[Coco] 80 pin ultra wide SCSI drives for the Coco

Gene Heskett gheskett at wdtv.com
Fri Jun 13 19:19:51 EDT 2014


On Friday 13 June 2014 17:28:03 Kandur did opine
And Gene did reply:
> Sorry to hear about your bout with the  Pulmonary Embolism,
> it's serious, dangerous and not at all fun.

+10, for understatement of the month.

> I am glad you are still here, and hope to see you on the list for a
> long time.

Been here a long time, since back in the Delphi days.
> BTW, do you happen to know, if the M27C1001-10 EPROM
> can be used in some of the Coco controllers, eprom packs?
> http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/M27C1001-10F1/497-1627-5-ND/59
> 1720
> 
> Kandur

I believe the footprint is different, but please do your own checking, its 
been yonks since I played with that family of eproms. I don't recall if it 
was that one, but there was 1 in that family that held the 3.1 version of 
the amigados kickstart.  IIRC it was the 27C4000, though.  There is a 
screwup story behind that I'll have to tell someday before I fall over for 
good.
 
> Friday, June 13, 2014, 2:08:23 PM, you wrote:
> > On Friday 13 June 2014 16:03:48 Kandur did opine
> > 
> > And Gene did reply:

> >> Most old Coco HD controllers were made for 50 pin SCSI-1 drives.
> >> These days they are low on capacity, high on noise, rare
> >> and priced ridiculously high.
> > 
> > Humm.  I have a pair of 1Gb seagate Hawks,
> > scsi-ii interface, on my TC^3
> > controller, works great.  Those date back to
> > the 90's and my amiga days.
> > 
> >> Enter the 80 pin ultra wide SCSI drives,
> >> they are high on capacity, low on noise and priced reasonably.
> >> Add a cheap 80+64+50+power adapter,  a 64 pin cable with terminator,
> >> use your 50 pin cable to connect it to the old Coco controller.
> >> It's in the testing phase here, now.
> >> http://qdv.pw/eng/_photos/Computers/Coco/hd-setup/
> >> 
> >> Kandur
> > 
> > That 73Gb is I believe well beyond what the
> > coco/nitros9 can handle.
> > OTOH, with 4Gb available as is, thats enough to archive just about
> > everything ever compiled to run on the coco's.
> > That limit is of course
> > set by the size of the FAT, which is limited to
> > 64Kb.  But that, if a FAT
> > bit is 64kb (256 sectors per cluster) then
> > thats 34,359,738,368 bytes
> > available per each "partition".  Room enough
> > for 2 such partitions on a
> > 73Gb drive.  But while I haven't checked, I
> > suspect the 24 bit address on
> > the scsi-ii buss itself would be a smaller
> > limit because of overflows, and
> > the actual limit then would still be
> > 34,359,738,368 bytes per drive.
> > 
> > I also have cabbaged some scsi-iii drives, 80 pinners, 300-500Gb
> > capacities but haven't tried to cobble up the
> > interfaces, they out of old
> > apple video servers that have since self
> > destructed when a fan failed.
> > 
> > When the first one fried after about 6 months,
> > Apples attitude was too
> > bad, so sad, but we have more at $7995 each.
> > At that point Jim started
> > building our own, using linux, for about 2
> > grand each.  They are still
> > working yet today.
> > 
> > That adapter & terminator stuff is out of style & generally out of
> > the supply chains since scsi was largely beheaded by sata.
> > 
> > If someone still has that stuff on the shelf,
> > please post the URL, I would
> > invest myself if the medics leave me enough
> > money.  I had a PE that almost
> > punched my ticket 2 weeks ago last Wed.
> > evening, but the clot buster shot
> > ($10G's) worked and I feel better than I have
> > in months right now.  Free
> > bleeder though, taking warfarin till whenever.  So I'll be around to
> > heckle & be heckled for a while yet.  I'll hit
> > the 80th in October. CHF
> > signs, like vary fat feet, are fading away by
> > the day, as is the weight
> > they represented.
> > 
> > I am glad to still be here, and I'll make the
> > statement that a Pulmonary
> > Embolism (blood clot in the lungs) is a hell of
> > a way to die, not at all
> > pleasant.
> > 
> > Cheers, Gene Heskett


Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
US V Castleman, SCOTUS, Mar 2014 is grounds for Impeaching SCOTUS


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