marocchi@motcid.UUCP (Jim Marocchi) (10/22/90)
I am working with someone that is attempting to upgrade a Zeinth Z-148 to accomodate a hard drive (and controller). This person has have come across a hard drive and controller and wish to equip the machine to accept it. Currently, the Z148 is configured for floppy drives only. The system does not have I/O connectors for expansion. I am willing to bet that I can pull some I/O off of the ribbon cable that connects the CPU board with the I/O board for use by the hard drive controller. Has anyone upgraded their Z148 to use a hard disk drive? I also would need some info as to what interrupt & address(es) to setup for the HD controller. Would there be any change to the ROM BIOS to make the drive work? Is this worth the time? We would dislike having to upgrade to a different machine just to make use of the hard drive & controller. Any pointers? Thanx. -- -- Jim Marocchi -- Motorola, Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Division -- 1501 W. Shure Dr. | (708) 632-2407 Arlington Heights, IL 60004 USA | ...uunet!motcid!marocchi ----------------------------------------------------------------------
davem@nro.cs.athabascau.ca (10/25/90)
marocchi@motcid.UUCP (Jim Marocchi) writes: > I am working with someone that is attempting to upgrade a Zeinth Z-148 to > accomodate a hard drive (and controller). This person has have come across > a hard drive and controller and wish to equip the machine to accept it. > Currently, the Z148 is configured for floppy drives only. The system does > not have I/O connectors for expansion. I am willing to bet that I can pull > some I/O off of the ribbon cable that connects the CPU board with the I/O > board for use by the hard drive controller. Has anyone upgraded their Z148 > to use a hard disk drive? I also would need some info as to what interrupt > & address(es) to setup for the HD controller. Would there be any change to > the ROM BIOS to make the drive work? Is this worth the time? We would > dislike having to upgrade to a different machine just to make use of the > hard drive & controller. Any pointers? Thanx. A company called Payload Computer Services in Houston *used* to offer an expansion card for this unit which provided two slots and a real time clock. Asking price was $149 (the ad's from a 1987 issue of Sextant. Payload's Phone number is 713/486-0687. I doubt you would need to upgrade the BIOS. Once that's in, it shud be just like any other hard drive installation (XT's use interrupt 5 for winnies). I've installed a similar product for the purpose of adding network cards to these units; it was a fairly straightforward operation. Dave McCrady | ersys!davem@nro.cs.athabascau.ca Edmonton Remote Systems | 13324-138 Street | BBS: (403)-454-6093 300-9600 bps (HST) Edmonton, AB Canada T5L 2B4 | USENET (403) 452-3254 300-2400 bps