Date   : Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:52:06 -0500
From   : jules.richardson99@... (Jules Richardson)
Subject: reading data from old hard disk

Phil Blundell wrote:
> So, a bit of poking around in boxes yields:
> 
> - an Emulex card with the snappy designation "MU2110402".  This seems to
> be an ESDI controller from what the internet tells.

Yeah, I don't believe Emulex did MFM bridges, although I could be wrong. 
I've only ever come across ESDI and tape ones.

> - a Xebex card labelled "ASSY 104527 rev E04" which seems more likely to
> be MFM.  But I don't have any documentation at all for this and,
> consequently, no idea how to set it up correctly for the drive.

Probably a S1410. There's a jumper on them for selecting sector size. Problem 
with them is that they're SASI, not SCSI :-( It's pretty easy to whip up a 
circuit to drive them (beeb should have enough I/O pins I suspect), and 
there's even an example circuit and code (Z80, IIRC) in the manual - but 
that's just more work!

If you're feeling adventurous, the manual's on bitsavers...

cheers

Jules