i'm trying to get an old sun engine analyzer to work again, it's a modular computer analyzer model mca3000. it has an old faraday 8 bit computer inside with 2 360k floppy drives and i would like to add a hard drive that i have with all the operating programs on. the hard drive is a nec d3142, does anyone know of an 8 bit hard drive controller card that would work this drive? thanks, george
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8 bit hard drive controller
- Thread starter gdoranda
- Start date
modem7
10k Member
Welcome to these forums.
Whereabouts on the world are you?
Identification of the motherboard is the key.
Looking on the Internet, I see no evidence that Faraday made motherboards, but I see that Faraday Eletronics Corp. made at least one chip (PE2010) to go onto a PC clone or XT clone motherboard.
Where did you get 'Faraday' from?
Are there marking on the motherboard that inform you of the manufacturer and part number?
A photo of the motherboard may help us.
Whereabouts on the world are you?
To answer your question, we need to establish exactly what your "old faraday 8 bit computer" is.
Identification of the motherboard is the key.
Looking on the Internet, I see no evidence that Faraday made motherboards, but I see that Faraday Eletronics Corp. made at least one chip (PE2010) to go onto a PC clone or XT clone motherboard.
Where did you get 'Faraday' from?
Are there marking on the motherboard that inform you of the manufacturer and part number?
A photo of the motherboard may help us.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
Sure Faraday made motherboards. Got one right here--their 80286 "A TEASE". Eventually, they were acquired by Western Digital.
The old Sun Engine analyzers are really interesting. The early 70s variety used the NSC IMP-16 chipset.
As regards the 8-bit hard drive, without more specific information about your board, it's going to be difficult.
The old Sun Engine analyzers are really interesting. The early 70s variety used the NSC IMP-16 chipset.
As regards the 8-bit hard drive, without more specific information about your board, it's going to be difficult.
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vwestlife
Veteran Member
The NEC D3142 is a 3.5" 44-megabyte MFM drive. And here is the MCA3000:
Judging by the keyboard layout, and the statement that it has 360K floppy drives (although this photo of one shows a case full of 3.5" floppies), I'm guessing it's either an XT or early 286 AT clone. Given the OP's mention of it being a "8-bit computer", it's probably an XT clone with 8-bit ISA slots. So therefore an 8-bit ISA MFM hard drive controller is not particularly hard to find; it's just a matter of choosing carefully, as eBay prices for them can vary from reasonable to outrageous.
The tricky part is that gdoranda says the hard drive already has software installed on it, and he wants to make use of that. Because MFM drives are "dumb" and it's up to the controller to handle everything, an MFM drive formatted using one controller may not work with another controller without needing to reformat it. So if the drive was formatted using a Seagate ST-11M controller, for example, it'd be best for him to try to find another ST-11M, instead of getting a Western Digital controller and then possibly being forced to reformat the drive due to a slight incompatibility regarding the way the drive was originally low-level formatted.
Stone
10k Member
I have a WD286-WDM20 board with a Faraday chipset. It has everything onboard, i.e., I/O, video and hard and floppy controllers which is the way WD did boards back then. The EGA is a Paradise (WD) chip and the HDD/FDD controller is a WD chip so my guess is that the OP would be more likely to have success accessing the HD he has with a WD controller. In any case it's a crapshoot 'cause without the right controller the drive is not going to divulge anything it currently has stored on it.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
I don't know if I'd trust any old MFM drive if my living depended on it working. While they're fine for hobby use (no big deal if they suddenly quit working), I'd not be very comfortable with one in something with which I earned my bread and butter. It's also possible that the HD BIOS might even be custom, regardless of the controller.
i from eastern pennsylvania.
the motherboard is marked faraday assembly #02012201-a. it is 8-bit with a number of chips on the board eg., a 48 pin faraday #L1A0519, a faraday #L1A2006, a 40 pin zilog 8709, and an intel p8088-2 dated 1978. the faraday board is what sun put in when they built it and must of been an very early model. the later models used a 16 bit computer. i was able to put in a nec D5126 hard drive from an old ibm computer i had and i can read and run the programs on that hard drive but i can't get the nec D3142 that i got from a 16 bit sun machine with all the operating programs to work. the controller i'm using for the D5126 is a WD1002S-WX2 because it is a 20MB mfm drive but the D3142 is a 40MB mfm that gives me an error code 1701 when i install it. i don't think the controller can handle 40MB drives that is why i think i need a different controller but not sure which one will work. if i had known sun switched from 8-bit to 16-bit i would have removed the motherboard from the machine i got the hard drive from.
the motherboard is marked faraday assembly #02012201-a. it is 8-bit with a number of chips on the board eg., a 48 pin faraday #L1A0519, a faraday #L1A2006, a 40 pin zilog 8709, and an intel p8088-2 dated 1978. the faraday board is what sun put in when they built it and must of been an very early model. the later models used a 16 bit computer. i was able to put in a nec D5126 hard drive from an old ibm computer i had and i can read and run the programs on that hard drive but i can't get the nec D3142 that i got from a 16 bit sun machine with all the operating programs to work. the controller i'm using for the D5126 is a WD1002S-WX2 because it is a 20MB mfm drive but the D3142 is a 40MB mfm that gives me an error code 1701 when i install it. i don't think the controller can handle 40MB drives that is why i think i need a different controller but not sure which one will work. if i had known sun switched from 8-bit to 16-bit i would have removed the motherboard from the machine i got the hard drive from.