APDL and other fast IDE Interfaces

We have now discontinued the popular ArcIn interface (though we do have a few left - see below), but don't despair, we have slashed the price of the ultra-fast Blitz interface, so you can now afford the fastest interface available for your RiscPC, and it's even cheaper if you purchase it with a hard drive!

As an alternative we now offer the STD UniPod. This combines a USB interface, NET 100 and fast IDE inteface in a single podule. The UniPod is normally supplied with only one of these three functions enabled and you have to pay £25 for each additional function. We supply it with all 3 functions enabled for just £129 plus £4 carriage (UK) or £7 elsewhere. The UniPod IDE interface isn't as fast as the Blitz (around 4.2 MB/sec compared with up to 7 MB/sec) but it's still pretty quick, and you get USB and networking as well.
For more information on the UniPod see the STD web site.

If you have an APDL IDE interface and want upgrade we can arrange a part-exchange upgrade.

• Upgrade to Blitz from ArcIn V6 with flash ROM - £65
• Upgrade to Blitz from ArcIn V6 with EPROM - £73
• Part-exchange Blitz for Unipod - £85
• Part-exchange ArcIn V6 with flash ROM for Unipod - £102
• Part-exchange ArcIn V6 with EPROM for Unipod - £112

We still have a limited number of ArcIn interfaces. These are functionally identical to the Blitz but are not as fast with a speed of around 3.7 MB/sec, still about twice the speed of ADFS. These cost just £55 including UK carriage when available.

RISC OS 4 Compatibility - all our IDE interfaces are fully RO4 compatible. Even if you bought yours years ago it will work with new format drives using long filenames. If you purchased your interface after about February '99 you should already have IDEFormat 3.52 which supports the new E+ format, if not you can download IDEFormat 3.53. with all the other free software updates for the APDL IDE cards.

You need a backplane to use an IDE interface on the RiscPC. Most models already have one (it's the vertical PCB behind the floppy drive and plugs into the motherboard at the bottom) but if you don't have one we can supply 2 or 4 slot backplanes.

The main features of all models are -

• Hard discs and CD ROMs supported with CDFS and ATAPI CD drivers in ROM.
• Four devices can be connected, either four internal or two internal and two external except the A3IN where you can fit an internal 2.5" hard drive to the card and have two external drives. Any combination of CDs and hard discs can be used.
• ArcIn and Blitz use DMA when fitted to the RiscPC or A7000 so it's fast.
• Drive partitioning is supported with up to eight partitions. With pre RO 3.6 machines this means you can fit drives up to 4Gb. You don't have to partition a large drive with RO 3.6+ but you can do so to avoid the LFAU problem which can devour huge chunks of hard disc without RISC OS 4.
• Partitions can be password protected, either Read Only or No Access. This guards confidential data, and schools will see the advantages of having programs and fixed data on a Read Only partition where it can be Loaded or Run but not deleted 'by accident'.

With most modern drives the ArcIn can achieve around 3.6 MB/sec sustained or up to 4.5 MB/sec burst when fitted to a RiscPC or A7000 (the Blitz is much faster). This is real, unlike some figures you'll see in adverts. Most 'fast' SCSI interfaces I've tested aren't much quicker than this, and they're around three times the price!

Prices are -

• Blitz - Just £89. Simply the best. Price includes 1 data cable.
• ArcIn - Just £55. Please check for availability before ordering. Price includes 1 data cable.
• A3IN - Only £45. including cable and mounting screws for a 2.5" drive.
• Accessories
  

A3IN is available with a User Port instead of the external drive socket. This is now available on Special Offer for just £15.

The APDL Blitz IDE interface is the fastest thing you can put in your machine. Lightning fast, nearly 7 MB/sec (I've actually tested a drive at a read speed of 8.2 MB/sec and write speed of 7.3 MB/sec).

Blitz works on any RiscPC or A7000 with a backplane. It has All the features of our highly acclaimed ArcIn interface but it's 32 bit so it's capable of much higher speeds. Now you can fit low cost EIDE drives and get superior speed to a 'fast' SCSI setup costing much more.

Although the Blitz is fastest with DMA it's capable of higher speeds than any other interface without it, too. In fact, it's faster without DMA, 4.2 to 4.4 MB/sec, than some 'fast' SCSI interfaces with DMA. This makes it the ideal companion for a machine fitted with a Kinetic, which disables DMA.

Upgrades from the older ideA interface are available.

Interfaces for A3000 and A3010.

We do still have IDE interfaces for the A3000 and A3010. The normal interface can take a 2.5" drive internally and has a connector for an external hard drive or CD ROM. These cost £36. We also have a limited number of interfaces with a User Port instead of an external IDE connector. They therefore cannot have external drives or CD ROMs connected but otherwise have all the features of our normal A3IN IDE interfaces. These cost just £15. In either case please add £5 UK carriage.

In case you've lost your printed User Guide a HTML version is available for download. (39K ArcFS archive).

Free upgrades

The latest version of the IDEFormat program is 3.53. If you have anything earlier you are strongly advised to download this as it fixes a couple of bugs present in earlier versions with very large drives and supports E+ format for RISC OS 4. It has also been re-structured to simplify initialising single partitions.
  IDE Format 3.53. - (29K ArcFS archive, Aug. 2002)

  ArcIn and Blitz Flash upgrade.
These contain the programs to create and program flash images (in case you've lost your Utility disc) with IDEFS v3.28 and IDEFiler v3.21 and ATAPI driver 0.28. IDEFS now has a configurable start-up delay to reduce the wait for people who have drives that respond quickly at switch on.

  ArcIn Flash upgrade. - (168K ArcFS archive)

  Blitz Flash upgrade. - (168K ArcFS archive)

  RISC OS 4 height fix - (240K ArcFS archive, 5.10.99) Although the ideA interface works perfectly with RISC-OS 4 drive icons will appear at the wrong height on the iconbar. Put this small program in your Boot.Tasks directory and it will align them correctly.

  Problems with CD ROM drives.

Although ATAPI driver 0.28 works with most modern drives it is not as compatible as 0.26, especially with older drives, such as not being detected at startup or errors during transfer of large data blocks. If you have any problems try the appropriate ATAPI driver below. These will only work with APDL interfaces. In each case this is the complete flash image for the appropriate interface with the latest IDEFS software and VProtect.

  ATAPI driver 0.26. Complete flash image for ArcIn interface - (78 ArcFS archive)

  ATAPI driver 0.24. Complete flash image for ArcIn interface. - (78 ArcFS archive)

  ATAPI driver 0.26. Complete flash image for Blitz - (80K ArcFS archive)

For users who want to build their own flash images and need the older ATAPI drivers the 'bare' ATAPI 0.26 and ATAPI 0.24 (ArcIn only, not Blitz) are also available.

New software for ArcIn and Blitz interfaces

There have been a number of minor improvements but the most obvious outward ones are -

• For the flash programmable ArcIn interface this cures the problems with this interface with RISC OS 6.
• For all versions this fixes the drive icon height problem with RISC OS 4 and above.

As these are intended to be used with RISC OS 4 and above the software no longer includes the DMAManager and CDFS modules as these are part of the OS ROM. This avoids the need to *unplug the DMAManager on the IDE interface with Kinetic machines and eliminates space taken up by redundant modules in the RMA.

For the older, plug in EPROM version of the ARCIN interface. These are the cards which have two sockets on the PCB for data leads and a large EPROM with a white printed label. This brings the software up to the latest version, so it's a very worthwhile upgrade as some oder versions could cause problems with larger hard drives and CD writers. We can supply exchange replacement EPROMs or, if you return your interface (not the leads) with payment we can fit the new EPROM and test it for you, which is the method we would advise.
We hope to be able to offer an upgrade for the older 'single lead' cards soon.

In each case the price of the upgrade is £9.50. For flash programmable interfaces the software will be sent by email, for interfaces fitted with an EPROM there is an additional charge of £1.50 for carriage. You can apply for the upgrade either by email to the usual APDL address, by phone (020 8778 2659) or by post. Don't forget to include payment details and the type of interface you have.

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