On Wednesday 10 December 2003 11:27, Peter C. Wallace wrote:
> On Wed, 10 Dec 2003, Patrick Finnegan wrote:
> > "Knowing the encoding scheme" prevents this from being a
> > "universal" interface. You'd need to make different version for,
> > say, your PC/XT, your PDP-11 with an RQDXn, and TeleVideo TS816.
> > (Or shouse I say "my" as those are all system I have that'd benefit
> > from this). At most, (I think) you'd need a different cable set
> > for all three of these if you didn't claim to "know" the encoding.
>
> No, thats not true, all you need to know is the encoding scheme...
> The cabling is interface type specific.
Not being an 'expert' in data encoding schemes for hard drives, I can't
claim with 100% certainty... but I'm willing to bet there's systems out
there that use things such as GCR (similar to the Apple ][ and
Commodore floppy disk encoding schemes).
Also, you'd have to take into account in your scheme that the data rate
for different controllers may not match. For example, recording data
on the 8" hard drive in the Televideo TS816 probably isn't the same
'data rate' as a common ST506 interface drive, even though the
interfaces are similar.
To me, it's pointless to create a design that's arbitrarily limited to
just one encoding scheme if you don't have to. When you can simplify
the design *and* make it more universal, why not?
Pat
--
Purdue University ITAP/RCS
Information Technology at Purdue
Research Computing and Storage
http://www.itap.purdue.edu/rcs/
Received on Wed Dec 10 2003 - 10:42:14 GMT