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VTI-XTB IDE card ?

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SunDown79

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Can anybody verify if this VTI-XTB is a 8-bit IDE card ?
Its made by V&V System and reads VER 2.0Y.
There are two 40 pin connectors on it, one reading 1ST-DRIVE and one reading 2ND-DRIVE.
Also there is a bios disable jumper and two 6pin "power" connectors next to each drive connector.
 
SunDown79 said:
Can anybody verify if this VTI-XTB is a 8-bit IDE card ?
Its made by V&V System and reads VER 2.0Y.
There are two 40 pin connectors on it, one reading 1ST-DRIVE and one reading 2ND-DRIVE.
Also there is a bios disable jumper and two 6pin "power" connectors next to each drive connector.
Click to expand...

  1. Get yourself an old IDE drive (around 100-200Mb)
  2. Put the above drive in an older computer (preferable an 486 or Pentium)
  3. Install DOS 5.0 on it
  4. Take out the drive
  5. Put the VTI-XTB in an XT or old PC
  6. Connect the drive to the VTI-XTB card
  7. Try to boot the XT or old PC

If the XT or old PC boots DOS 5.0, then you're sure it is an IDE card.
 
Hmm could have done that, but went for the little bit quicker approach.
I just grabbed a normal IDE drive, a RLL drive and a XT-IDE drive and tried them all.
Turns out its a XT-IDE controller.
 
please tell us more about this controller...

can you dump the bios for us (me)? so I can take a look at it?
what kind of transfer speeds can you get with it?

can you post a picture of it?

we've got a bit of a vested interest in IDE controllers around these parts, and we want to make sure our controller is as good as the competition is. :)
 
For dumping the ROM, go here:
http://www.brutman.com/PCjr/pcjr_downloads.html

and grab pcjrcart.zip

yeah, it's PCjr, but it should still work on your machine. The rom is likely located at c800 or in the d000-e000 ranges, but this software will dump it for you, so you won't even have to take the card out of the box.

i'm rather fascinated by xt-ide controllers. since they are all done via 8bit I/O, I'm curious to know how they work, and if any of the slightly older IDE drives that support 8bit mode can be used on these controllers.

and if you didn't know, the main reason for my interest has stemmed from this project:
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?t=12359
 
Right, will dump it as soon as possible.
I've actually found another one of these cards for 2 euro's together with a swichable XT/AT keyboard so well, bought those. Will use the keyboard on XT in which I will dump the rom.

Know about the IDE project ;) Cant wait to get my hands on a card!
 
Thinking about it, would you also be interested in build-in (on the mainboard) XT-IDE controllers ? I've got a Commodore PC20 and a Philips NMS9100 (aka P3105) which both have build in controllers.
 
SunDown79 said:
Thinking about it, would you also be interested in build-in (on the mainboard) XT-IDE controllers ? I've got a Commodore PC20 and a Philips NMS9100 (aka P3105) which both have build in controllers.
Click to expand...

wow. i am so totally unfamiliar with those systems.
indeed. having ROM dumps from all of these system, even if not used by me, should be useful in some sort of archive somewhere.

dump them all!
 
I've got ROM dumps from some other XTA systems: the Amstrad 3086 and 5086, and the Olivetti PCS86. I've also got two drivers for the Cirtech Gem drive, which was a hard-drive add-on for an 8-bit CP/M micro. It looks as if some models were ATA and some were XTA; I've got one of each.

I think that at one point I tried putting a Seagate ST351A/X into the 3086 when the original XTA hard drive packed up. It didn't work, so I disabled the motherboard XTA support and fitted a SCSI controller and drive.
 
This is totally side swiping the topic, but I wonder if there is a BIOS archive floating around somewhere that these ROM dumps might find a good home in?

I'm not afraid of hosting such a thing (and I even live in the USA!).
It would be an excellent resource for a lot of us vintage computer enthusiasts, and I could see it being useful for MESS developers too...
 
Right, finally dumped the roms but not sure if the results are what you need.
It seems to have dumped the ROM from the harddisk itself or something.
Anyway, for anyone who wants it, PM me.
 
And while we are at it, also the dump done with the Willem Eprom tool ;)
So what I thought first was the harddisk turns out to be the actual rom, hmm, so they "borrowed" some stuff from Miniscribe it seems, interesting :)
 

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hargle said:
For dumping the ROM, go here:
http://www.brutman.com/PCjr/pcjr_downloads.html

and grab pcjrcart.zip

yeah, it's PCjr, but it should still work on your machine. The rom is likely located at c800 or in the d000-e000 ranges, but this software will dump it for you, so you won't even have to take the card out of the box.

i'm rather fascinated by xt-ide controllers. since they are all done via 8bit I/O, I'm curious to know how they work, and if any of the slightly older IDE drives that support 8bit mode can be used on these controllers.

and if you didn't know, the main reason for my interest has stemmed from this project:
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?t=12359
Click to expand...

hello
think I have the 8 bit ide model th99/c/U-Z/21659.htm - have you got in your collection ? (only description, is on the big chip above the BIOS chip, saying "JET")
..by the way fascinating project - building a new 8bit idecard :)
Question - how compatible are the eproms cross different ide-cards?

/Cimonvg
 
I don't have any 8bit IDE controllers, aside from the one I'm helping to build.
I'd like to see a ROM dump of your card.

Question - how compatible are the eproms cross different ide-cards?
Click to expand...

It depends. true 8bit only, XT cards, which use 8bit modes on some very old hard drives would not be very compatible with the BIOS for our XTIDE card.

The acculogic card, which is an 8->16bit IDE controller, just happens to be 100% compatible with our BIOS. All you need to do is program the correct IO space into the ROM image, burn it to an EEPROM and it just works!

Your card, if it's a 16bit IDE controller in an 8bit package, just might also be compatible. It all depends on how they map the extra 8bits of IO. Only a ROM dump from your card will tell. Please dump your BIOS image and I'd be happy to take a look.
 
hargle said:
I don't have any 8bit IDE controllers, aside from the one I'm helping to build.
I'd like to see a ROM dump of your card.



It depends. true 8bit only, XT cards, which use 8bit modes on some very old hard drives would not be very compatible with the BIOS for our XTIDE card.

The acculogic card, which is an 8->16bit IDE controller, just happens to be 100% compatible with our BIOS. All you need to do is program the correct IO space into the ROM image, burn it to an EEPROM and it just works!

Your card, if it's a 16bit IDE controller in an 8bit package, just might also be compatible. It all depends on how they map the extra 8bits of IO. Only a ROM dump from your card will tell. Please dump your BIOS image and I'd be happy to take a look.
Click to expand...

hello
sorry my memory weren't correct - it says "Vol" not "jet"...
at the moment the card is not in my XT pc , but gonna try rom-dumping , when it is in place.
by the way it drives a Conner CP3000 , bigger disks seems not to function with this card :huh:
/Cimonvg
 

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    8bit-ide.jpg
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wow, interesting card indeed!

Looks like it was hand assembled too. I'm happy to take a look at that BIOS as soon as you can dump it. If it's truly a 16bit IDE interface, there may be a way to get our BIOS ported over to this and then you'll have big hard drive support.

(or just sell it and get one of our cards when they're released in a month or so)
 
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