Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!jarthur!usc!ucsd!ucbvax!primerd.Prime.COM!cummings
From: cummings@primerd.Prime.COM (Kevin J. Cummings)
Newsgroups: comp.os.cpm
Subject: Re: can I use this with my Kaypro 10?
Message-ID: <9102010806.AA18826@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 31 Jan 91 16:39:48 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 52

Written by swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!kwgst@ucsd.edu  (Filip Gieszczykiewicz) in )INFO-CPM Digest V91 #22
> 	Greetings. I got some custom hard drives for peanuts. When
> 	I took them apart (a nice enclosure with a PS for 2 HH
> 	Hard drives and a fan) I found:
> 	
> 	1 custom board (Anyone hear of 8800 buss?)
> 	  - Nothing interesting. It has one 50 pin connector and
> 	    out comes another 50 pin connector that hooks with (below)
>
> 	1 Xebec (FAB 10427 Rev 2 [(A)MLI-6] ASSY 104526) controller board
> 	  - This has a 50-pin input (will this work with my K10's
> 	    ribbon cable that connects the motherboard with the WD
> 	    controller?) Out comes a 34-pin drive control and 20-pin
> 	    data cables (ST-506)
>
> 	1 ST-406 Hard drive. Looks old - 1982ish... It's a FH 5 1/4".
>
> 	
> 	Now, I know that I can use the enclosure for any standard
> 	ST-506 drive (or 2 HH) but I want to know if I can perhaps
> 	connect this to any machine. Again, anyone know if the K10
> 	BIOS (CP/M 2.2F in general) supports Xebec controllers?
> 	It seems to have the same motherboard-controller cable.
>
> 	Take care.
>
> 	P.S. I asked several questions, here, about CP/M, MBASIC, and
> 	other stuff. Does anyone want me to summarize and post?	

Unless I'm mistaken (Its been known to happen), the Xebec card
is a SASI->ST506 disk controller.  SASI was some long lost SCSI
predecessor (probably not compatible with today's SCSI stuff).
(I inhereted an Adaptec controller with a HD cabinet I bought
second hand.  The bus interface card I got with it was for a true blue
IBM-PC I.)

It was the popular thing to do back in the late '70's.  A host
to SASI interface was a real simple card, containing little more
than some buffering logic.  The SASI cable was usually a 50-pin ribbon
cable.  The SASI->ST506 controllers would work with ANY host SASI
adapters, and therefore a manufacturer only had to make one real
disk controller.  The SASI->ST506 controllers I've seen were designed
to be mounted either in a special slot in a hard disk enclosure, or
as a daughter board to ONE of the disk drives logic boards.  The
disk controllers would control up to 2 ST506 type devices.  (They
usually had only 2 data cable connections).

Will it work in your Kaypro?  My guess is only if you can find a
Kaypro->SASI interface card to produce the signals needed on the
50 pin cable, or if the Kaypro HD interface is already SASI.  Sorry, I
can't seem to find any specs on the SASI bus either.  Anyone else?
How about a Kaypro expert who knows how the Kaypro HDs work?