Subject: Re: Oooooh... IDE to Q-bus/Unibus adapters.
To: None <port-vax@netBSD.org>
From: Allison J Parent <allisonp@world.std.com>
List: port-vax
Date: 07/07/1999 08:50:23
<Just noticed these links on the http://vaxarchive.org site, but apparently
<someone over in the Ukraine has put together adapters which allow for the
<use of IDE controllers and drives in Q-bus and Unibus systems. I know the
<idea was talked about some time back, but it's pretty nifty that such a
<thing actually exists now.
I've looked at it and there are several things about it. It's PIO only.
Not well designed, timing is shakey.
The idea is right and IDE on Qbus is pretty simple. If someone has the
old DEC foundation cards (has the bus interface plus WW area) it's pretty
trivial then to do a full IDE with DMA. Even if you dont the prints and
specifications for those cards and their use are in the DEC handbooks.
I might add that IDE offers the same or better bandwidth than SCSI without
the overhead of scsi drivers.
If I weren't full time busy I'd do it for the Qbus as it's smaller than
RD5x drives and even old 420mb drives would offer good space for vaxen
and smaller one would be real nice for PDP-11s.
Allison