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8-Bit IDE controller pre-ordering poll

8-Bit IDE controller pre-ordering poll

  • 1

    Votes: 17 30.9%

  • 2

    Votes: 25 45.5%

  • 3

    Votes: 7 12.7%

  • 4

    Votes: 5 9.1%

  • 5

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 6

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 7

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 8

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 9

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 10 or more!

    Votes: 1 1.8%
  • Total voters
    55
Trixter said:
Good memory; I had a similar one. Imagine how elated I was to discover the 160x100x16 mode (through Round 42), and composite color graphics mode in the same month. I didn't have a composite output port, but I took my store-bought Starflight over to a friend with a compaq luggable, and we hooked it up to a TV and hit the magic keyboard combo to enable composite output. We played that (and a bootleg Flight Simulator) for hours.
Click to expand...

I eventually bought an EGA Card and it went into my 8mhz clone turbo button jobby.
Then the universe as we know it came to a stand still, I bought an Adlib Card. :D
 
kb2syd said:
If it is just horsepower you need to respin the boards and it is possible to do so, tell me what I need to download and install. I have gobs of computing power sitting around. Everything from 486s up to single core Pentium 4 machines. Think of it as your own personal SETI at Home.
Click to expand...

Hi! Thanks for the offer! My PCB trace routing machine is a 3.2 GHz P4 512MB running 24x7 Linux/Java 6/FreeRouting.net PCB router as its only task.

The current version of the XT-IDE PCB took three weeks at various settings to reduce the vias and overall trace length to something approaching decent. My N8VEM Disk IO board was in the trace router for about three months. The current job in the router is a N8VEM Zilog Peripherals board in and its been in there since the XT-IDE board came out. I have forgotten how long that has been but probably around a month or so. Its probably close to half done I'd guess. I check its progress and tune the optimizer once every day or so depending on its progress and how its doing.

Yes, I could just hit "autoroute" and pump out another PCB in a couple of hours but then it'd have hundreds of vias and trace routing that'd look like a plate of spaghetti. The board would not perform well . Repairs would be difficult and generally it would be awful. Manual routing is an option but that is huge time sink too. Purchasing the commercial OrCAD or Eagle packages is more than I am willing to invest in this hobby ($hundreds).

Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch
 
Ok, put me officially down for one.

I REALLY could use one of these. While my external enclosure works, that darn unidirectional parallel port sucks.
 
Hi! Well if its any consolation, and while it probably is not, I understand your legitimate frustration. I can sympathize and am thankful this issue is getting discussed now.

Bad news, unlike fine wine, does not improve with age. Thank you for your continued patience.

Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch
 
$20-$25 is my safe(r) toy budget, so I would assume a lot of folks will buy one for that price just because it's cheap and so usable. Also as previously mentioned IRQ selection would be great or even a quick how-to on what pins on the slot to manually jumper would be fine.

Hopefully it's enough to make a little money for you (both?) also. I understand that part also but after toys get to $50-$75 I tend to shy away for small projects. Good luck in any sense! I'm sure you'll have more sales/hits than predicted here.
 
Now, would it have a CF slot or just require an adapter? Out of curiosity. It'd be cool if it had a CF slot in the back of the computer. XD
 
If it would work on a PS/2 model 30 then I'd take one.
Would it ? :)
 
Isn't the MCA bus used on those ps/2 models? This is an ISA card only.
Isn't MCA also capable of more than 8bit transfers at a time? That sorta defeats the purpose of even needing one of these. (I'm honestly asking the questions, I'm really unfamiliar with PS/2s)

Be happy to sell you one though! :)
 
Not all of the PS/2 machines were MCA bus. The lower end machines were the functional equivalent of updated XTs.
 
hargle said:
Isn't the MCA bus used on those ps/2 models? This is an ISA card only.
Isn't MCA also capable of more than 8bit transfers at a time?
Click to expand...

Yes, the MCA bus was used on all 386+ PS/2 machines. The entry models 25 & 30 (XT/AT) use the ISA slot. I don't expect problems with fitting the card is the slot, but rather with the IRQ setting.
 
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