8-bit IDE hard drives, controllers

[woodelf]

Herb Johnson - null account wrote:

>
> That reminds me of recent posts about other 8-bit ISA (IBM PC bus) 
> hard drive controllers. Some of the EARLIEST IDE (not MFM) hard drives 
> used an 8-bit data bus, not the 16-bit which became standard 
> subsequently. So some of the earliest 8-bit ISA IDE controllers and 
> drives are not compatible with subsequent drives and controllers. I 
> don't know or remember an easy way to determine this, beyond checking 
> the specs of drive or controller. There is no difference in the 
> connector.

Working on a homebrew computer design, I have been looking up IDE 
interfacing and you could build a new PC
interface but you then don't have  BIOS suport. I think this is more of 
the case here THE PC IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE  PC for 8 bit I/O. Looking 
on the web you can find information of 8 bit homebrew cards for other 
machines like CP/M or PDP 8's. The real problem is small drives are 
harder to find so if you plan to do ny adapting IDE drives to 
non-standard computers now may be a good time to find small drives while 
they still are around.
Ben alias woodelf.