blgardne@esunix.UUCP (Blaine Gardner) (01/13/89)
Can anyone (Perry, Eric?) point me in the direction of a hard drive
controller card that will work in ASDG's Minirack C? I had hoped to
upgrade to the 2000 & 1 box, but that's now history so I'd like to
expand with my existing hardware.
I'm not aware of any hard drive controllers that were ever made in the
Zorro I format, but I've heard that there are some 1/2 length A2000 hard
drive controllers that would fit the Minirack. The big question is: if I
can find a controller that will fit, will it WORK? I recall the failed
attempts to get anything but an ASDG card to work in the ASDG/Micron
expansion box for the 1000. As I recall the discussion, the ASDG/Micron
box was an unbuffered, unintelligent box with only +5 volts supplied.
Since this also seems to describe the Minirack C, I'm worried about
finding anything that will work.
I'd really like to put a card inside the Minirack, rather than try to
wedge a slap-on-the-side controller between the Minirack and the 1000.
And it looks like there's room to mount a 3.5" hard drive (possibly a
1/2 high 5.25") inside the Minirack too. I'd have to do a bit of hacking
(including +12 volts for the drive), but that's no problem.
If there is nothing that will work in a Minirack C, what about a
Minirack D, and does ASDG have any kind of upgrade policy for obsolete
hardware? :-)
Or could I reasonably hack a C into a D?
Any ideas, or am I crazy to try and make a clean looking installation
out of my existing hardware?
--
Blaine Gardner @ Evans & Sutherland 580 Arapeen Drive, SLC, Utah 84108
Here: utah-cs!esunix!blgardne {ucbvax,allegra,decvax}!decwrl!esunix!blgardne
There: uunet!iconsys!caeco!pedro!worsel!blaine
"Nobody will ever need more than 64K." "Nobody needs multitasking on a PC."aaron@madnix.UUCP (Aaron Avery) (01/15/89)
In article <1184@esunix.UUCP> blgardne@esunix.UUCP (Blaine Gardner) writes: >Can anyone (Perry, Eric?) point me in the direction of a hard drive >controller card that will work in ASDG's Minirack C? I had hoped to No hard drive controller card will work in a Minirack C. You're right that it's only for use with our memory boards, and was sold as such. >I'm not aware of any hard drive controllers that were ever made in the >Zorro I format, but I've heard that there are some 1/2 length A2000 hard >drive controllers that would fit the Minirack. The big question is: if I >can find a controller that will fit, will it WORK? I recall the failed >attempts to get anything but an ASDG card to work in the ASDG/Micron >expansion box for the 1000. As I recall the discussion, the ASDG/Micron >box was an unbuffered, unintelligent box with only +5 volts supplied. >Since this also seems to describe the Minirack C, I'm worried about >finding anything that will work. Yes, there were a few HD controllers that were made in the Zorro I format, but they're pretty hard to come by these days. One note -- ASDG had _nothing_ to do with the Micron expansion box. We did license our 2Meg board to them, but that's all. The main difference between the Zorro I edge connector and Zorro II is the +12 volt line. >Or could I reasonably hack a C into a D? ^^^^^^^^^^ Never. -- Aaron Avery, ASDG Inc. "A mime is a terrible thing to waste." -- Robin Williams UUCP: {harvard|rutgers|ucbvax}!uwvax!nicmad!madnix!aaron ARPA: madnix!aaron@cs.wisc.edu
cheung@vu-vlsi.Villanova.EDU (Wilson Cheung) (01/17/89)
In article <392@madnix.UUCP>, aaron@madnix.UUCP (Aaron Avery) writes: > In article <1184@esunix.UUCP> blgardne@esunix.UUCP (Blaine Gardner) writes: > >Can anyone (Perry, Eric?) point me in the direction of a hard drive > >controller card that will work in ASDG's Minirack C? I had hoped to > > No hard drive controller card will work in a Minirack C. You're right that > it's only for use with our memory boards, and was sold as such. > Well actually there is still one hard card that will work in a Mini-Rack C. Expansion Technologies in California makes a system called the Escort two which is a two slot Zorro I box intended for a 2 Meg board and a ST-506 controller. I've had no problems getting the board to work in my mini-rack C. The minus side of this card is that it is rather expensive; about $399 for a 2 disk controller. If you also get a hard disk from them they will charge you a premium price. If you shop around in Computer Shopper you should be able to get an ST251, 28ms half height drive for around $400. This will provide you with a 40 meg drive with controller for around $800 which is comparable to other hard drive systems on the market. On the down side it is may be the slowest hard drive systems for the Amiga. You'll get dramatic improvement over a floppy, but to most other SCSI systems it's a turtle. Also it doesn't seem to show speed improvement when operated under FFS. However, if you want to avoid trying out some SOTS hard controller (I tried the C Ltd with the Mini Rack and was unsuccessful), you pretty much have no choice but to get this controller, sigh. Wilson Cheung