[Coco] Q: Burke & Burke hard disk controller

[tonym]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Steven Hirsch snhirsch at gmail.com
>Sent 9/29/2008 9:04:01 PM
>To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts coco at maltedmedia.com
>Subject: [Coco] Q: Burke & Burke hard disk controller
>
>I just received the Burke & Burke CoCo XT drive controller I won in Sean's 
>auction. Turns out that it's basically an adapter that ties a vanilla 
>PC-Bus 8-bit WD-1002 drive controller (complete with mount bracket!) to 
>the CoCo bus. Very cool.
>
>Now, the question that pops into my head is: What are the chances that an 
>8-bit IDE controller would work with this unit? Particularly in the early 
>days of IDE drives, such controllers were intended to be register 
>compatible with the WD-1002 family adapters (the standard for XT and AT 
>hard drive attachment).
>
>Although I have plenty of older MFM drives to keep it fed and happy, it 
>would be really super to be able to use an IDE. I'm guessing it will need 
>to be an IDE that could do 8-bit transfers, which still implies an older 
>unit. Or, will a 16-bit IDE drive work while throwing away half its 
>capacity (no access to the upper byte of data)?
>
>

I thought it was REALLY picky about WHICH 8-bit card, as well...
It wouldn't work with just ANY 8-bit MFM controller, from what I remember.
Most WD's, (2) DTC, and (1) adaptec board

Check out:

http://www.thecocolounge.com/editorial.htm

Where he has a March 1989 Rainbow article up about Coco HD's, including the CoCo-XT
and what exact controllers were supported.

I have (2) B&B setups in the garage...

Tony