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XTIDE tech support thread

So in other words.. Sell this PS/2 to someone who likes PS2's? Shame I sold my compaq portable III already. I like the gas plasma Screen.. And its got a Cyrix 486 overdrive CPU in in. I was gonna run doom on Gas Plasma! Stupid MCA Bus.
 
The problem wasn't the MCA bus per se, but IBM using it to maintain tight control on who could provide cards for it. It was not an open architecture. IBM wanted the last word on approval and one had to license it form IBM to use it. That drove the clone community to introduce VLB in response--and the rest is history.
 
Yeah from what I remember, everyone stopped buying clones,, and adopted the new MCA tightly controlled nonsense and OS/2 took over and we have been using IBM ever since.... No wait,, that didnt happen. Serves them right.
 
Eudimorphodon said:
Given that someone actually managed to recreate an MCA Soundblaster Clone recently I would think it would be well within the realm of possibility for someone to implement a simple IDE port card based on the MCA-interface CPLD code cooked up for that project. It would just require someone willing to do it.
Click to expand...

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is spongy and bruised.
 
That's just the point--most developers with the knowledge to spin a device don't own PS/2 MCA systems, nor (probably) do they want to. Chicken and egg.

Most of the posts that I've seen here over the years were for the low-end ISA-based PS/2s.

Sort of the Model 360/20 version of larger System/360 models. Not compatible at all.
 
Im sure there is a market. And with it being as it it the person who decides to make the device can charge whatever they want. When you are the only game in town you can justify the cost and time with a price that suits you.. And noone will complain as its the only choice.
Capitalism, Its whats for Dinner!
 
Chuck(G) said:
That's just the point--most developers with the knowledge to spin a device don't own PS/2 MCA systems, nor (probably) do they want to. Chicken and egg.
Click to expand...

It would be interesting to know just how many takers there would be for such a card. MCA sound cards are in kind of a unique position because of their extreme rarity; given the focus on gaming in "retrocomputing" there may be a realistic possibility that every single MCA collector out there (all... dozens of them?) might end up buying a Snark Barker or Plaid-Bib eventually.

Some PS/2 models were dirt common back in the day (I know for instance that PS/2 Model 55sxs plagued law offices and accounting firms nationwide in the late 80's) but it does at least seem like they haven't stayed in circulation the way the lowly Model 30 has. It may well be because of the lack of storage options after their original proprietary ESDI-but-not-really drives went poof. (Model 30's also have a proprietary XTA-but-not-really drive interface of course, but it's a heckuva lot easier to work around with generic parts.) If they're actually still around collecting dust an MCA-XTIDE would be a lifesaver, but I suspect they've mostly been melted down into Dollar Store spatulas at this point. (I'd say "razor blades" but given the amount of plastic in PS/2s...)
 
hard to believe that there was never an ATA card produced for MCA, but I agree with Chuck that SCSI seems like the obvious choice here
 
Again, show me a SCSI card with bootable bios that can have the drive work as a boot drive and Im sold. I love scsi. I just have only come across "dumb" scsi devices for the PS/2s
 
Chuck(G) said:
I suspect a fair number of the "upper" PS/2 model owners eventually just got a SCSI card
Click to expand...

My jaded guess as to why drive controller options seem to be so rare for these machines is because so many PS/2s were corporate owned (or leases) nobody actually cared enough to ever upgrade them; they served in stock condition until the lease ran out or they were fully amortized and then they went right out the door, eventually ending up in the same warehouse as the Ark of the Covenant.
 
Chuck(G) said:
The P70 apparently developed a reputation for wonky ESDI drives.
Click to expand...

I'm not even sure it's proper to call those drives IBM used in the models 50/55SX/70/P70 "ESDI"; they're connected to a port that's basically a dumbed-down Microchannel slot in a completely analogous way to an IDE drive. (The interface is called "DBA".) IBM called them "ESDI" because they're using a translating controller, apparently. So... I guess that means we can call ATA drives "ESDI" if we want? Yay! ;)

On another topic, FWIW about a week ago there was a discussion about those FC-1307-based SD to IDE adapters. It made me nervous about whether something may have changed regarding their compatibility with 8-bit XT-CF cards so I bought two of these because they were the cheapest ones on Amazon to test. (And I might need a couple soon anyway.) Chucked one in the Tandy 1000 this morning and it seems to work fine, at least with the version of the BIOS I'm running.

xtidesd.jpg
My older ones ID as: "SINTECHI HighSpeed SD to CF Ad" (cut off just like that). So, yeah, they still work, knock on wood.

(I only tested them for a few minutes but they booted an already formatted card with DOS and whatnot on it. Should torture them with disktest's mediatest, I guess.)
 
Well, IBM always was a little loose with terminology. You know, "we can call it what we want, because we're omnipotent." (Lilly Tomlin reference there)

Weren't there some higher-end PS/2s or adapters that could, in fact, use genuine ESDI drives?
 
Yeah, the "tower" models used semi-conventional ESDI drives with separate controllers, but apparently even they were a little quirky. (Nonstandard cables, I think? and supposedly at least some models didn't come with software to configure a bare drive, autoconfig info was written to the disks in the factory.)
 
Not really sure if its normal ESDI for the PS/2 but the drive in the P70 has one large card edge connector to the drive broken off to two separate ribbon connectors to the main board. Why two I have no idea.
 
Hello all,
I’m in the process of finishing up a build on Glitchworks IDE revision 4A board and I had a question about the orientation of 2 things. The green bulb that comes in the kit appears to have one leg slightly longer than the other. Does that longer leg go in the square pad or the round? The round pad shows continuity to the square pad on the radial capacitor which is positive. Basically asking does the longer leg go to the round or square pad?
And the 2 resistor networks. There are no orientation dots on the board. Dot side of the network to the square pad on the board?
And finally I’ll be making up a 40 pin ribbon cable for the card. Is there any specific pinout on this cable or is it just straight through? Other than correct orientation of the #1 pin? Thanks group
Randy
 
Mochatea396 said:
Hello all,
I’m in the process of finishing up a build on Glitchworks IDE revision 4A board and I had a question about the orientation of 2 things. The green bulb that comes in the kit appears to have one leg slightly longer than the other. Does that longer leg go in the square pad or the round? The round pad shows continuity to the square pad on the radial capacitor which is positive. Basically asking does the longer leg go to the round or square pad?
Click to expand...
The Anode side of the LED ( Longer leg ) goes in the round pad, The Kathode side of the LED ( Shorter leg ) goes in the square pad, The Kathode side of the LED is flat which matches the PCB.

Mochatea396 said:
And the 2 resistor networks. There are no orientation dots on the board. Dot side of the network to the square pad on the board?
Click to expand...
Yes

Mochatea396 said:
And finally I’ll be making up a 40 pin ribbon cable for the card. Is there any specific pinout on this cable or is it just straight through? Other than correct orientation of the #1 pin?
Click to expand...
Just a standard IDE cable
 
Malc said:
The Anode side of the LED ( Longer leg ) goes in the round pad, The Kathode side of the LED ( Shorter leg ) goes in the square pad, The Kathode side of the LED is flat which matches the PCB.


Yes


Just a standard IDE cable
Click to expand...
Thanks Malc,
Answered all my questions. That makes sense with the LED why I was getting continuity from the round pad to the square pad (positive ) on the radial capacitor. I’ll install the lamp tomorrow as you stated.
I kind of thought the resistor networks installed that way but I just wanted to be sure. As with the IDE ribbon cable.
Appreciate the help and your response
Randy
 
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