ParanoidLittleMan GAL Atari ST/e ACSI 2 IDE Question ):

[Chri O.]

http://atari.8bitchip.info/acsicfs.html

Perhaps this is a stupid question but I'm just curious, will this work with any PATA/IDE/EIDE CD-ROM drive ?

[ParanoidLittleMan]

As name says it is for CF or full name: Compact Flash cards. Nowhere says ACSI 2 IDE .  Page title is acsicfs - s is for schematic.

While CF cards can work in IDE mode, and that mode is used, mostly in DMA mode (for speed) it can not work even with all CF cards, only with Sandisk ones (and they did not pay to me to say this) . ACSI port is 8-bit, while IDE has 16 data lines, so no, no PATA, IDE, CD/DVD drives - all it works only in 16-bit IDE mode.  Plus, older ones might not work in DMA mode too.

 

This is IDE adapter good for ST, STE: http://atari.8bitchip.info/aidesch.htm

Hmm, almost 30 years old project.

 

And to add, there were some writes on Atari forums about going in designing of ACSI-IDE adapter for STs, around 2008 - from Jookie and Techie Alyson. But nothing from that happened. I guess the reasons were complexity of it and that SD cards started to be more spread and cheaper, so what was designed was for them.  And it's not 8-16 bit conversion what would be hardest part of ACSI2IDE, but whole protocol, commands are very different. SD cards use protocol similar to SCSI.

 

Hmmm ... if you like complicated solutions maybe this can work:  ACSI2SCSI adapter, then SCSI2IDE adapter ?

 

 

[Chri O.]

Oh well I figured I asked so it looks like I'm missing the high 8 data lines for a full IDE interface ?

Traditional CF cards use the Parallel ATA (IDE) (PATA) interface.

 

17 hours ago, ParanoidLittleMan said:

This is IDE adapter good for ST, STE: http://atari.8bitchip.info/aidesch.htm

I am aware of this project just don't want to mess with my beloved Atari ST/e internal Hardware and ICD AdSpeed ST/e accelerator.

[ParanoidLittleMan]

14 hours ago, Chri O. said:

Oh well I figured I asked so it looks like I'm missing the high 8 data lines for a full IDE interface ?

Traditional CF cards use the Parallel ATA (IDE) (PATA) interface.

 

I am aware of this project just don't want to mess with my beloved Atari ST/e internal Hardware and ICD AdSpeed ST/e accelerator.

It's not about 'traditional CF card' - Sandisk fits all 'traditional' standards for CF cards, and little more. On ACSI port much more is missing than high 8 data lines to work as IDE interface.  Myself actually did 16-8 bit conversion back in 1993:

http://zx48.8bitchip.info/idehard.htm

But that goes on CPU bus, what is pretty much IDE compatible on some level on all home computers of 80-es.

Then, when Compact Flash cards arrived it was way simper:  http://zx48.8bitchip.info/zxcf.htm

And 8-bit mode is still possible with CF cards, but only in PIO mode, not in DMA (except Sandisk), and that's one of the reasons why no ACSI-IDE adapter made.

How much would cost mentioned combination  ACSI-SCSI (that means some old ICD adapter, I guess) and SCSI-IDE adapter ?