Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mcnc!borg!sargent!cullip From: cullip@sargent.cs.unc.edu (Timothy Cullip) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware Subject: Re: ICD-Novia 20i: new HD Message-ID: <2277@borg.cs.unc.edu> Date: 13 Mar 91 20:35:40 GMT References: <47475@nigel.ee.udel.edu> Sender: news@cs.unc.edu Organization: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Lines: 53 In article of comp.sys.amiga.hardware, Roger Earl wrote: > flipping thru the usual articles when something caught my eye. ICD has an > advertisement for a new Hard Drive for the Amiga 500. Apparently this 20 > meg drive is so small that it actually mounts completely inside the Amiga > 500. There is no mention of price and little statement of features. If This is actually two products. The controller is their new AdIDE which is an IDE (as in IBM AT type) controller for IDE drives. The controller plugs into the 68000 socket and the 68000 plugs into the controller boards socket. The Novia 20i is the AdIDE controller packaged with a 2.5" 20 Mbyte drive. I called ICD and asked a few questions (I was interested in the AdIDE rather than the Novia 20i, but I asked about the drive anyways). They say it is capable of 450 Kbytes/sec on diskperf. The two together cost either $600 or $699 (I forget exact amount). The nice thing is that the controller itself can be had mail order for around $115, and you can find lots of reasonably priced 3.5" IDE drives if you look through Computer Shopper. You could easily put together a 40 Mbyte Quantum Prodrive (IDE version, not SCSI) and this controller for < $400. It wouldn't fit internal to the A500, but it's a lot cheaper than the 2.5" drive combination. It is a autobooting controller. It's not SCSI so you can't chain 7 devices together, but IDE does allow two drives to be daisy chained (I don't know if the AdIDE supports this). They also say the controller is compatible with their AdSpeed 16 MHz 68000 accelerator. They thought (haven't actually tried) that it would be compatible with the MegaMidgetRacer (CSA) electrically, but not sure about physical constraints of fitting in the A500 case. Actually to call the AdIDE a controller is a bit inaccurate. IDE drives have the controller electronics on board. This is probably just an interface and software to mimic the standard AT I/O signals. All in all, it sounds very tempting. If anyone actually gets an AdIDE post on the network your impressions. I'm trying to arrange the money to do it myself but it may take a month or more. Tim Cullip cullip@cs.unc.edu Not affiliated in any way with ICD, just an interested possible customer. -- Tim Cullip cullip@cs.unc.edu