Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ccivax.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!prls!amdimage!amdcad!amd!vecpyr!lll-crg!seismo!rochester!ritcv!ccivax!rb
From: rb@ccivax.UUCP (rex ballard)
Newsgroups: net.micro,net.micro.atari
Subject: Re: ST Hard Disk Port (FASI) ?
Message-ID: <279@ccivax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 23-Sep-85 23:42:06 EDT
Article-I.D.: ccivax.279
Posted: Mon Sep 23 23:42:06 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 27-Sep-85 07:24:41 EDT
References: <123@apr.UUCP>
Organization: CCI Telephony Systems Group,  Rochester NY
Lines: 22
Xref: linus net.micro:10843 net.micro.atari:1117

> 
> Somewhere not to long back I read that the ST had an industry standard
> FASI(?) hard disk interface. At the time I passed it off as being a typo
> meant to say SASI.
> The port configuration looks very similiar to what the NCR
> 5385 SCSI protocol controller chip provides but without enough address
> lines to get at the full set of control/status ports.
> 
I don't know where you got FASI, but the hard disk port is supposed to
be SCSI, with a 1.33 mb maximum transfer rate (almost faster than the
68000 can "copy" from a RAM disk).  The pins available are the same
type that the HABBA drive uses on the MAC (inside the machine).  There
a few drives that support the SCSI interfaces already available.  In
fact, the developer's hard drives are apearently modified MAC drives
(different cable).  From the AMPRO "Little Board" ads, it also appears
to enable interfacing to networks, I/O expansion...  SCSI interface boards
are also available for the IBM PC. (Could there actually be a standard
developing here?).

Now, if we could just get someone to explain SCSI to us, we would know what
the limits are.  Could you tell us more about the 5385 chip?  What lines
does the ST seem to be missing?