Date   : Sun, 25 Nov 1990 03:54:37 GMT
From   : sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!munnari.oz.au!comp.vuw.ac.nz!actrix!ewen@ucsd.edu (Ewen McNeill)
Subject: Amstrad CPC -- HDs

In article <1990Nov23.114001.43015@cc.usu.edu> slsw2@cc.usu.edu writes:
> >> 
> >> [...] HD kit from Emerald Microware which
> >> uses a small daughter board that plugs into the Z-80 socket plus the 
> >> WD1002-05 hard disk controller... 
> > [...]
> > could be keeping up with the speed of a HD.  The machine runs at
> > 4Mhz with one wait state (effective speed is said to be 3.3Mhz).
> > The machine does not support DMA, or Interupt driven Disk IO
> 
> Actually, the WD1002-05 has a sector buffer on board. The data is transferred
> from the disk into this sector buffer, after which the host processor can
> pull the data from the sector buffer at its leisure. DMA is not required, nor
> are interrupts.
 
This begins to sound very interesting.  Can someone mail me the
address of Emerald Microware, and also the cost of this small
daughter board?  The design of my machine (Amstrad CPC6128) is such
that it should go in quite easily.
 
I am also interested in any comments that people have about the
reliability of this controller, and the sort of through-put that you
get.
 
Of course, then I have to find a HD... but that shouldn't be
difficult.  There seem to be a lot of oldish 10MB drives around NZ,
going cheaply.  Anyone know of a reasonable access speed for this
type of setup (I would be inclined to think that 65ms would be more
than fast enough).
 
Thank you all for your help.

-- 
Ewen McNeill.                          Email: ewen@actrix.gen.nz