Machine Independent Storage Idea...

[Jules Richardson]

Simon Fryer wrote:
>>    Comments, anyone?  Has this been done?  Would people see it as an
>> abomination or boon?  Who would be interested in (and capable of)
>> producing a USB interface card for "their" computers?
> 
> I was thinking of doing the same sort of thing but using compact flash
> cards and building some electronics as the interface for the QIC tape
> interface. 

Hmm, I'd much prefer that to USB; USB is a comms mechanism not a storage 
system - using CF cards means that a bridge to all sorts of common interfaces 
is possible (and in the case of things like USB and IDE such bridges exist 
already).

Question: do CF cards support 8 bit transfers though, and are they guaranteed 
to do so? IDE interfaces have been homebrewed to a lot of vintage machines, 
but quite often they only support drives that'll do 8 bit data transfers.


Remember that the most common gadget found on old machines though is the 
floppy drive - and that generally-speaking they're *reasonably* standardised 
at the electrical interface. Typically that's the only device which is 
bootable, and for which controlling software exists within whatever passes for 
an OS on the machine, too. Maybe the sensible thing to do is make a gadget 
which looks like a floppy drive to a vintage system but which holds data on 
more modern storage (USB stick, CF card etc.) or allows for a comms link to a 
modern machine.

I can't help feeling that requiring the building of a proprietary card for 
every different system and the writing of drivers for it on that system is a 
heck of a lot of work!

> Thinking about it is about as far as I got. From what I
> understand, the electronics and software for interfacing Compact Flash
> is a little easier than USB.

It's IDE on a smaller pin pitch I think. Certainly there's no smarts to the 
IDE-CF convertor that I have here - CF socket, power socket, IDE socket, a 
capacitor, and a jumper for master/slave. That's it.

And like SCSI, interfacing to IDE is mainly a software issue - the hardware 
tends to be a few buffers and little more.

cheers

Jules


-- 
there's a carp in the tub
there's a carp in the tub
so nobody's taken a bath