PC ISA 8Bit SCSI Card with integrated "BlueSCSI"

RetroTheory

Tinkerer
Oct 17, 2021
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118
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This was a little personal experiement to see if I could combine the usefulness of BlueSCSI and its HD images with the PC , and have similar HD image capability with old PCs. In the PDF of the NCR 53C400 technical document there was a rough outline for a memory mapped SCSI card that was popular in the XT PC days. I though this would be a nice jumpting off point to see if this could be done. Even keeping in mind that BlueSCSI may not work with the NCR 53C400 it would still be a cool experiment. While obsolete the 53C400 can still be got from surplus suppliers and I got a few before I started.

The SCSI BIOS is just a cosmetically modifed existing BIOS from other similar memory mapped NCR53C400 cards.

Results are mixed, it boots real drives fine but my fears were realised with the blueSCSI , while it formats and I can use the drive, on reboot the STM32 hangs with both lights on when attempting to boot. More investigation is required.

My files are here





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Drake

TinkerDifferent Board Vice-President 2023
Staff member
Sep 23, 2021
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What was the estimated cost for a built unit vs. xt-ide devices?
 

RetroTheory

Tinkerer
Oct 17, 2021
77
118
33
I suppose you could build the xt-ide for €20, 25euro if CF version, this is about the sameish maybe €30 with 11of that the SCSI IC.
 

Drake

TinkerDifferent Board Vice-President 2023
Staff member
Sep 23, 2021
447
782
93
I suppose you could build the xt-ide for €20, 25euro if CF version, this is about the sameish maybe €30 with 11of that the SCSI IC.
Very cool! hopefully you or another user can pick this up and get things going further. Love my 5150/5160/5155 to deaaaaath!
 
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