s_dubrovich@yahoo.com wrote:

(snip)

> I hear that! Wasn't it the IDE that shouldn't be low level formatted?

My understanding is, instead of "should never be low level formatted",
it is "should only be low level formatted using the program supplied
specifically for that drive."

Many vendors do supply such programs.

-- glen

glen herrmannsfeldt wrote:
> no.spam@no.uce.bellatlantic.net wrote:
>
> (snip)
>
>> For CF I'd not do that only because it has a limited (though large)
>> number of write cycles. The real issue is the file close problem,
>> that is insuring the file is closed and buffers are flushed. There
>> may be a secondary "what if the power fails" issue but that is a
>> call for a UPS.
>
> I wonder how many have IDE drives on their CP/M-80 systems.
> It seems that while IDE originally included the option of
> eight bit I/O, many drives only implement 16 bit I/O.
> This requires extra latches for eight bit processors.
>
> I now wonder if CF, which has a similar interface to IDE,
> has non-optional eight bit I/O.
>
> I am considering building an 8080 system that should be
> able to run CP/M, and the IDE interface is fairly simple.
>
> -- glen
>

I made my own "universal adapter" a while back that works really dandy
on CP/M 3.x and wrote a Linux driver for it. Unfortunately last year, a
raging thunderstorm came and fried the computers and the interface....
I've managed to recover the computers, and will be making a new
prototype, which is actually very nice. I also plan on releasing the
design into the public domain. What is nice is that you *could* hook up
other devices to the buss as well... such as arcnet and Ethernet! :-)

(off topic, but may be of interest regarding IDE, and Ethernet!
Apologies in advance if it is bad etiquette...)
I already have an IP stack + apps that can run on serial ports *NOW* via
plane SLIP. Go have a peek @ http://tcp.dr.ea.ms/ and if you would like
more systems added, please give me serial port specs... PLEASE NOTE that
the port MUST have full hardware flow control in order to work. Simple 3
line will *NOT* work due to the nature of the link unless you can run on
IRQ and buffer enough data, which can end up being several K at once!
If you run 3.x CP/M you can use the "generic CP/M AUX Driver" version,
but don't expect it to work once again if your BIOS sucks and can't do
hardware flow properly.

Andrew J. Kroll wrote:

(snip)

> I made my own "universal adapter" a while back that works really dandy
> on CP/M 3.x and wrote a Linux driver for it. Unfortunately last year, a
> raging thunderstorm came and fried the computers and the interface....
> I've managed to recover the computers, and will be making a new
> prototype, which is actually very nice. I also plan on releasing the
> design into the public domain. What is nice is that you *could* hook up
> other devices to the buss as well... such as arcnet and Ethernet! :-)

I have wondered about adding an 8 bit ISA slot. It would seem that
the signals should be close to the 8080 signals, close enough that
once could do I/O to 8 bit ethernet cards.

-- glen

On Thu, 13 Sep 2007 07:52:34 -0800, glen herrmannsfeldt
wrote:

>Andrew J. Kroll wrote:
>
>(snip)
>
>> I made my own "universal adapter" a while back that works really dandy
>> on CP/M 3.x and wrote a Linux driver for it. Unfortunately last year, a
>> raging thunderstorm came and fried the computers and the interface....
>> I've managed to recover the computers, and will be making a new
>> prototype, which is actually very nice. I also plan on releasing the
>> design into the public domain. What is nice is that you *could* hook up
>> other devices to the buss as well... such as arcnet and Ethernet! :-)
>
>I have wondered about adding an 8 bit ISA slot. It would seem that
>the signals should be close to the 8080 signals, close enough that
>once could do I/O to 8 bit ethernet cards.
>
>-- glen

It been done I think in BYTE or Kilobaud. Generally ISA-8 and
multibus are very close. It would be fairly easy to graft an ISA-8
card to 8080/z80.

Allison

glen herrmannsfeldt wrote:
> Andrew J. Kroll wrote:
>
> (snip)
>
>> I made my own "universal adapter" a while back that works really dandy
>> on CP/M 3.x and wrote a Linux driver for it. Unfortunately last year,
>> a raging thunderstorm came and fried the computers and the
>> interface.... I've managed to recover the computers, and will be
>> making a new prototype, which is actually very nice. I also plan on
>> releasing the design into the public domain. What is nice is that you
>> *could* hook up other devices to the buss as well... such as arcnet
>> and Ethernet! :-)
>
> I have wondered about adding an 8 bit ISA slot. It would seem that
> the signals should be close to the 8080 signals, close enough that
> once could do I/O to 8 bit ethernet cards.
>
> -- glen
>

Actually my interface does 16bit ;-)