Re: Can the "Liron card" run a HD? (was: Re: What kind of ][e card is this?

[shack@crash.cts.com (Randy Shackelford)]

In article <Cw23Gt.Hs8@actrix.gen.nz>,
David Empson <dempson@actrix.gen.nz> wrote:

>> drives. This includes devices such as the Chinook CT xx C, ProAPP 10/20
>> Quark QC10/20 and the UniDisk 3.5" Drive. There was also a 3.5" drive for
>> the //c by Haba Systems, the HabaDisk, it too will work with this card.
>
>Wow - I didn't know there were that many third party SmartPort devices.

I had read that the Quark could run off a Disk II card.

>> It will NOT work with an AppleDisk 3.5" Drive (Platinum) because it lacks
>> the needed extra timing /buffering to receive data at a faster rate. They
>> added this to the //c's smartport when they designed the //c+ so it could
>> support the newer 3.5" drives as well.

I thought the extra processor speed in the IIgs and //c plus was all it took
not to need the extra hardware in the unidisk.

>I assume the Liron card has an IWM (I've only ever seen one briefly),
>so it should have almost all the hardware needed to support an Apple
>3.5 Drive.  It would need its own microprocessor or buffering
>hardware, plus outputs to control the head select and 3.5" drive
>enable lines.

It has an IWM and a ROM looking chip and three or four 74LS type chips on it.

Here's a question: is the interface used in the unidisk card and slinky card,
referred to in old documentation as the protocol converter, the same thing as
the smartport? Or are there differences?
--
Randy Shackelford                                Huh huh, that was cool.
shack@crash.cts.com