I wanted to let all of you know that the 2nd revision of my friend's
PC/XT IDE controller is now available.  For those of you not in the
know, this is a way of using modern IDE hard drives in your 8bit PC or
XT system.  Works with drives up to 137G (your O/S also has to support
it; 8.4G is way more common) and Compact Flash->IDE controllers too.
CD-ROM support is likely coming eventually, but he has to write an
entire driver that MSCDEX would talk to.
They're being sold at cost: $30 for a kit to solder your own, $40 for a
pre-built and tested card.
These are not quite the end production unit, but darn close.  Works in
PC/XT clones, as well as Tandy 1000 series machines (anyone who knows
how hard it is to get an IDE drive into a Tandy will appreciate this).
They are also going to be building one that will fit into a PCjr sidecar
someday.  ;)
Details are available on the last message of this forum page:
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?t=12359&page=109
--
Jim Leonard (trixter at 
oldskool.org)            
http://www.oldskool.org/
Help our electronic games project:           
http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at     
http://www.mindcandydvd.com/
A child borne of the home computer wars: 
http://trixter.wordpress.com/