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Re: Fix a Sider???
David C.W. Chiu (dchiu@netcom.com) wrote:
: In article <3rppar$d15@news.tamu.edu>,
: John Donald Baker <jdb8042@tam2000.tamu.edu> wrote:
:
: >>> Where can I get a replacement for the Sider? Is it like an IDE
: >>> interface? Maybe MFM? Maybe I can just swap the HD out...
: >>Problem is that the Sider is actually a SASI mechanism. SASI was a
: >>standard that predated and eventually became SCSI. SASI stands for
: >>Shugart Associates Standard Interface. You cannot find replacement SASI
: >>drives any longer. You are better off scrapping it. I used an old SIDER
: >What no one has grasped yet is that the actual _mechanism_ is an MFM hard
: >disk. The Sider has a hard disk controller board in it that provides the
: >SASI interface to the MFM drive. It's most likely a Xebec S1410.
My Sider has a hybrid disk mechanism consisting of a
Xebec-manufactured SASI drive with integral SASI interface. There is
nothing recognizable as a 1410-A that I recall, though it's been a
while since the thing's been open.
: Specifically it's a Xebec S1410-A "Brain Damaged", as it has the drive
: geometry burn into the firmware. Standard S1410-A will let you TELL IT
: what drive is hanging off it. Boards out of FirstClass Periphrials casings
: probably won't.
Some time ago I hacked into the 1410 EPROM and found the hard-coded
parms. If one has access to an EPROM burner, it's no big trick to
blow a new one for any disk geometry (I think that's what I did for
you, John <g>). Only tricky part is the checksum byte at the end. If
anyone really wants to do this, I can dig out a little quicky program
that I wrote for CP/M that calculates and patches in a new sum.
: Earlier SiderWare has a hidden option that will allow you to manually
: enter drive geometry. Later versions has the option disabled altogether.
No kidding! I didn't realize that. What is the magic keystroke to
get into this option?
- Steve
--
____________________________________________________________________________
|Steven N. Hirsch "Anything worth doing is worth |
|University of Vermont overdoing.." - Hunter S. Thompson|
|Computer Science / EE |
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