Possible to speed up I/O subsystem of 5150?

[Steve Thatcher]

considering that the ATA-1 spec included 8 bit transfers from the harddrive, I don't understand why no IDE drives that supported ATA-1 would not work on a PC/XT (unless the DMA speed was the problem).

-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Smith <eric at brouhaha.com>
Sent: Dec 9, 2004 1:52 PM
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: Possible to speed up I/O subsystem of 5150?

Fred wrote:
> Yes, there ARE some 8 bit IDE controllers,
> but not all IDE drives will work with them.

To a first approximation, *NO* IDE drives will work with them.
8-bit support is not part of the official ATA specification.  Even
back when 8-bit IDE adapters were being sold, not many drives worked
with them, and as soon as the adapters disappeared the drive makers
that had bothered to support them stopped doing so.

Eric