Date   : Mon, 27 Sep 2010 15:42:39 +0200
From   : rick@... (Rick Murray)
Subject: Copying between file servers

On 27/09/2010 13:41, Andy Ford wrote:

> The odd one that does appear seems to fetch a lot of money too,

That's the problem with eBay. Stuff either doesn't move, or it fetches 
silly amounts of money. Good for sellers, but it kinda puts me off 
searching for stuff...


> Perhaps I'm looking in the wrong places ;)

I'd *like* to run a server off an A7000 board. Shouldn't cost too much 
to add an IDE-CF interface, getting a RiscPC style NIC with 10 base T 
will be *dear*. I would be inclined to think epically expensive, as for 
the last price I saw, I could get a brand new Beagle board... which I 
might end up doing...


> I thought recently about the idea of modifying a FileStore to use IDE
> devices (along the same lines as IDE for the 8 bit machines to replace
> SCSI) although that to me at least seems quite a sensible idea, its
> probably something for a separate discussion entirely :)

The problem is that it is an interface using lots of data lines. Do 
mordern(ish) IDE harddiscs even support 8 bit PIO (given many are moving 
to SATA)? Then there's the issue of sector size - 256 vs these days 512 
(latterly larger).

The reason I began writing my FileStore emulator is that I had the 
following basic idea:
   Strip out the SCSI code. Ignore the SCSI interface completely.
   Strip out the parallel print server code.
   Build an SD interface to hook to the VIA (printer port plug).
   Write code for the SD card to use I/O in place of the SCSI.
   Will there be space for basic format/verify code in the FS?


Best wishes,

Rick.

-- 
Rick Murray, eeePC901 & ADSL WiFI'd into it, all ETLAs!
BBC B: DNFS, 2 x 5.25" floppies, EPROM prog, Acorn TTX
E01S FileStore, A3000/A5000/RiscPC/various PCs/blahblah...