Ultra Simple IDE Card..?

[CharlesMouse]

As a bit of an experiment I came up with a basic design for an ultra simple IDE card for the ADAM. Well, to be honest the idea is heavily cribbed from a well known design for the ZX Spectrum computer.

 

Why bother when there's a perfectly good solution for sale? Well I have one of my own and it's excellent, but variety is the spice of life and as usual I like to see about DIY options for my own amusement.

 

Pro's:

-Literally a one chip design

-Could be botched together as a 'dead bug' if you were so inclined

-I've got a preliminary ADAM slot schematic done-ish

 

Con's:

-To keep things as simple as possible it's an 8bit interface (IDE is 16bit-ish)

-That means 1/2 of your media goes to waste - hardly a biggie, and with a little trickery I might be able to use an SD card in SPI mode to solve that

-I'm, um, stuck for driver software

 

So...

Would there be any interest in such a DIY project? I'd say this one has to be DIY only as I don't want to tread on commercial toes in a small market.

The easiest route to functional drivers would be to ensure such an interface is software compatible with the excellent commercial one already available... Does anyone feel it's ok to share the workings of that version before I consider the long way round and get out my multimeter..?

 

PS

For my part I'm addressing all the things I'd consider useful for an ADAM owner that are potentially within my reach. (maybe!) But I'm open to suggestions.

Edited June 13, 2019 by CharlesMouse

[+Vorticon]

I agree that hardware needs good drivers.

For my part, with 2 VDD's connected, I am having trouble justifying the need, or cost, of an IDE card... Heck I'm not even sure I really need a 64K RAM expansion!

[CharlesMouse]

Hi Chaps,

Yes I agree it's hard to justify stuff beyond an AtariMax, a decent game pad, and possibly an SGM, all of which are already covered. I really like the IDE card I have but I admit it doesn't get a lot of use, especially with Seam Myers excellent ADAMNet Drive available. Still, it's nice to be able to boot CP/M (TDOS) from a 'hard drive'. I'm kind of throwing out ideas to see if any stick as once (I sincerely hope!) current projects reach a successful conclusion I'm a bit stuck for ideas...

...I got started with the idea of using my ADAM to finally learn CP/M and got a bit distracted with things to make the CP/M experience on this system a bit better. Also as my daughter built and RC2014, with a bit of help, and that's primarily a CP/M machine that with the right expansion will run Coleco software it's been fun to try to approach the same functionality from opposite directions. (How I wish MIB had gone for an SIO/2, or even a R6551, instead of a SCN2681 for their serial design. I would probably be enjoying an 80 column display by now instead of continuing to struggle)

 

PS

I shudder to ask this question because I'm even less knowledgeable when it comes to video than other stuff, and I'm happy with the warm fuzzy feeling from my ADAM's display, but is there any mileage in my looking in to that? (A better old school analogue display, none of this fancy HDMI stuff for me!)

[NIAD]

I'm with MilliV on this one...

 

We already have a good and available IDE interface available from MicroFox/Adamcon and what is most needed is the MIB/80 column interface that you have been working on especially seeing as Serial interfaces are very scarce and 80 column units are insanely scarce.