🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <2jpeta$hko@harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au> int877w@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au (William Fang) writes:
>
>I've got a quantity of ST-506 hard-drives sitting in a couple of
>NCR Towers I bought.  I only really wanted one, but had to buy five
>as a condition of sale.
>
>Anyway, are their any ST-506 hard-drive interfaces for the PC that
>I could use on a 486dx40 ISA/VLB system?  I'd like to make some use
>of these hard-drives, as I have about a gigabyte's worth of space
>sitting unused in the garage.

    Any number. A standard "MFM" controller should do it. MFM is really
the encoding and ST-506/412, as you correctly stated, is the interface.
>
>How long can the interface cables be?  How many drives can one ST-506
>interface drive?

    I have no hard numbers but I have seen 3' cables. Generally
one controller can handle two drives, but I believe that there are
more complex ones that can handle more. You're going to need drivers
though.
>
>Failing that, are there any machines that are intel 80x86 based that
>can make use of these?  Perhaps XT machines?

    For an XT machine you would need an 8 bit controller and there
might be a few wrinkles to get it to work.
>
>Anybody want to buy some "quaint" NCR-Tower desks, or NCR-Tower
>kitcsh furniture? ;-)  A friend wants to build some furniture ;-)
>
>- Jim

    Check the capacities and encoding of the drives. Some might be RLL.
They'll still work with an MFM controller but you'll be wasting space.
Good luck.

    	    	    	    	    Cheers

    	    	    	    	    	    Lou

P.S. If you want to get rid of some of them, post or email the
    makes and models. What do the towers look like? Do they have
    standard mounting holes for MB, slots in the back, and power
    connections?
-- 
Lou Sanchez-Chopitea                EMail:  lou@xilinx.com
Senior Software Engineer            SnailMail:  2100 Logic Drive
SpeakMail: (408) 879-5059                       San Jose, CA 95124
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