IDE@ZII new IDE card for ZORRO bus

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vibros

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Hello,

up for the sale there is this new IDE card, entirely developed and financed by myself. A short story of how it was born and what this hardware offers you can find here

https://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?101956-A-new-IDE-card-is-born!-Read-this-thread-and-have-fun!

The specifications are

- IDE card for all the Amiga models equipped with a Zorro 2 style connector; OS 2.x and at least a Motorola 68020 cpu are required (PowerPC cpu is not supported). It doesn't Autoboot!;
- it complains with the AutoConfig by Commodore-Amiga;
- it complains with the coding-style showed by Commodore on all the developers material published officially during his activity (some things come from Amiga Technologies gmbh);
- it complains with the IDE specifications from X3T9.2/90 and successive specifications (until ATA/ATAPI-6, but in fact, until year 2018);
- it complains with the SCSI standard from T10, where this standard is used by IDE devices;
- it support ATA discs and ATAPI devices (in fact, every IDE device is supported by this card: the problem is the support at DOS level, like filesystems, but this is not the aim of this hardware to offer DOS support for every ATA/ATAPI devices);
- it support TD64/NSD and Scsi-Direct as addressing mode, for every ATA/ATAPI device, where it is possible to do so!;
- every size of a disc is allowed, but the software will bound every action to a limit of 2TeraByte (2TB);
- two devices can be used on a card, with the right jumper position selected on everyone (master/slave);
- there is two timings stored inside this card, good for PIO0 and PIO1 and above: the selection of the right timing for every device is done automatically by the software of this card; a program to set up every device with the right cycle-timing is not needed;
- the software for this card will include an easy tool that show what is attached on the IDE channel (if more cards are present, the software behaves like on scsi, shoved up all the devices attached to the cards, with a unique ID for every device; this ID is good for the ide.device and will not change untill the configuration of the machine will be changed!); this tool will show you important things, if there is an RDB structure found on the disc; anyway enough infos to setup a device; then a very important tool to install into the system all the DOS partitions found (the RDB is needed in this case, and the filesystem used by the partition need to be present or into the RDB or into the resource of the system), otherwise, with the help of the mentioned above tool, the user will do a mount list; this very important program is able to recognize disc-change properly and it knows how dismount a DOS partition, in the case of a ejected disc! All will happens without the intervantion of the user! And, naturally the device driver itself;
- this programs are coded in Assembler language: the result is a very compact and efficient code;
- this card (hardware+software) is copyrighted by me and is the result of 2 years of work done to satisfies my own requests and, later, for all the Amiga community all around the world!

I state a price of 50 Eur (it was 60 Eur) for this card+software; postage is not included and it can vary; if you buy two of them, you will pay 95 Eur (it was 110 Eur)+ postage.
Actually the software will be sent via EMail as LHA archive, because i am short in floppy-disc; but a nice solution with a Floppy prepared with all the software, is planned!
This card will be sent in a well suited small package...i hope all will be fine...with everyone interested on this card!

The software will include a debug version of the ide.device (the name of the game!), that show every thing done by the device driver during usage. The purpose of this version is just to solve problems: it need an installed version of sushi (look for Aminet or developer CD) and the result, saved in a file, will be sent to me, to correct the software or a wrong action of the user!

The cards for sale are actually 5, two of them are ready to be sent!

Payment with
PayPal (+5% of fee or payment as gift)
IBAN (only for users from my country, it is a limit of my account and not a restriction imposed by me)
transfer to MC card (i do not know how it work! Maybe it is ok for someone)

All the best!
Stefano
 
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Dear Vibros,

Maybe a stupid question...Does it autoboots?

Best, Nowee
 
Hello,

is not stupid! I have forgotten to write this things on the first post! It doesn't Autoboot: it has no ROM!

Regards
Stefano
 
Oh. A pity, I'd have gladly added it to my system. Perhaps the device can be burned into the rom? Did you try?
 
Oh. A pity, I'd have gladly added it to my system. Perhaps the device can be burned into the rom? Did you try?


Hello,

the device driver of this card is strictly linked to how the hardware (IDE@ZII) has the address space organized. Then, this card has Autoconfig and the device driver made all the things only after the Autoconfig protocoll was passed without problems. So, if i have right understood your question...wait...you mean, to burn this device driver (ide.device) inside an Amiga ROM to do autoboot? If so i have no idea if it is possible!

- - - Updated - - -

How is the transfer (MB/s)?

Hello,

please, follow the link on the first post, to read the story of this card and look to the pictures: they show performances of this card on my plain Amiga 3000D with common fast ram (no burst or page things!). If you wish to see more, i can print here the result of SysSpeed.

Regards
Stefano
 
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Very interesting piece of hardware... congrats for your work!


Hello,

many thanks! It is missing a very important thing: a review of this hardware! I hope someone will be interested to do that!

Regards
Stefano
 
Hello,

i have updated the first post with more info about the programs for this card; if you had own a SCSI controller like the 'Squirrel', the suite for this card is similar but a little more efficient.
I wish to remember that this card will be sent with a floppy disc, where this programs are stored (a nice floppy disc) and i will do my best to obtain a small package in carton nice too!

Cheers
Stefano
 
This is the advert (very easy) that i have made with DPaint, on Amiga, for this card!

advert.jpg

Cheers
Stefano
 
Hello,

I wish to remember that the software is complete and the program to mount DOS partition (for DOS i mean
partition with every FileSystem for this platform, OFS, FFS, PFS, AFS and the next that will be on Aminet
next year...) is capable to monitor the diskchange to happens for every ATAPI device unlike CD and DVD and
every other device with a FileSystem capable of to recognize diskchange properly.
The software will be packed into a floppy disc.
This sale is intended worldwide.

More info are on the first post, as ever.

This card is also listed elsewhere!

Cheers
Stefano
 
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Hello,

i think this card deserves better attentions. If you are interested, i will refund the buyer if it is not satisfied!

Actually i have two cards in my system, with some CF and a CDROM, and it is a pure pleasure to use it. Even with a true Harddisk attached on this IDE card (because the differences are not in the use of CF!), the on board SCSI of my A3000 is to lame!

I wish to say that the parts, with them the card is build, are all original: the GAL are from LATTICE and 100% original, and the others was bought from a well know seller of this type of components, located in Texas (USA).
As said, the software is build from scratch and it is not similar to nothing seen on Amiga; it is tested many times and debugged, and it has some secrets (especially on the ATAPI part) that will be not discovered or discussed, because part of the good of this hardware.
Tricks are not part of this project! I have read some things about how to speed up some access during interrupt or similar things. This is not the point!
Aside the timing itself, all is controlled by the software (device driver).

Cheers
Stefano
 
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Oh. A pity, I'd have gladly added it to my system. Perhaps the device can be burned into the rom? Did you try?

Hello,

it is not needed because this card (that does not has a ROM) is configured later, by the device driver found into Expansion drawer of the boot partition; then, the driver is loaded into RAM (running). The address space of this card, except the autoconfig registers, is unique, even the IDE register are placed at an arbitrary location different from Amiga 1200 and Amiga 4000 and Buddha card. So, if i have right understood, put this device driver into a new Amiga ROM is not needed. There is not benefit. Every Zorro card without ROM are configured later, with driver into Expansion; this is the autoconfig protocol.

Best
Stefano
 
Hello,

i am open to send the card to everyone interested to do a review of this hardware.
 
Hello,

to boost this sale, i have changed the price of this card. Three unit are actually on sale: every card will be sent with a floppy disc with all the software needed to use it with many IDE devices (ATA and ATAPI), and an instruction sheet. With the software, there is a very well done (and very nice indeed) debug version of the device driver (named 'ide.device') to help to solve problems and incompatibility.
Somewhere around the net will be soon available a review of this card, that work without problems on 4000 machines too (even if the question is fool, because the point of view is from the Zorro bus and not from the cpu or from the Amiga-chipset). Not tested on Amiga 2000, but it work because this card uses signals compatibles with the bus of the A2000 (on Amiga 3000 and 4000 the Zorro II bus is emulated by the buster, as some 68000 signals, that are not present on 3000 and 4000 machines).

This card hasn't boot ROM inside and, as said, it can be positive: more card can be configured at the same time by the software (until four cards, that means four independent channels).

Cheers
Stefano
 
Hello,

Item received and tested. Fully satisfied.
Sending positive feedback!

Tom

Hello,

first of all, many thanks, and many thanks to the france user that has pointed to a bug on the PLD of this card! Then, on the floppy, you have all the informations to discover eventually errors, and to send to me reports of this failures! The device driver can be corrected, of course, and expanded!
You can share your experience in a new thread!

Best regards
Stefano

By the way, i was forced off line for a while, so my replies can be delayed a little!
 
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