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Xref: sserve comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc:17974 comp.os.linux.hardware:1885 comp.os.386bsd.misc:5238 comp.os.os2.misc:124811 Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc,comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.os2.misc Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msunews!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!news.uh.edu!uuneo.neosoft.com!bonkers.taronga.com!peter From: peter@bonkers.taronga.com (Peter da Silva) Subject: Re: IDE bad? was Re: List of recommended hardware components Organization: Taronga Park BBS Message-ID: <D3L3KM.FIJ@bonkers.taronga.com> References: <3g890k$cbl@ionews.io.org> <3gm6rh$moc@newsflash.concordia.ca> <D3AvMr.JL0@bonkers.taronga.com> <mreg.137.00270D6C@panix.com> Date: Mon, 6 Feb 1995 15:12:21 GMT Lines: 45 In article <mreg.137.00270D6C@panix.com>, Mitchell Regenbogen <mreg@panix.com> wrote: >I'm not saying run out and buy Conner, but the idea that IDE is "WORSE than >MFM or RLL" is ludicrous. IDE supports two devices, but only one reliably. You can't reliably have more than one IDE controller in a machine. And it *emulates* a programming interface for MFM. MFM supports 2 drives reliably. There have been 4 drive PC controllers. SMS made one that supported 4 drives and any of them could have been either MFM or ESDI. >IDE was the basis of a virtual revolution in the >hard drive industry, bringing larger, faster, easier to connect hard drives to >millions of computer users. No, IDE was the basis of a virtual revolution because it was cheap. Even ESDI still supports larger drives than plain IDE, and EIDE is kind of soggy and hard to light. And all the problems with "well this drive won't work as a slave with that drive but it's a fine master" make your easier to connect suggestion ludicrous. >And it was and is certainly more "interoperable" >than SCSI or ESDI. I've got a system that I've had: One MFM controller. One MFM and one ESDI controller. 2 ESDI controllers. One ESDI and one SCSI. and finally Two SCSI controllers. With drives from an old 70MB Miniscribe MFM through a 380MB Maxtor ESDI to the current Quantum 1.8G drive. With IDE you can have: One IDE controller. Two drives. Maybe. That's *really* great interoperability. IDE was a kludge Conner made up so they could sell their SCSI drives to people who didn't want to deal with the appalling lack of support in PC BIOSes for anything but MFM drives. As a result they made that lack of support self-perpetuating. Way to go, guys.