This article is about hard drives on the Atari, and was taken from the Unix newsnet, and originally from Z*MAG. Transferred by Mark Keates, and tidied and edited by Dean Garraghty.¢-----------------------------------¢¢Subject: Hard Drives for the Atari 8bit machines¢Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories¢¢This article was in the latest issue of Zmagazine, Ron Kovacs' fine publication for the Atari 8bit computers. Unfortunately, it is soon to go away. This is from Issue #197 (I think, my memory isn't what it use to be and I didn't write it down).¢¢Kit Kimes¢AT&T Bell Labs¢=====================================================================¢¢THE 8-BIT STATE: Adding BIG Power to your little system.¢¢by Chuck Steinman¢¢One of the most significant time saving and productivity raising peripherals you can add any computer system is a HARD DRIVE. That goes for the 8-bit Atari too, and once you have one you will wonder why you hadn't upgraded before. There is something about having many megabytes of files instantly available on the 8-bit that is nothing short of amazing. And the speed of access and loading is blinding--quite literally indistinguishable from the speed of a RAMdisk.¢¢While there were hard drives made for the original 800, they appear to have gone underground over the years. We'll concentrate on the newer systems.¢¢THE HOST ADAPTOR¢¢The gateway to hard drive use is the device called a HOST ADAPTOR. There are two main units used in the classic Atari world, the Multi-I/O (MIO) from ICD, Inc., and the Black Box (BB) by Computer Software Services (CSS). Both provide similar performance, with each offering their own special features. They both connect to the Atari 600XL and 800XL PBI (Parallel Bus Interface) and to the 130XE through the ECI (Enhanced Cartridge Interface). Several other companies used to market hosts for the classic Atari, and their products might still be available either second hand or from dusty dealer archives. Beware, it might be impossible to find technical support.¢¢The MIO has been out for many years, but ICD is presently trying to close out their 8-bit lineup. One of the unique features that the MIO offers is its built in RAM. You can order the MIO with either 256K or 1M bytes of RAM, which can be used as a RAMDisk or a print spooler. The amount of RAM dedicated to each function can be user programmed using the built-in configuration menu.¢¢The Black Box does not have a built-in RAMDisk, but does have an optional printer buffer. There is a print screen button, which will send a text/graphics dump of the current screen contents to your printer. Another pushbutton will activate the BB debugger, extremely handy for programmers. The BB also has a port on it for a parallel floppy drive, but they are not available.¢¢Both the MIO and BB will control up to eight disk drives, of which any number can be RAMDisks, standard Atari floppies, or hard drives. You can change the logical drive number of any drive, or swap drive numbers of two drives. Hard drives can be divided ("partitioned") into several separate sections, each seen as an independent disk drive.¢¢The BB and MIO both offer a serial (modem) port, a parallel (printer) port, and an SASI/SCSI (hard drive) expansion port. This last port will allow industry standard SASI or SCSI hard disk controllers to be attached using a 50 position ribbon cable.¢¢BUILDING A HARD DRIVE SYSTEM¢¢An 8-bit Atari hard drive setup will include several parts: the HOST (probably an MIO or BB), a CONTROLLER, a HARD DRIVE, and some kind of case and power supply for it all. Other than the host, all the other parts will be usable on other computers (including the ST) if you later change systems (shame on you). Total costs can be as low as under $400 with careful shopping. And you won't really need more than a single floppy anymore, perhaps freeing up some hardware you can sell. Hard drives are available in a wide range of sizes, from 5 megabytes to hundreds of megs. The capacity of your drive is up to you and your budget, but for the relatively small 8-bit applications, even a (very cheap!) 10 meg drive will hold an incredible array of software. You can also easily add a second drive later.¢¢When buying your hard disk controller, make sure it matches your hard drive. Controllers are available for Modified FM (MFM) and Run Length Limited (RLL) type drives. RLL will provide 50% more disk space at approximately the same cost, and are usually a bit faster. Don't use MFM drives with an RLL controller, as the increased data density of the RLL system will likely exceed the capability of the MFM drive, leading to data loss sooner or later. You can usually use an RLL drive on an MFM controller with no harm, but with only two-thirds of the rated drive capacity.¢¢Another option would be to get a drive which has the controller built right on it. These drives tend to be a bit faster and more expensive. These are designated as "SCSI drives" and have the 50 position ribbon connector right on the drive.¢¢A wide variety of cases (most with power supplies) are on the market, with the most popular being the external "shoebox" type formerly used on the original PCs.¢¢To be able to access all of this disk space, you will need a DOS which will support hard drives --Atari's own DOS systems haven't got the capacity. Both SpartaDOS (including the cart-based SDX, both sold by ICD, Inc.) and MyDOS 4.50 (included with the BB) fill this need very nicely. Both support drives with partitions as large as 16 megabytes.¢¢Both ICD and CSS offer prepackaged hard drive systems to simplify the task of adding a hard drive to your 8-bit. Call CSS or ICD to check their current stock, pricing, or for additional information.¢¢Resources:¢¢Computer Software Services P.O. Box 17660 Rochester, NY 14617¢Tel: (716) 429-5639¢¢ICD Inc. 1220 Rock Street Rockford, IL 61101-1437¢Tel: (815) 968-2228¢¢¢BIO: Chuck Steinman not only reads and writes about the Atari 8-bit computers, he designs software and hardware for them, which is sold by DataQue. He can be contacted on GEnie and Delphi as DataQue, or CIS at user i.d. 71777, 3223.¢¢
