mcl9337@aim1.tamu.edu (MARK CHRISTOPHER LOWE) (05/27/91)
I have a spare Seagate ST-251 42 Meg drive and an old //e I've been using forever WITHOUT a hard drive. Where might I obtain a controller to run such a beast? I will build the power supply myself. Also, are there any public-domain debuggers for the //e that provide the sadly missing step and trace functions in the monitor? Don't get me wrong... I don't do any SERIOUS programming on this //e. It DOES do several workhorse and slave jobs well, though! :-) Please respond to the net, as this system is fixing to be canned. Many thanks... Mark C. "Bro!" Lowe - KB5III
chiu@ucsee.Berkeley.EDU (James Chiu) (05/27/91)
In article <16552@helios.TAMU.EDU> mcl9337@aim1.tamu.edu (MARK CHRISTOPHER LOWE) writes: >I have a spare Seagate ST-251 42 Meg drive and an old //e I've been using >forever WITHOUT a hard drive. Where might I obtain a controller to run >such a beast? I will build the power supply myself. There is this company called "DMA Technology" that manufactures ST415/ST506 Host Adaptor (MegaBoard Hard Disk Controller) for Apple II series. This information however is about two years old (the last time I pickup a copy of incider) and I don't have the slightest idea if these people are still in business... (And no, I am not affilated with them in ANY ways) MegaBoard Hard Disk Controller $195.96 DMA Technology Inc. 601 Pine Ave., Goleta, CA 93117 805-964-0733 Either that, or you can pickup a SCSI host adaptor and a SCSI controller (Adaptec 4000A/4070 or even Adaptec 5000 serie) and hack a drive. Adaptec controllers are been sold for about $70 a piece or so, available from either TimeLine Inc (No, don't have their address handy) or Weird Stuff (formally Computer Surplus). SCSI host adaptor can be purchased from most mail order house (Most popular ones these days seem to be RAM FAST and Apple DMA SCSI) (READS: Alot of work, and final cost may exceed cost of MegaBoard thing) >Also, are there any public-domain debuggers for the //e that provide the >sadly missing step and trace functions in the monitor? > >Don't get me wrong... I don't do any SERIOUS programming on this //e. It DOES >do several workhorse and slave jobs well, though! :-) > >Please respond to the net, as this system is fixing to be canned. > >Many thanks... > >Mark C. "Bro!" Lowe - KB5III
spock@incom.de (Martin Georg) (05/28/91)
Yes, the Megaboard is a ST-506 Controller that was originally designed and
distributed by a German company named "Frank & Britting", named after the
Inventor and designer of the board, Mr. Britting. Mr. Britting stopped de-
velopment on that board about three years ago, but he's still around here
in Germany (somewhere near Mannheim) and very helpful when it comes to solve
problems for the existing user base.
However, there's another guy here in Germany who's also involved in harddisk
adapters for MS-DOS style harddrives. He currently has two controller types
for sale, of which one is a re-design of the original Megaboard controller.
It's called "Hardport FaST-506" and allow data transfer rates of up to 220KB
per second, which is much faster than the original Megaboard (100KB/sec) or
the Apple Rev. C card (80KB/sec). Included with the FaST-506 is a slot-spe-
cific Eprom and a special GS/OS driver for optimal performance.
The other controller is brand-new and is called "RamFAST IDE". It is a hard-
disk controller for AT-Bus harddisk like they are now commonly used in MS-DOS
machines. This board also carries a slot-specific eprom and comes with a
special GS/OS driver. The board has, like the FAST-506, 16 bit Data transfer,
and in addition an 8 KB cache buffer. It is not much slower than a RamFAST
CSI from CV Technologies, but much cheaper.
OK, the full package includes:
Harddisk controller (either RamFAST IDE or FaST-506)
Harddisk cables
Complete manual
A Diskette containing:
- The content of all slot-specific EProms
- The GS/OS driver for all slots
- A harddisk formatting and preparation utility
- Utilities for bad-block scans and remapping, speed tests and much more.
Both controllers work in every Apple II+ (64KB), //e (even unenhanced) and
Apple IIgs (System Software 5.x is highly recommended!)
You have to specify your machine type and size of disk drive!!!
And now the price:
RamFAST IDE, like described above: 170,- Deutsche Mark
(1 US$ = 1,75 Deutsche Mark)
MegaBoard FaST-506, like desc. above: 140,- Deusche Mark
You have to add shipping and handling, but I'm not sure about current rates.
For more information, you can write to the following address:
Mr. Joachim Lange
Schoenstrasse 80a
D-8000 Muenchen 90
phone: Germany 89 6515150 (12:00am - 4:00 pm Eastern time only, please!).
I can highly recommend Mr. Lange and his boards. He's a long-time member
of my Apple IIgs users group and is very helpful and friendly when it comes
provide help for it's products. And the prices can't be beat - compare it
to SCSI drives and the RamFAST SCSI.
Martin Georg
Frankfurt/Germany
GEnie: A2.Martin, FIDO: Martin Georg, 2:243/100
----> Apple II forever! <----