject: Re: SASI/SCSI <>IDE, distracting thoughts.

Fragula wrote:
> SCSI drives (with 50 way IDE connectors, as opposed to U160/U320) are
> getting harder to find these days, and there are lots of other folk out
> there flogging their own flavour of dead horse. (Sun, Apple, SGI etc.) a
> few quick jumper swaps, a quick flash, and its for something else.

I'd strongly disagree with that TBH - finding *reliable* disks in the 40MB - 
9GB range is *much* easier for SCSI than it is for IDE in my experience.

Personally I'd much rather someone with the necessary knowledge invest time in 
getting "modern" (as in 512 byte sectored, parity) SCSI drives (and 
documenting the process) working with old Acorn hardware than futzing around 
with 'orrible IDE stuff!

OK, so I'm sort of biased as just about everything here is SCSI (as it's so 
much more flexible) - to do anything with IDE I'd have to delve inside a dusty 
case :-)  (although my MP3 server is IDE, only because my surplus 
large-capacity SCSI drives are kept as hot spares for more important systems; 
if the MP3 box goes pear-shaped I've got a backup on DLT anyway)

> It probably would't be to (for a BBC-only variant) hard to scrap the
> "SCSI" side altogether, and just interface (address decoding and a
> buffer or latch) the AVR direct to the 1MHz bus, no? Much narrower
> application tho. Still looks like the same thing as far as ADFS is
> concerned, just removes the requirement for a 1MHz adaptor board, which
> probably a lot of people don't have.

Can't see the difference between building an IDE buffer / control board and a 
SCSI one, myself. Surely they'll be the same level of complexity really?

Hmm, MO drive on a beeb, anyone? :-)