[net.micro] Western Dynex and ST506 interface

jones (12/15/82)

IAN's, U of Waterloo, question about a S-100/ST506 interface board for
the Dynex WD505 raises issues which might be of general interest.  Any
rigid drive with removable media can work on the Seagate ST506 
interface, but that interface does not support the removable feature.
(Rats, someone lifted my WD file) I believe that the Dynex drive will
conform to the ST706 interface; which has a good chance of becoming a
standard since Syquest is also going to use it.  The new signals
include: Change cartridge, Recalibrate, Write Protected, Cartridge
changed, and Radial index.  As I said, you can do it, it just means you
are going to have to be extra careful.

You might consider, if uglyness is not a problem, using one of the
inexpense winchester conrollers from either Xebec or Western Digital
and attaching that to a parallel interface S-100 card.  I'm pretty
ignorant of S-100 stuff in general for what it's worth.

Dan Jones
Fortune Systems Corp.