This is really cool. I'm glad people are out there making this stuff even if I'll never have a use for it.
What are the use cases for this? I'm guessing retro computing and possibly very old machines tied to very obsolete hardware that can't be virtualized (e.g. manufacturing controls).
Fun seeing this posted - I'm the creator of the project. While it's meant to be a generic IDE/ATAPI emulator the two main use cases I envisioned for the project are in the area of retro computing: CD-ROM under MS-DOS and Windows 9x, where software-only virtual drive emulation options are lacking or nonexistent, and IDE hard drive emulation on early IDE machines where the drive geometries are fixed.
Since the project has been announced, lots of people have come out of the woodwork with other fun potential use cases, such as CD-ROM replacement in arcade cabinets and the Dreamcast, and hard drive replacement in multitrack recorders and samplers.
How does the PicoIDE compare with the ZuluIDE? Are they direct competitors or are there different use cases?
I've been on the fence about getting a ZuluIDE for a while because of the price and because I don't exactly need one... I'll wait and see how the PicoIDE is priced.
Tangential question: does anyone know if there's a ~similar device to replace/upgrade a Toshiba T1100's floppy drive?
A friend found a T1100 for me and I'm just trying to think of the best way to boot it. Alternatively... I could get a USB floppy disk drive and a fresh floppy, and write old-school DOS to it, at least to get started?
There is a Gotek floppy emulator hardware, about $50 USD.
A USB floppy drive will be cheaper, maybe $20.
I think the T1100 has standard 34-pin IDC connector, but Plus variant uses 26-pin so the Gotek will need an adapter (and probably doesn't fit cleanly).
This is really cool! I like the attention to detail on the front panel, it's something I'd be proud of showing on a carefully built retro PC. I could see using this over CF to IDE adapters which work well but this is a cleaner solution.
Good luck with your launch, I'll be happy to order one!
Personally I think the half-melted (literally) rough 3D-printed look is rather ugly, and would prefer a stamped steel plate --- like this (floppy emulator): https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=28
Well sounds like I may have jumped the gun yet again. I managed to nab a IDE Simulator v3 by Tattiebogle in Sept. Maybe I should have waited for this. This has happened to me before so I wonder if maybe word got out that this was coming so others got their products out asap?
I've been waiting on something like this for years, I'm surprised it took so long for someone to do it since there's been those gotek floppy drive emulators and things like bluescsi for forever.
It took so long because IDE _is_ good old PC AT ISA bus with all of its warts. History wall of text:
First PC hard drives were Seagate ST-412 with matching MFM controller plugged into 8bit ISA slot of original IBM XT PC. Drive connected to controller in pretty much exact same way as a floppy - signals controlling STEP/DIRection, selecting HEAD/Drive, and finally pre-processed READ/WRITE data in form of impulses (instead of raw analog signal from/to head, https://github.com/raszpl/sigrok-disk for way too much info). This with later ST-506 was enshrined as PC ~standard with all Bioses hardcoding support.
Then came RLL controllers, same thing but with tighter tolerances allowing for denser encoding (7.5Mbit) at same flux rate (5Mhz).
ESDI is where someone said wait a minute, that 30 cm cable transmitting impulses going to/from media mated to random controller is not all that optimal, lets put our highly tuned RLL Endec (encoder/decoder) chip on the drive itself and talk synchronous serial to it. This combined with probably better magnetic media allowed for another boost to flux rate (10-20Mbit) and capacity.
So what do you do when whole PC industry standardizes on one vendors (Seagate ST-412) product? You emulate it. Western Digital, who started making big bucks thanks to 1976 FD1771 floppy controller and later ST-506 compatible solutions, worked since 1984 to glue whole ST-506 ISA controller onto the drive itself and connect it to ISA bus over the ribbon.
>"Compaq bought 90% of Conner’s drive output in 1987, the first year of production. Conner sales went from $10 million in Q1-1987, to $30 million in Q2, and finished 1987 at over $113 million, then over $256 million in 1988. Conner reached $1.337 billion in sales within four years, a record growth for a startup."
Finally in ~1994 (unclear who first https://www.os2museum.com/wp/the-secret-history-of-atapi/) CDROMS piggybacking on IDE and taking advantage of ATAPI standard started shipping. Packetized SCSI, development again driven by Western Digital! started in 1992, first draft 1993.
As all historical 'it was a good idea at the time' hacks go IDE is not a nice interface. Consider the case of two IDE devices on same ribbon, those are in effect two ISA disk controllers pretending to be _one and the same_ ISA disk controller!
>Device 0 has to act differently depending on whether Device 1 is present; if Device 1 is present, Device 0 has to let it respond to register accesses directed to i...
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[ 2.3 ms ] story [ 49.1 ms ] threadWhat are the use cases for this? I'm guessing retro computing and possibly very old machines tied to very obsolete hardware that can't be virtualized (e.g. manufacturing controls).
Since the project has been announced, lots of people have come out of the woodwork with other fun potential use cases, such as CD-ROM replacement in arcade cabinets and the Dreamcast, and hard drive replacement in multitrack recorders and samplers.
I've been on the fence about getting a ZuluIDE for a while because of the price and because I don't exactly need one... I'll wait and see how the PicoIDE is priced.
You know, with couple differential transceivers on a daughterboard you could support everything this https://www.drem.info does :)
A friend found a T1100 for me and I'm just trying to think of the best way to boot it. Alternatively... I could get a USB floppy disk drive and a fresh floppy, and write old-school DOS to it, at least to get started?
Thanks!
A USB floppy drive will be cheaper, maybe $20.
I think the T1100 has standard 34-pin IDC connector, but Plus variant uses 26-pin so the Gotek will need an adapter (and probably doesn't fit cleanly).
https://archive.is/gFVNm (medium post, shows the adapter)
https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy/issues/549 (somebody had issue with high 5V rail causing Gotek to not work)
Good luck with your launch, I'll be happy to order one!
Based on RP2350. Perhaps because RP2350 provides more GPIO pins?
This seriously just made my day.
First PC hard drives were Seagate ST-412 with matching MFM controller plugged into 8bit ISA slot of original IBM XT PC. Drive connected to controller in pretty much exact same way as a floppy - signals controlling STEP/DIRection, selecting HEAD/Drive, and finally pre-processed READ/WRITE data in form of impulses (instead of raw analog signal from/to head, https://github.com/raszpl/sigrok-disk for way too much info). This with later ST-506 was enshrined as PC ~standard with all Bioses hardcoding support.
Then came RLL controllers, same thing but with tighter tolerances allowing for denser encoding (7.5Mbit) at same flux rate (5Mhz).
ESDI is where someone said wait a minute, that 30 cm cable transmitting impulses going to/from media mated to random controller is not all that optimal, lets put our highly tuned RLL Endec (encoder/decoder) chip on the drive itself and talk synchronous serial to it. This combined with probably better magnetic media allowed for another boost to flux rate (10-20Mbit) and capacity.
So what do you do when whole PC industry standardizes on one vendors (Seagate ST-412) product? You emulate it. Western Digital, who started making big bucks thanks to 1976 FD1771 floppy controller and later ST-506 compatible solutions, worked since 1984 to glue whole ST-506 ISA controller onto the drive itself and connect it to ISA bus over the ribbon.
It all came together when Compaq started pushing IDE adoption. First with some Compaq Portables using Western Digital WD1003-IWH IDE to MFM adapters screwed into Miniscribe MFM drives, and then mayor 1987 deployment in volume with Conner CP341 (https://www.os2museum.com/wp/can-this-conner-talk/ http://s3.computerhistory.org/groups/ds-conner-cp340-family-...).
>"Compaq bought 90% of Conner’s drive output in 1987, the first year of production. Conner sales went from $10 million in Q1-1987, to $30 million in Q2, and finished 1987 at over $113 million, then over $256 million in 1988. Conner reached $1.337 billion in sales within four years, a record growth for a startup."
In the mean time in 1984 DEC shipped first computer CDROM RRD-50 (Philips LMSI CM100) using weird Philips LMSI synchronous serial interface (https://github.com/AkBKukU/CM153-Repro). Later Sony/Panasonic/Mitsumi opted to copy IDE solution by mating 8 bit parallel bus straight to ISA (https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~theom/electronics/panaso...) visible to computer as four IO mapped ports.
Finally in ~1994 (unclear who first https://www.os2museum.com/wp/the-secret-history-of-atapi/) CDROMS piggybacking on IDE and taking advantage of ATAPI standard started shipping. Packetized SCSI, development again driven by Western Digital! started in 1992, first draft 1993.
As all historical 'it was a good idea at the time' hacks go IDE is not a nice interface. Consider the case of two IDE devices on same ribbon, those are in effect two ISA disk controllers pretending to be _one and the same_ ISA disk controller!
>Device 0 has to act differently depending on whether Device 1 is present; if Device 1 is present, Device 0 has to let it respond to register accesses directed to i...