novak@intvax.UUCP (James L. Novak) (11/01/89)
CompuAdd just opened a store in NM (darn, have to pay sales tax now) and since I'm in the market for a 8088 Clone for the inlaws, I stopped in for a look. Their 10MHz 8088 has the floppy controller and some sort of hard disk interface on the motherboard. They call their HDI an "Integrated Drive Electronics" interface. Looking at their catalog, I found out that Miniscribe and Western Digital both make these drives, although I was unable to find ANY other Manufacturers or mail-order companies offering them. Is IDE just a mareting tool used by CompuAdd to channel purchases of HDs through them exclusively? Does it actually use a "standard" interface (SCSI or ESDI?). I must admit I've not kept up with HDs since I prefer to not tempt myself with anything better than my (gasp) ST225. Thanks in advance for any light shed on this issue.
jbh@trsvax.UUCP (11/01/89)
You can get IDE drives from a couple of mail order places. Scan the latest Computer Shopper magazine. IDE drives are becoming a standard for Tandy 8086/80286 machines. IDE connectors are also included in some Dell machines. As far as manufacturers, Imprimis sells a 100M IDE drive for less than the equivelent ESDI drive. IDE gives good performance: better than ST506 drives, maybe not up to ESDI/SCSI standards ( I am told ). I have heard nothing but good things about the latest crop of IDE drives.
neese@adaptex.UUCP (11/02/89)
>CompuAdd just opened a store in NM (darn, have to pay sales tax now) >and since I'm in the market for a 8088 Clone for the inlaws, I stopped >in for a look. Their 10MHz 8088 has the floppy controller and some >sort of hard disk interface on the motherboard. They call their >HDI an "Integrated Drive Electronics" interface. Looking at their >catalog, I found out that Miniscribe and Western Digital both make >these drives, although I was unable to find ANY other Manufacturers or >mail-order companies offering them. > >Is IDE just a mareting tool used by CompuAdd to channel purchases of >HDs through them exclusively? Does it actually use a "standard" >interface (SCSI or ESDI?). I must admit I've not kept up with >HDs since I prefer to not tempt myself with anything better than my >(gasp) ST225. > >Thanks in advance for any light shed on this issue. IDE drives have the disk controller built into them. Much like a SCSI drive. The only thing needed to drive the disk is a simple port I/O decoder. This makes for a very chep hard disk implementation. Also, the IDE drives are RLL encoded, so performance is above par as compared to standard ST506/412 disks that are MFM encoded. Manufacturers include Quantum, Imprimis(CDC), Conner, Miniscribe, WD and some others who haven't released them yet. As far as distributors go, it will be a while before all the vendors get thier drives into that channel, as they are concetrating on the OEM'S and supoer VAR's. Roy Neese Adaptec Central Field Applications Engineer UUCP @ {texbell,attctc}!cpe!adaptex!neese merch!adaptex!neese
karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Karl Denninger) (11/03/89)
>Item 6519 (0 resps) by novak at intvax.UUCP on Wed 01 Nov 89 10:31 >[James L. Novak] Subject: What is IDE?? >(16 lines) > >in for a look. Their 10MHz 8088 has the floppy controller and some >sort of hard disk interface on the motherboard. They call their >HDI an "Integrated Drive Electronics" interface. Looking at their >catalog, I found out that Miniscribe and Western Digital both make >these drives, although I was unable to find ANY other Manufacturers or >mail-order companies offering them. IDE is a "new" "standard" that some places are pushing. The places that are pushing it claim increased performance. Reality, thus far at least, is that the units have problems. We have seen troubles of all kinds, including drives being shipped that have 600K+ of bad sectors (!). They also require some special setup to allow a second fixed disk -- which is BAD if you want to add a secondary drive. I wouldn't buy one for a simple reason -- competition problems. If you have trouble with the drive, and want to replace it, you could have a problem finding a replacement unit. Go with either the old standby or an SCSI device. Both are standard, have been around for a long time, and allow you to buy your second (and subsequent) fixed disks from anyone. -- Karl Denninger (karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM, <well-connected>!ddsw1!karl) Public Access Data Line: [+1 312 566-8911], Voice: [+1 312 566-8910] Macro Computer Solutions, Inc. "Quality Solutions at a Fair Price"
cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Stephen M. Dunn) (11/05/89)
Radio Shack's latest catalog has one or two computers with IDE disk
drives (or at least, it does in this country ... I'm sure they have the
same in the States, too).
--
Stephen M. Dunn cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca
<std_disclaimer.h> = "\nI'm only an undergraduate!!!\n";
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They say the best in life is free // but if you don't pay then you don't eat