Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!bu.edu!m2c!jjmhome!acestes!paradis
From: paradis@acestes.UUCP (Jim Paradis)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: IDE disks
Keywords: minix, at, install, IDE, MFM, RLL, SCSI, ESDI
Message-ID: <143@acestes.UUCP>
Date: 17 Feb 91 00:35:50 GMT
References: <1627@pdxgate.UUCP> <30432@usc>
Reply-To: paradis@acestes.UUCP (Jim Paradis)
Organization: Alberichs Rings & Things
Lines: 22

In article <30432@usc> kjh@pollux.usc.edu (Kenneth J. Hendrickson) writes:
>Just exactly what is an IDE drive/controller?
>Does it look like MFM?  RLL?  SCSI?  ESDI?  Something else?
>Does it need a new device driver?
>Will any of the existing device drivers work?

IDE stands for "Integrated Drive Electronics".  Basically, the concept
of IDE is to move most of the functions previously relegated to a
controller onto the drive itself, and to use a simple "host adapter"
to speak to the drive in a high-level protocol.  Sorta the same idea
as SCSI, really, but a different protocol.  No, you can't plug an IDE
drive into a SCSI host adapter or vice versa.

The IDE host adapters available for PCs today are register-compatible
with existing MFM controllers.  This means that existing device drivers
should work with them with no problems whatsoever.  The only thing you
MIGHT need to tweak would be certain drive parameters (e.g. sectors per
track; I don't know if it's different for high-capacity IDE drives...).

-- 
Jim Paradis                  UUCP:  harvard!m2c!jjmhome!acestes!paradis
9 Carlstad St.               AT&T:  (508) 792-3810
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