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Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Title:AMIGA NOTES
Notice:Join us in the *NEW* conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2
Moderator:HYDRA::MOORE
Created:Sat Apr 26 1986
Last Modified:Wed Feb 05 1992
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:5378
Total number of notes:38326

626.0. "connecting hard disk to disk port?" by BAGELS::BRANNON (Dave Brannon) Fri Jul 31 1987 22:56

    naive question:
    
    why aren't there any hard disks that attach to the floppy disk
    daisy chain?  That seems like the logical place they should
    connect to.  There is the limitation of 4 floppy drives, but
    with a box with SCSI/ST506 controller you could support multiple
    harddrives connected to it.
    
    The trackdisk device does DMA to chip ram, and provides the equivalent of
    a western digital floppy controller.  I believe the floppy drives
    also autoconfig.
    
    Is it possible to grab a device from trackdisk for exclusive use
    by your own device driver?  If so, then your device driver could
    talk to the SCSI controller directly.
    
    The advantage to the above is you don't run into passing the bus
    problems if you want external memory.  The disadvantage is that you can
    only DMA to chip ram.  How many of the currently available hard disks 
    even use DMA?
                                                           
    comments?
    -dave
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