Re: IDE controller

["St�phane Guillard" <stephane.guillard@steria.com>]

Hi,

> >I havent visited this group in a while, but I am back... Does anyone
> >remember a person with the last name Guillard (I think) who was in the
> >process of building an IDE controller for the IIgs? If so, was it ever
> >finished and how successful was it? Also what was the home page for this
> >project? Or, if it did not turn out so good, has anyone heard of another
> >IDE controller for the IIgs? Thanks!
> Hi here is he : http://s.guillard.free.fr/

Or, say, I'm here :)

Here is the current status of this project :

- My hardware, as described on my homepage, works OK on my apples, but not
with all hard drives.
- My software runs OK also, it is able to load/save/execute/delete etc.
files from/to a FAT partition on the HD. This enables VERY simple file
exchange between PC and Apple. My software runs un der DOS 3.3 and Prodos.
My software has been reduced down to less than 8 kb for full functionality
(including POSIX file API). But I have not spent enough time to finalize it
and integrate it properly into DOS or ProDOS.

A friend of mine, Rich (rich@dwave.net), has found why all HDDs do not work
with my diagram : the 6502 makes a read cycle before each write cycle on the
bus. He has :
- made a corrected schematic (added a flip flop to mask the read cycles out
when doing write cycles),
- burnt this stuff into an EPLD (instead of the handful of TTL chips I use),
which enables a very small footprint for the IDE board,
- made a ProDOS driver (no FAT, limited to 32 mb per partition, no DOS 3.3
support, only 2 partitions), but it works, and you can boot off the HDD if
you wish.

By the way, as CompactFlash memory devices (for digital cameras etc.) have a
IDE compatibility mode, he runs the interface with a 64MB compactflash,
which gives 2 x 32MB Prodos partitions at very low power consumption.

I don't remember the URL, but ask rich.

I do not make big progress on this project at present time, because I spend
all my spare time on Amiga projects (among which being part of the new OS
release 4 development crew) since around 1 year. But I know I will come back
on the Apple eventually, because I WANT to make my own Ethernet board with a
micro TCP interface. I'm sure I can put all that stuff into less than 48K,
including a very simple web browser and my HDD software. I simply don't know
yet when I'll resume work on the Apple II. BTW, I already know how to make
my Ethernet board :)

Kind regards,
--
SG.