Hello all,
Believe it or not my 'thing' when it comes to retro computers is RISC OS based machines. I don't seem to post much about them on forums these days but a number of thoughts have been rattling about for years; one being the famine of readily available and sensibly priced HDD options for 'classic' machines.
At one time I toyed with the idea of a SCSI interface to fit the Econet connectors, I even have a functioning version in one of my A3000s, but interest ran along the lines of:
"I may want to use Econet on my 32bit machine some day" Funny I've never seen that as a viable option myself, using Econet frees up podule slots too
"It won't have a ROM, I'll have to load the driver software from floppy" Actually if you think about it that's a benefit, and reduces costs
"Won't it be a bit slow?" Yep, but it works, is still faster than floppies, and cheap
Oh well, the years pass and SCSI is not as useful / cheap as it once was... I'm pretty sure I've long since lost the code for the GAL, and the IC it's based around has been out of production a very long time.
Ok, how does this idea grab people?
While perusing the A5000 schematic I see the 82C710 controller it uses for IDE is largely just hooked in to the IOC. Pretty well every OS3.1 machine uses this exact setup for IDE support, or the very similar 82C711. Also if you're running OS3.1 you have support for this built in to the system ROM. (every machine with 3.1 uses the same ROM, hardware detection routines kick in on boot)
Now I admit the 82C71* is no longer in production, but not that hard to find...
A small board; essentially with 82C71*, IDE header, and socket to plug over the IOC, would seem to be a viable solution. (Oh, and the so very useful Econet socket will still be available!) :blased:
Functtional
Compatible
Keep costs down
Got 3.1 and an IOC but no IDE? sorted
Thoughts?
I have all the IDE options I personally need but may have a go if there's interest.
Believe it or not my 'thing' when it comes to retro computers is RISC OS based machines. I don't seem to post much about them on forums these days but a number of thoughts have been rattling about for years; one being the famine of readily available and sensibly priced HDD options for 'classic' machines.
At one time I toyed with the idea of a SCSI interface to fit the Econet connectors, I even have a functioning version in one of my A3000s, but interest ran along the lines of:
"I may want to use Econet on my 32bit machine some day" Funny I've never seen that as a viable option myself, using Econet frees up podule slots too
"It won't have a ROM, I'll have to load the driver software from floppy" Actually if you think about it that's a benefit, and reduces costs
"Won't it be a bit slow?" Yep, but it works, is still faster than floppies, and cheap
Oh well, the years pass and SCSI is not as useful / cheap as it once was... I'm pretty sure I've long since lost the code for the GAL, and the IC it's based around has been out of production a very long time.
Ok, how does this idea grab people?
While perusing the A5000 schematic I see the 82C710 controller it uses for IDE is largely just hooked in to the IOC. Pretty well every OS3.1 machine uses this exact setup for IDE support, or the very similar 82C711. Also if you're running OS3.1 you have support for this built in to the system ROM. (every machine with 3.1 uses the same ROM, hardware detection routines kick in on boot)
Now I admit the 82C71* is no longer in production, but not that hard to find...
A small board; essentially with 82C71*, IDE header, and socket to plug over the IOC, would seem to be a viable solution. (Oh, and the so very useful Econet socket will still be available!) :blased:
Functtional
Compatible
Keep costs down
Got 3.1 and an IOC but no IDE? sorted
Thoughts?
I have all the IDE options I personally need but may have a go if there's interest.
Last edited:
