Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!tnc!m0154
From: m0154@tnc.UUCP (GUY GARNETT)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: ST506 homebrew interface for A1000
Keywords: harddisk, ST506
Message-ID: <632@tnc.UUCP>
Date: 18 Dec 90 17:21:11 GMT
References: <796@brchh104.bnr.ca>
Reply-To: m0154@tnc.UUCP (GUY GARNETT)
Organization: The Next Challenge, Fairfax, Va.
Lines: 37

In article <796@brchh104.bnr.ca> gstovall@brchh165.BNR.CA (Greg Stovall) writes:
>Has anyone developed a homebrew ST506 interface for an A1000?  I'm not yet
>ready to go to SCSI, but I have an ST506 type disk that I would like to hook
>up.
>
>I saw a commercial product some time ago that looked like just a PAL and a few
>capacitors and resistors, but I don't remember the manufacturer.  It should be
>a simple process to hook one up, although the performance won't be great...
>
>.no sig yet
>Greg Stovall, Bell-Northern Research, Inc.
>Richardson, Texas
>(214) 907-7009
>  


The commercial product is the MAX hard drive hacker's kit, from
Palomax (check out old issues of AC for their ad, and they are in the
latest AC Guide/Amiga).  It was about $100, and gets complete
schematics, drawings, parts list, suppliers, and (most importantly)
software.  In theory, everything but the software should be easy for a
good hardware hacker to come up with from scratch.

What MAX does is allow you to attach an Western Digital or OMTI
controller (PCXT 8 bit or PCAT 16 bit) to your Amiga's bus; you can
then run ST-506 MFM or RLL drives (up to 2 controllers, each with up
to two driver) with their driver software.

The software is a set of interrupt driven disk device drivers, and
Palomax claims up to 300Kb/Sec transfer rate with fast drives and a 16
bit RLL controller.  They also include some installation and testing
utilities, and a backup program.

The package is probably worth what they are charging ($99 last I
heard), especially for the software.  I haven't built it yet.

Wildstar