Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!sri-spam!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!hplabs!hpcea!hpfcdc!hpgrla!roydant
From: roydant@hpgrla.HP.COM (Roydan Tomlinson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: questions Re: Hard drives for the ST
Message-ID: <4110004@hpgrla.HP.COM>
Date: 12 Jan 88 16:17:53 GMT
References: <3268@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Greeley, CO
Lines: 16


     After reading the initial note I dug out the schematic on my 1040 st
and looked at the driver circuit for the DMA port and confirmed that the 18
inch limit was put on by Atari because of the lack of proper drivers and 
termination resistors. (I assume for cost reasons)

     So in a normal production run of computers and peripherals the margins
dictate the maximum cable length of 18 inches. This does not mean that you
can't run longer cables for a specfic machine, but the chance (no I don't
know the sensitivity) of data dropout and harddisk retries is increased.

     With some rework on the inside of your st (i.e. void warranty) and the
proper modification at the ACSI to SCSI for proper drivers and terminations.


                             Roydan Tomlinson