IDE-Qbus/Unibus was:Re: Old IDE hard drives

From: Zane H. Healy <healyzh_at_aracnet.com>
Date: Tue Jan 13 23:55:31 2004

> Adding a modern ATA drive (IDE) to a vintage computer is a very
> practical project.
>
> I'm running 20 gig ATA drives on an HP1000 using a home made controller.
> Its almost trivial if your not
> too concerned about performance, and only mildly interesting if
> performance matters.
>
> By far the hardest part is developing a driver for your chosen machine
> and O/S. The ATA control firmware
> is available freely.
>
> Grad a wire-wrap board for your machine and do it!

What I personally think would be the most interesting would be to build a
device that would emulate a given disk type (or types). For example,
something that would emulate a bank of RL02 disk packs (shoot, you could
probably used battery backed RAM). Have it so that it will plug into the
real disk controller that way the OS just works with it, and it's
transparent to it. I know this has been done commercially in a couple of
cases.

I'm afraid this is beyond both my ability and my free time.

                        Zane
Received on Tue Jan 13 2004 - 23:55:31 GMT