[Coco] Tandy Hard Disk Controller

[Glen VanDenBiggelaar]

Yes,
The artical is in the March 1989 issue, and i will post it on my site in the 
next few days.
-Glen



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www.coco.8bit-micro.com
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>I recall that Marty did a nice review of hard disk systems available for 
>the
>CoCo that was published in Rainbow, and included a discussion of the RS 
>one,
>which was more of an interface than a controller.  It definitely had no
>firmware, and contained something like 3 chips total, a definite ripoff.  
>Plus,
>I think it was very restricted in terms of what sort of hard drives could
>connect to it.  I believe an all-text version of Marty's article was 
>included in
>the Delphi data libraries, so perhaps who ever it was had the archive of 
>that
>(or was it only the message base that was archived?) could post the article 
>to
>the list.
>
>Art
>
>
>On Sat, 4 Mar 2006, Gene Heskett wrote:
>
> > On Friday 03 March 2006 21:43, Ward Griffiths wrote:
> > >On 03/03/2006 01:46 pm, Neil Morrison wrote:
> > >> ----- Original Message -----
> > >> From: "Gene Heskett" <gene.heskett at verizon.net>
> > >>
> > >> > Did they actually ever *sell* one?  I looked at the one the local
> > >> > shack had, but at $129.95 I couldn't bring myself to write the
> > >> > check, NDI what ever became of it.  AIUI at the time, it also
> > >> > required another interface controller card between its cable and
> > >> > the drive proper & nobody had a clue as to what it might be
> > >> > required to do, or if it was even available.  It had a maximum of
> > >> > 3 16 pin dips in it that even if gold plated, couldn't convince me
> > >> > it was worth the asking price.
> > >>
> > >> IIRC, you needed a R/S 'Primary Drive', which contained the HD
> > >> controller. This was the standard R/S setup. The VERY expensive
> > >> 'Tandy Hard Disk Controller' was just a very simple interface with a
> > >> few chips.
> > >>
> > >> I'd like to get a schematic for it - never found one.
> > >
> > >Might not be too hard to figure out.  The cartridge for the Coco was
> > > basically some firmware (I assume) and a conversion from the Coco
> > > expansion bus to the Mod 3/4 expansion bus, just as the boards that
> > > went into the Mod 2/12/16/6000 were.  Yes, the primary drive box
> > > contained the actual controller.  The cable from a Mod 3/4 bus was
> > > straight-through.
> >
> > I don't think there was any firmware in it as it was an os9 only device,
> > and drivers for it were on the distribution disks, but possibly not on
> > all versions.
> >
> > >--
> > >Ward Griffiths    wdg3rd at comcast.net
> > >
> > >I think boys might benefit from owning a Barbie doll; every young man
> > >should understand what an expensive proposition it is to cohabitate
> > > with a narcissistic woman built like a stripper.  --  Tony Woodlief
> >
> > --
> > Cheers, Gene
> > People having trouble with vz bouncing email to me should add the word
> > 'online' between the 'verizon', and the dot which bypasses vz's
> > stupid bounce rules.  I do use spamassassin too. :-)
> > Yahoo.com and AOL/TW attorneys please note, additions to the above
> > message by Gene Heskett are:
> > Copyright 2006 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.
> >
> > --
> > Coco mailing list
> > Coco at maltedmedia.com
> > http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> >
>
>
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