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Amiga 500 - to - PC style Hard Disk Interface A Demonstration Software/Hardware Construction Project Products ByNery 14 Chambers Court Mansfield, Ma. 02048 Copyright 1990, Products ByNery Contents Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.2 Shareware Plea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.3 Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.4 Distribution Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.5 DISCLAIMER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Chapter 2 CIRCUIT ANALYSIS 4 Chapter 3 CONSTRUCTION 6 3.1 Wiring List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Chapter 4 CHECKOUT 11 Chapter 5 CONTROLLER/DISK DRIVE SELECTION 12 Chapter 6 INSTALLATION 13 6.1 Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 6.2 Testing and Low-Level Formatting . . . . . 14 6.3 Software Installation . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Chapter 7 REGISTRATION 16 i Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Are you fed up with the high cost of Amiga hard disks? Do you wonder what you get when you purchase an interface to a pc-disk? Do you want a low cost alternative? Well, here's your answer to all of the above questions and more. This project will allow you to construct a LOW COST adapter that allows the interface of a PC-style hard disk to the Amiga 500. The adapter itself can be built for less than $20.00 and consists of only 3 integrated circuits that cost less than $1.00 total. The majority of the cost is for the two edge-board connectors. What this means is that with a little shopping you should be able to add a 10Meg disk for about $150.00, or $180 with a power supply. That's about the same as the price of an external floppy. Section 1.1 Background This project started about the time a Canadian Company introduced a PC hard disk interface for the Amiga 500. As memory serves, for over $150.00 you could get: 1. A schematic. 2. A device driver. 3. Some photos. 4. A bare PC board. 5. Instructions on where to BUY the parts and construct the interface. This treatment incensed me. I will never fault the Capitalistic system, BUT, to be taken advantage of was certainly over and above the normal rules. At that time, I decided to design an interface and write a driver. The following files make up that decision. Before going straight to the design and implementing, please read the following. - 1 - Section 1.2 Shareware (sorta) Plea This project is SHAREWARE. The intent, as I see it, is to share the development cost so that future improvements can be offered as well as enhancements. BOTH OF WHICH WILL BE COMING TO THOSE THAT REGISTER. At first, and maybe still if enough request it when registering, I was going to offer a circuit board to entice people to register. The board is lazed out and I am currently running with it. After researching the costs, I found it was going to cost another $1000.00 to produce the first lot. Since I already have invested about $1500, I decided not to offer a board. Then why should you register? Easy, the driver supplied is only a partial implementation. It will support any drive having at least 4 heads and 306 cylinders. This translates to about 10 Meg of disk. If you register, you get: 1. A configurable driver, which provides: * Both RLL and MFM controller support. * Programmable drive size (tracks and heads). * Support for 2 drives of different or same sizes. 2. User friendly installation/maintenance program. 3. A positive transparency to allow PC board manufacture. 4. A complete manual including instructions on how to make the PC board. The registration packages is completed and currently available. For the sake of full disclosure, here are the known deficiencies with the current revision of the REGISTERED driver, rev 2.0. 1. All errors reported as 0 length transfers. 2. Drive does not AutoBoot. 3. All IO requests, except for immediate operations, are queued. This is a performance issue only and transparent to the user. Section 1.3 Performance The results of this project do not produce a screamer, based upon the claims made by other manufacturers, however compared to a floppy disk, I don't think you'll be disappointed. The performance figures were supplied by the program: DiskPerformance - V3.0 - 03/21/89 - 2 - The test was run on the last partition of a 33 Megabyte, Micropolis Disk controlled by a Western Digital RLL hard disk controller, model 27X and an interleave of 10. The partition size was 15 Megabytes and was empty. Following are the results of the test: File create/delete: create 16 files/sec, delete 40 files/sec Directory scan: 102 entries/sec Seek/read test: 83 seek/reads per second r/w speed: buf 1024 bytes, rd 33608 byte/sec, wr 31968 byte/sec r/w speed: buf 8192 bytes, rd 62415 byte/sec, wr 62415 byte/sec r/w speed: buf 32768 bytes, rd 65536 byte/sec, wr 62415 byte/sec Section 1.4 Distribution Contents The following files are included in the evaluation package: * Manual.Doc - This file. * Schematic.part1 - IFF of first half of the schematic for the hardware interface. * Schematic.part2 - IFF of second half of the schematic for the hardware interface. * Layout.pic - IFF of suggested Construction Layout. * prototype.pic - IFF of my prototype interface. * ByNeryDemo.device - the device driver. * install.ByNeryDemo - program to test interface and low-level format the drive. Section 1.5 DISCLAIMER ***************************************************************** * DISCLAIMER * * * * NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES ARE MADE WITH RESPECT TO * * THE ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, PERFORMANCE OR OPERATION OF THIS * * DOCUMENTATION OR OF THE ByNeryDemo INTERFACE ITSELF. * * * * DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS PROJECT, NEITHER THE AUTHOR NOR * * Products ByNery CAN BE HELD LIABLE FOR DAMAGES, REAL OR * * IMPLIED, RESULTING FROM THE CONSTRUCTION, INSTALLATION OR * * RELIABILITY OF THIS PROJECT. * * * * * ***************************************************************** - 3 - Chapter 2 CIRCUIT ANALYSIS The Amiga 500, as well as all Amiga family members, utilize the Motorola 680x0 family of microprocessors. The Hard Disk controller to which this project interfaces was designed for the INTEL 808x family of microprocessors. The Disk Controller requires the following signals: 1. Data Lines D0-D7. 2. Address Lines A0-A19. 3. *IOR - When low an I/O read operation is in progress. 4. *IOW - When low an I/O write operation is in progress. 5. RESET - When high the disk controller is reset. The Amiga expansion bus provides the following signals: 1. Data Lines D0-D7. Note, only 8 bit access is used here. 2. Address Lines A1-A23. Note, there is no A0. This is due to the fact that the Amiga is a true 16 bit machine. 3. R/*W - High, read. Low, write. 4. *LDS - When low, low memory byte is being accessed. 5. *RESET - When low, the Amiga 500 is being reset. 6. *AS - When low, a valid addres is present. As you can see, the required lines don't exactly match the signals provided by the Amiga. This project converts the Amiga's signals to those expected by the controller. The major difference lies in the memory mapped I/O used by the Amiga versus the direct I/O porting used by the controller. Conversion of the Amiga to a compatible form, requires that a memory space, in the Amiga, be dedicated to the controller. By utilizing the top eight address lines, A16 to A23, as the input to an eight-bit comparator, it is possible to locate the controller in any 32k memory boundary. For this project I selected EF0000 as the base address. IC1, a 74LS688, in the schematic provides this comparison. The address strobe, *AS, is used to indicate to the comparator that a valid address is present, thereby enabling the comparator's output. When address is enabled and the upper eight address lines represent EF, a low is output by the comparator. The output of the comparator is fed to two, three input NOR gates. A second input to the NOR gates is *LDS, the lower data - 4 - strobe. The third input, of each NOR gate is either from the R/*W line directly or inverted. The NOR gate with the direct connection to R/*W, when inverted maps directly to the controller's *IOW signal. The NOR gate with the inverted connection to R/*W, when inverted becomes the controller's *IOR signal. The only other signal modification required is the inversion of the Amiga's reset line. To accommodate the differences in the address lines, the Amiga's addresses will be shifted down by one. Therefore, Amiga A1 will be connected to the controller's A0. This will be continued until the Amiga A15 to the controller's A14. What about the controller's other address lines? Easy, they are just connected to ground. Lastly, the controller's *MEMR, *MEMW, *DACK3 lines, features not used in this interface, are all tied to 5 volts (ie. held high) to prevent them from interfering. - 5 - Chapter 3 CONSTRUCTION My prototype board was assembled using a combination of point- to-point soldering and a wire pencil. The wire pencil is a modification to the wire wrapping technique which allows the use of standard, ie. not wire-wrap, sockets to be used. The catch is that soldering must be used to finalize all connections. The wire used has a special insulator that melts to allow soldering. Unfortunately, it is easy to melt other wires insulation, as opposed to just the one you meant, thereby causing a potential short. This product is manufactured by VECTOR Corporation. Interface Construction Parts: Qty 1, 74LS688 (IC1) - eight bit comparator. Qty 1, 74LS27 (IC2) - triple, three input NOR gates. Qty 1, 74LS04 (IC3) - hex inverter. Qty 1, 86 location on .1 inch center, edge board connector Qty 1, 62 location on .1 inch center, edge board connector Qty 1, perf board with solder pads on .1 inch centers. Qty 1, 20 pin dip socket. Qty 2, 14 pin dip socket. Qty 3, 0.1 Microfarad Capacitors. The two edge board connectors are available from: Digi-Key Corporation 701 Brooks Ave. South P.O. Box 677 Thief River Falls, MN 56701-0677 According to their Jan-Feb 1990 Catalog, No. 901, they are: 62 pin connector: part number C5-31, price $2.44 quantity 1 86 pin connector: part number C5-43, price $3.22 quantity 1 These are SOLDER-TAIL GOLD connectors. Although you will require wire wrap connectors, for at least the 86 pin connector, these can be made by utilizing Vector Corporations wire-wrap posts to extend the pin length. Wire wrap connectors are available, but it will require you to search for them. I found them at two, local to me, electronic retail stores but they cost about double for tin connectors. - 6 - Following IFF, Layout.pic: - glue the sockets into position making sure the pin 1 tabs are as indicated (square pad on layout). - Install capacitors as indicated in Layout.pic. - Connect one lead of Capacitor C1 to pin 20 of Socket for IC1. - Connect other lead of Capacitor C1 to pin 10 of Socket for IC1. - Connect one lead of Capacitor C2 to pin 14 of Socket for IC2. - Connect other lead of Capacitor C2 to pin 7 of Socket for IC2. - Connect other lead of Capacitor C3 to pin 7 of Socket for IC3. - Connect other lead of Capacitor C3 to pin 7 of Socket for IC3. - Install the 86 pin edge card connector as shown. - Install the 62 pin edge card connector as shown. Section 3.1 Wiring List Connect the following wiring list: FROM SIGNAL TO SIGNAL ======= ====== =================== ====== AMIGA 1 Ground AMIGA 2 Ground AMIGA 3 AMIGA 4 IC1, pin 7 IC1, pin 10 IC2, pin 7 IC2, pin 9 IC2, pin 10 IC2, pin 11 IC3, pin 1 IC3, pin 7 IC3, pin 11 Controller B1 Controller B10 Controller B31 Controller A11 Controller A12 Controller A13 Controller A14 Controller A15 Controller A16 - 7 - FROM SIGNAL TO SIGNAL ======= ====== =================== ====== AMIGA 5 5 Volts AMIGA 6 5 Volts IC1, pin 20 IC1, pin 3 IC1, pin 5 IC1, pin 9 IC1, pin 12 IC1, pin 14 IC1, pin 16 IC1, pin 18 IC2, pin 14 IC3, pin 14 Controller B3 Controller B11 Controller B12 Controller B15 Controller B29 AMIGA 10 +12 Volts Controller B9 +12 Volts AMIGA 75 D0 Controller A9 D0 AMIGA 77 D1 Controller A8 D1 AMIGA 79 D2 Controller A7 D2 AMIGA 81 D3 Controller A6 D3 AMIGA 83 D4 Controller A5 D4 AMIGA 86 D5 Controller A4 D5 AMIGA 84 D6 Controller A3 D6 AMIGA 82 D7 Controller A2 D7 AMIGA 29 A1 Controller 31 A0 AMIGA 27 A2 Controller 30 A1 AMIGA 26 A3 Controller 29 A2 AMIGA 24 A4 Controller 28 A3 AMIGA 21 A5 Controller 27 A4 AMIGA 23 A6 Controller 26 A5 AMIGA 28 A7 Controller 25 A6 AMIGA 30 A8 Controller 24 A7 AMIGA 32 A9 Controller 23 A8 AMIGA 34 A10 Controller 22 A9 AMIGA 36 A11 Controller 21 A10 AMIGA 38 A12 Controller 20 A11 AMIGA 39 A13 Controller 19 A12 AMIGA 41 A14 Controller 18 A13 AMIGA 43 A15 Controller 17 A14 - 8 - FROM SIGNAL TO SIGNAL ======= ====== =================== ====== AMIGA 74 *AS IC1, pin 1 AMIGA 45 A16 IC1, pin 2 AMIGA 52 A18 IC1, pin 4 AMIGA 56 A20 IC1, pin 6 AMIGA 58 A21 IC1, pin 8 AMIGA 59 A23 IC1, pin 11 AMIGA 57 A22 IC1, pin 13 AMIGA 54 A19 IC1, pin 15 AMIGA 47 A17 IC1, pin 17 AMIGA 70 *LDS IC2, pin 2 IC2, pin 3 AMIGA 68 R/*W IC2, pin 4 IC3, pin 3 AMIGA 53 *Reset IC3, pin 9 IC3, pin 12 Controller B14 *IOR IC3, pin 6 Controller B13 *IOW IC3, pin 8 Controller B2 RESET IC3, pin 4 IC2, pin 13 IC1, pin 19 IC2, pin 1 IC2, pin 5 IC2, pin 12 IC3, pin 13 IC2, pin 6 IC3, pin 5 It took me about 3 hours to wire wrap (pencil) my prototype. It actually took about 8 hours to make the PC board, but it is neater. Both worked the same, but the PC board version did work the first time, while the wire wrap took many hours of debugging. - 9 - Definition of the PC controller bus. To Determine front to back, hold the disk controller in front of you with the edge board connector pointed down and the components on the right side. In this position, the front of the controller is the part of the controller closest to you, the rear is farthest away. Rear of Controller Ground --- B1 A1 --- *I/O Channel Check (nu) Reset --- B2 A2 --- Data bit 7 +5 Volts --- B3 A3 --- Data bit 6 IRQ2 (nu) --- B4 A4 --- Data bit 5 -5 Volts (nu) --- B5 A5 --- Data bit 4 DRQ2 (nu) --- B6 A6 --- Data bit 3 -12 Volts (nu) --- B7 A7 --- Data bit 2 (nu) --- B8 A8 --- Data bit 1 +12 Volts --- B9 A9 --- Data bit 0 Ground --- B10 A10 --- I/O Channel Ready (nu) *Memory Write --- B11 A11 --- Address Enable (nu) *Memory Read --- B12 A12 --- Address bit 19 *I/O Write --- B13 A13 --- Address bit 18 *I/O Read --- B14 A14 --- Address bit 17 *DACK3 (nu) --- B15 A15 --- Address bit 16 DRQ3 (nu) --- B16 A16 --- Address bit 15 *DACK1 (nu) --- B17 A17 --- Address bit 14 DRQ1 (nu) --- B18 A18 --- Address bit 13 *DACK0 (nu) --- B19 A19 --- Address bit 12 CLOCK (nu) --- B20 A20 --- Address bit 11 IRQ7 (nu) --- B21 A21 --- Address bit 10 IRQ6 (nu) --- B22 A22 --- Address bit 9 IRQ5 (nu) --- B23 A23 --- Address bit 8 IRQ4 (nu) --- B24 A24 --- Address bit 7 IRQ3 (nu) --- B25 A25 --- Address bit 6 *DACK2 (nu) --- B26 A26 --- Address bit 5 Terminal Count (nu) --- B27 A27 --- Address bit 4 Addr Latch Enb (nu) --- B28 A28 --- Address bit 3 +5 Volts --- B29 A29 --- Address bit 2 Oscillator (nu) --- B30 A30 --- Address bit 1 Ground --- B31 A31 --- Address bit 0 FRONT OF CONTROLLER Please note that the component side of the controller is the A-side of the connector and the B side is the solder side. (nu) indicates this is not actively used by the controller. - 10 - Chapter 4 CHECKOUT ****************** THIS IS IMPORTANT ****************** ******************* DON'T SKIP THIS ******************* With an ohmmeter, verify ALL connections. Pay particular attention to the ground, 5 volt and 12 volt connections. With the ohmmeter verify that there are NO connections between the 5 Volt lines and ground, the 12 Volt lines and ground, the 12 Volt line and all controller connections (except the one expected) and lastly the 12 Volt line and the 5 Volt line. ***************************************************************** *** PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU PERFORM THE PREVIOUSLY OUTLINED *** *** CHECKOUT!!!! I DIDN'T AND IT COST ME 3 DISK CONTROLLER *** *** BOARDS!!! *** ***************************************************************** - 11 - Chapter 5 CONTROLLER/DISK DRIVE SELECTION At the current time, this interface has only been tested with: WESTERN DIGITAL's 27X and XT-GEN2 series, PC-XT 8-bit bus disk controllers. The 27X series is an RLL controller while the XT-GEN2 is a MFM controller. What does this mean to you? Well, the 27X, for $10 more, will provide approximately 50% more disk capacity than the XT-GEN2. With the demonstration version of this project, both will provide the same capacity, 10 Megabytes. Once registered, however, you'll be able to take advantage of the the additional capability. Why then would you use the XT-GEN? Supposedly, it should be used with a certified RLL drive. Currently I'm using it with a Micropolis 33 Meg non-certified RLL drive and yet to have a reported error, and it gives me 53 Meg of space. Friends have reported similar success. But, if you believe the manufactures, I'm risking a massive failure. Since I backup regularly, I take the risk for the additional storage. While it is anticipated that other PC-XT 8-bit bus disk controllers should work, I have as yet tested any and don't expect to. I will, however, make available information regarding other controllers if you all will keep me informed. If you happen to try one, it may work. If it does let me know and I'll share it with others. - 12 - Chapter 6 INSTALLATION Section 6.1 Hardware Install the adapter card on the Amiga's expansion port. Install the hard disk controller, making sure that it is properly oriented. Refer to the layout.iff picture to determine the connector numbering and verify that it matches your layout. The hard disk controller requires two ribbon cables, in the case of the specified Western Digital 27X series controller, a 34- conductor control cable should be connected to connector J1 and a 20-conductor data cable should be connected to J2. Since there are different hardware configurations for the 27X series, if controller configuration jumpers are available, they should be set as follows: 1. BIOS ROM Disabled (sorry but the Amiga can't use a PC BIOS). 2. Primary Addressing Enabled (Card address 320 through 323 hex). 3. Neither IRQ2 or IRQ5 are used (any selection acceptable). 4. Primary Controller (I don't think this matters and mainly relates to the BIOS ROM which is disabled). 5. Firmware translation disabled (I don't think this matters either as it probably relates to the ROM too). Now that you're confused, I used mine as it came from the box with no problems. But if you have problems, you might try this setup. Now attach the other ends of the ribbon cables to their appropriate connectors on the disk drive. Attach a disk power supply to the disk drive. As far as power is concerned, my standard Amiga power supply was able to power my 500, 512k expansion module and the disk controller. The disk had to be powered separately. I ended up adapting a PC-clone power supply to allow me to power my entire system, including the Amiga. I even purchased a clone PC cabinet to hold my external (self-built) 3.5 inch drive and my hard disk. This project should be appearing in the Public Domain shortly, if not yet. - 13 - Congratulations! The entire hardware installation is complete. Section 6.2 Testing and Low-Level Formatting From the CLI, enter install.ByNeryDemo. Hard Disks require to be low-level formatted. This is not to be confused with AmigaDos's format. This operation prepares the disk to be compatible with the controller. To perform this operation select format from the list. The requested parameter, Interleave, is the number of sectors that must be skipped between consecutive reads are performed. My testing indicates an interleave of 10-12 (RLL) yields the best performance. At this time, request 12 and press the carriage return. At this point the drive light should light. It's time for a cup of coffee. This operation can take up to 10 minutes. Once the Drive light goes out, the operation is complete. Now, from the menu of install.ByNeryDemo, try reading and writing some sectors. For the public domain version, the acceptable ranges are: HEADS: 0 to 3 Cylinders: 0 to 305 Sectors: 1 to 16 After playing with it for a while, you are ready to install the driver add a mountlist entry. Move on to the next chapter for this information. Section 6.3 Software Installation 1. Make a copy of your boot disk and put the original away! 2. Copy the file, pcif.device, in the Devs drawer of the new boot disk. 3. CD to the new disk's Devs directory. 4. Using your favorite editor: a) Edit the mountlist file b) Go to the end of the file - 14 - c) Add the following (make sure that when entering "dh0: Device =" line, that Capitalization of ByNeryDemo.device is exactly as shown. /* ** pcif.device - hard disk definition. */ dh0: Device = ByNeryDemo.device Unit = 0 Flags = 0 Surfaces = 4 BlocksPerTrack = 17 Reserved = 2 Interleave = 0 LowCyl = 0 ; HighCyl = 305 Buffers = 30 BufMemType = 0 # d) write the file and exit the editor. 5. After write completes, reboot your Amiga (Ctrl-Amiga-Amiga). 6. Open a cli after boot completes. 7. Type "mount dh0:" 8. Type "system/format drive dh0: name AnyName QUICK You have now completed the installation of the disk. Try copying files to it and looking at it with dir. You can now modify your S:Startup-Sequence file to automatically mount it by adding "mount dh0:" in the startup file. In case your wondering, yes you can modify the mountlist and utilize the drive with the FFS (Fast File System). And you will notice a significant performance improvement. Just don't forget, after modifying the mountlist you must perform step 8 above again (format it). You can also play with the low-level format to try to optimize the performance of the disk, using any of the available disk performance programs. From this point on, your on your own. You can use this as any disk would be used. If your interested in the full featured driver/setup program, please see the next chapter and register. If you wish to contact me, I am available on Compuserve, ID: 76662,3651 Please do not request ready made units, I currently do not plan on manufacturing them, at this time. Also please understand that my main support will be to those registered users. - 15 - Chapter 7 REGISTRATION Please PRINT clearly. NAME: _______________________________________________ STREET: _______________________________________________ CITY: ______________________________ STATE: _________ COUNTRY: __________________ ZIP CODE: ______ Requested Information Questionnaire: What Controller Did You Use? _____________________________ Did you have problems? ____YES ____NO Would you purchase a PC board if available? ____YES ____NO Would a cost of $25 be excessive? ____YES ____NO Comments?_________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ Enclosed is $30.00 to register my usage of Product ByNery's Amiga 500 - to - IBM style Hard Disk Interface Please send my registration kit and add me to your support/notification list. Send this form, and a check made payable to Products ByNery, to: Products ByNery 14 Chambers Court Mansfield, Ma 02048 - 16 -