new toy!

From: Don Maslin <donm_at_cts.com>
Date: Mon Feb 1 23:59:52 1999

On Mon, 1 Feb 1999, Allison J Parent wrote:

> The 8bit IDE looks like the 1002WA ISA 8bit controller. The 1002HDO host
> interface however does not. In the 8bit worlds there seems to be three
> different schemes.
 
Gee, you are discouraging me, Allison! Out here, ST-351A/Xs have been
common as armpits. Everyone seems to have a couple! Seemed like a
neat/cheap idea. Guess not, though, as you point out below.

> It's not easy. The host interface only allows for a few address lines and
> 8bit IDE is both scarce ands strange. For practical use and the difficulty
> of interface doing a 16bit IDE converter is more practical. The real
> problem is you no matter what will be writing a bios for the kaypro.
> People with the correct controller and MFM disk are already faced with
> things like the drive needs replacing and there is no formatter or partition
> utility if the drive is greater than 8mb.

But again, if you have the TurboRom - and it is readily available - you
have all that.
 
> Oh, 40mb would have to be sliced (partitioned) into 5 8Mb logical drives
> under cpm. I know as my SB180 and AmproLB both have 20 and 45mb drives.

Of course, it's still CP/M. We haven't changed that. I have an ST-125N
on my Ampro and it makes a LOT of partitions. Many more than I use, in
fact, but I think I paid $5 for it, so who cares.
 
> Under CPM even 5mb is a lot of space and a 1.44mb floppy is very roomy.
> The 781k format allows me to have all of my most common utilities and
> programming tools on one drive and work space on another. That good
> enough.

Not too shabby, I agree.
                                                 - don
> Allison
>
>
Received on Mon Feb 01 1999 - 23:59:52 GMT