______________________________________ |////////////////////////////////////| |////////////////////////////////////| |//SYNDICATE ZMAGAZINE Issue #103//| |//================================//| |//EDITOR |April 25, 1988 //| |// Ron Kovacs|Vol 3, No. 4 //| |//================|===============//| |////////////////////////////////////| |////////////////////////////////////| |____________________________________| |Syndicate Zmagazine c/o SPC | |Post Office Box 74 | |Middlesex, New Jersey 08846-0074 | |____________________________________| |BBS #1: Syndicate (201) 968-8148 | |BBS #2: Stairway (216) 784-0574 | |____________________________________| |CONTENTS | |____________________________________| |*|Letter To The Editor | |*|Super Dos Press Release | |*|Video Title Shop Review | |*|Survey Results | |*|BBS Listing | |*|Zmag On GEnie | |*|Zmag On CompuServe | |*|Destroying The Hard Disk Myth | |_|__________________________________| ______________________________________ Letter To The Editor ______________________________________ The following letter received April 8, 1988. Edited for clarity and grammer. Panama, Republic of Panama, March 31, 1988 Dear Mr. Kovacs, Greetings from Central America! I am an avid reader of ZMagazine, (when I can), who was also a CompuServe subscriber. Foreign rates went up and that has kept me from using the service. (I had to cancelled my subscription). ZMag is a great magazine. I would like to find a way to be able to read it. Perhaps a little background on Atari's here would help. The company that used to sell Atari equipment here decided to drop the line, leaving us out in the cold. Furthermore, computer dealers seeing this decided to drop all Atari related magazines. This happened over a year ago. Since then we have relied on the states to get equipment, software and other peripherals. A local Atari repairman still repairs Atari's equipment, so we can fix them easily. For most of us an 8 bit is all the computing we'll ever need, and that holds true. I was thinking, we have a small user's group, the PCACUG, and we are at a loss for news or Atari related information. I'd like to propose to you to establish a contact by mail, so that I could receive Zmagazine by mail. I beleive rates for a disk to Panama are not too high. A friend sent me three Atari disks in a fairly sized envelope and it cost him $2.22. I am not sure whether you actually mail your Zmag's to BBS's or just upload them to CompuServe. In a few words, I would like to subscribe to ZMag, and be added to your BBS list carrying ZMagazine. I run the two Atari BBS's in the country. BUGBBS named after the BBCS bugs, updated to AMIS then to Express and maybe to Express Pro if it is ever released. It runs 24 hours at 3-12 baud and the number is: 60-0530 I also run the club's BBS, which is called the PCACUG BBS which is the longest running BBS in the nation. (Nation here applies to our two million people). AS I said, we have a lack of information and there are no magazines locally. The clud is subscribed to Antic and Analog, but we only get one issue for our sixty members. Since each ZMag is weekly, it would cost too much (and too much effort) to send. Maybe if you cram 4 issues a month into an enhanced or double density disk we could get this off the ground. Your help would be invaluable. There are alot of hopeless Atarians down here. We have not seen the jump from 8 bit to 16 bit mainly because the cost for a 520ST is $1500.00 (no kidding) and that's a substantial chunk of money. Mostly, people jump from 8 bit to no bits at all. Beleive it or not, our national currency is the US Dollar, even though the US has frozen all panamanian accounts there, so there is a definate shortage of cash right now. I run an Oasis BBS. I have ofcourse trouble getting utilities for it. Could you tell me the whereabouts of it's original creators? I run the BBS with RamboXL, Spartados 3.2, RTIME8, US Doublers on one of the drives and hopeful for a 576K upgrade to me 130XE. Once more, Thanks again for your invaluable help, please pardon my shaky english grammer, since we are a spanish speaking country and I am not using my word processor. I will somehow try to contact you on CompuServe via my friend. Thanks again! Bye from Panama: Carlos Hassan 6-401 El Dorado Panama, Republic of Panama [Ed] We will be sending Carlos all of the issues we can in the next few weeks. How about some assistance from some United States User Groups? Send this group a copy of your newsletters, your disk of the month and whatever else you can! We cant allow Atari users to be un-informed on the latest and greatest happenings with the greatest micro around! Lets show Panama our support of Atari, (Seriously folks!!!) ______________________________________ Super Dos Press Release _____________________________________ NEWS: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Apr 22, 1988 CONTACT: Charles Cherry Technical Support 205 Peoria Street Daly City, CA 94014 SUPERDOS, the most popular DOS in Australia, is finally available in the United States. It is an easy to use, powerful replacement for DOS 2.0 and 2.5. Although SUPERDOS is more compact than the other DOSes and uses less disk space, it has several new commands, such as RESTORE DELETEd files and PATCH damaged ones. The convenient, high speed menu is available instantly with all computers, even 400s and 800s (no MEM.SAV, no lost data). It closely resembles DOS 2.5 in appearance, but is optimized for ease of use and speed. SUPERDOS supports Atari 1050 and 810 drives as well as double density drives. Automatic density sensing configures SUPERDOS for each disk as it is used. Copying between densities is easy, even with only one drive. SUPERDOS also supports 130XE- compatible RAMdisks up to 320K bytes and Axlon-compatible RAMdisks up to 288K bytes. SUPERDOS automatically sets up the largest RAMdisk possible and copies designated files into it. SUPERDOS is NOT a public domain program. It was written in Australia by Paul Nicholls who retains sole ownership of it. It is marketed in the United States by Technical Support. If you have not paid for the copy you are using, please send $20 (plus $1 shipping) to: Technical Support 205 Peoria Street Daly City, Calif 94014 USA (California residents add 6.5% sales tax.) SUPERDOS is warranted to perform satisfactorily. If you are not satisfied with SUPERDOS, your purchase price will be cheerfully refunded. SUPERDOS is fully compatible with DOS 2.0 and 2.5. It even looks and feels like Atari DOS, there's nothing new to learn. However, it's much easier to use, and much more powerful. It supports most Atari configurations, including Single, Enhanced (Dual), and Double density disk drives, Axlon and XE RAMdisks, and most memory expansions. We are convinced that SUPERDOS is the most convenient Atari DOS ever created. If you use it for a week, you'll never want to return to another DOS. SUPERDOS features: ================== 1. SUPERDOS works with all Atari 400/800/600XL/800XL/1200XL/65XE/ 130XE computers and the XE Game Machine. 2. Supports Single, Enhanced (Dual), and Double density. 3. Automatically configures to the density of the disk in the drive. 4. Density of each drive is displayed at the top of the screen. 5. Copy files between different density disks with only one drive. 6. Automatically finds and sets up largest RAMdisk possible. 7. Supports 130XE compatible 128K, 256K, and 320K RAMdisks. 8. Supports Axlon compatible 128K and 256K RAMdisks. 9. Automatically copies files with .RAM extender to RAMdisk. 10.I/O defaults to RAMdisk if drive 1 is not available. 11.SDUP.SYS available instantly, no MEM.SAV (even on 800s). 12.Short DOS.SYS and SDUP.SYS files leave maximum space for you. 13.RESTORE files which have been DELETEd or left OPEN. 14.Directory can display DELETEd and OPEN files. 15.Automatically TRACE and PATCH to recover damaged files. 16.Single keystroke menu (no Returns). 17.Clear English prompts. 18.Concise double column display lists 40 files at once. 19.Full screen scroll, won't wipe out filename you were about to use. 20.Screen border color indicates type of operation. 21.Use upper and lower case, inverse and numbers in filenames. 22.Adjust the key delay and repeat rate for XL/XE (fast keyboard). 23.Write with or without verify, toggle from menu. 24.A Binary Save that even saves cartridges. 25.Support for high speed transfer with SUPERMAX and US Doubler. 26.Skewed sectors for even higher speed with SUPERMAX. 27.Format disks in any density. 28.Write DOS.SYS and SDUP.SYS or DOS.SYS only. 29.Copy all .SYS files except DOS.SYS using wild cards. 30.True sector copier copies boot disks, skips empty sectors. 31.Option to format destination disk during disk copy. 32.Copy sectors and display bad sector numbers. 33.Copy to and from cassette (C:) using long or short IRG. 34.Display the configuration block for non-Atari disk drives. 35.Enter sector numbers and addresses in hexidecimal or decimal. 36.Handle up to eight double density files open concurrently. 37.Handle up to four double density drives plus a RAMdisk. 38.Easy to change file buffers and drive buffers, no POKEs. 39.Copy from DOS 3 files using one or two drives and wild cards. 40.SUPERBIN - a compact boot program which displays menu of binary files and runs them. 41.SUPERBAS - a compact AUTORUN.SYS program which displays menu of BASIC files and runs them. Note: SUPERMAX is an enhancement for the Atari 1050 disk drive. It provides true double density and SUPERSPEED data transfer. SUPERMAX is a product of SUPER Products, P.O. Box 507, Beenleigh, Queensland 4207, Australia Note 2: We have just discovered that the current version of SUPERDOS (V.4.4) only supports 128K of the Newell 256K memory upgrade. ______________________________________ Software Review ..VIDEO TITLE SHOP.. ______________________________________ from DATASOFT by Bill Pike (PAC) review copy loaned by IB Computers Here's what we who own VCRs have been waiting for. Have you ever wished to be able to put professional titles on your tapes? Well here is the best way for you to do it. The Video Title Shop sells for $24.95 and is available at IB Computers. The program uses Micropainter format background screens ie:62 sector pictures. Did I tell you that the digitized pictures from Computer Eyes are 62 sector Micropainter type screens? What does this suggest to you? DataSoft has published a program called Video Title Shop. This program allows you to place titles at the beginning of your video tapes, over Micropainter type pictures or over colored backgrounds. You are able to wipe individual lines or over the entire title at one time. You can scroll text or graphics constructed from text characters across the screen. Pictures and text can be digitally dissolved (fizzed) between two pictures and/or text. If you have a computer with extended ram (ramdisk) you can load all the pictures, text, and command files onto the ramdisk and save your diskdrive. Video Title Shop has the newest version of Micropainter on the disk to construct backgrounds. Included is documentation for Micropainter and a Quick Reference card for both programs. You have two fonts on the disk, plain and fancy. There are two double sided disks of Micropainter screens provided for you or you can construct your own. The screen disks also have 5 different borders to chose from as well as many different screens. You have the option of either a RF connection from the computer to the VCR or monitor output (direct video). There is even a section on how to setup your VCR and what cables to use and how to use them. However the program doesn't support sound or music. There is a command line at the top of the screen, this means that the program isn't fully menu driven. However you are prompted for your selection and the commands are relatively easily remembered. Just about everything except text entry is by joystick control. You are able to place text around the screen and change fonts. The text and background can have the color and brightness changed independently during display for greater effect. As you can see there isn't much that you can't do with Video Title Shop. This is the first commercial program of its type available. There have been several public domain programs of this type around but they won't do one-tenth of what this program will do. I would rate Video Title Shop a excellent buy at $24.95. It is fairly easy to operate and the documentation won't snow you. ______________________________________ Survey Results ______________________________________ GEnie recently ran a survey for their Atari callers, and, after taking the survey, and reading some of the postings, I got the impression that certain people had the idea that the Atari Corp. 8-bit user relationship was doing "just fine." One example- Atari released a 1200 baud modem! Isn't that just great!? Well, in response, I wrote my own survey, and a few of the area boards ran it. Here are the results and a condensed version of that survey. [1] There is/was an Atari 8-bit computer in my life. At present, I feel that the support Atari Corp. is giving to the 8-bit users is: < 4%> Satisfactory. <89%> Unsatisfactory. < 4%> Comparable/others < 3%> Undecided. [2] Before the advent of the ST line, I feel that the support given by Atari Corp. was: <48%> Satisfactory. <12%> Unsatisfactory. <30%> Comparable others <10%> Don't know. [3] At present, thinking about the relationship between Atari Corp. and the 8-bit user: <74%> Atari don't care about 8-bit users. <10%> Atari is doing fine for 8-bit users. < 6%> Atari supports 8-bits as their sales deserve. < 8%> Atari is trying to discourage the 8-bit line. < 2%> Undecided [4] Third party software for Atari 8-bits has rapidily declined. I feel that it is because: <45%> Atari forgot about the 8-bit, so others followed. < 2%> Decline? What decline?!?! <13%> Piracy. <36%> Software hard to find because of sales drop. < 4%> Undecided [5] I own a modem. It is: <34%> Atari 300 baud. < 8%> Non Atari 300 baud. < 8%> Atari 300/1200 plus. <50%> Non Atari 300/1200 plus. * Note: "plus" greater than. [6] Non-Atari modem users: <25%> I bought this because I got tired of waiting for Atari to release a 1200/2400 modem. < 4%> I will buy a 1200/2400 baud Atari modem and will wait. <31%> I own a 300 baud modem. <40%> Atari didn't offer a modem of my baud rate at purchase. [7] Atari Corp. recently released a new modem. However, it was up to the purchaser to find a Terminal program for it. I think this is: <20%> A sound business practice. <53%> The dumbest thing possible. <12%> Better to release the product when PD software is available. <15%> Undecided [8] I like my 8-bit. If I was transported back to the day I bought it, and remembered what Atari Corp. did since I bought it: <45%> I would buy an 8-bit Atari. <50%> Buy some other computer. <00%> Would not buy a computer < 5%> Would buy a game machine instead. [9] In summation, thinking about how Atari Corp. has supported their 8-bit users, I would say: < 7%> average satisfied. <43%> below average. <49%> is non-existant! < 1%> Undecided. Total users participating:__> 186 This survey was run in the Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton area of Pa. Conclusions at a glance: ------------------------ Support given by Atari is now nearly non-existant and completely unsatisfactory; and this changed with the advent of the ST line. The reason for this decline is Atari's doing, and is also affecting support that was given by third-party software companies. Nearly half of the callers are 300 baud, and more than half are using non-Atari 1200 baud or faster modems because Atari did not supply one better than 300 baud at the time of purchase. 50% of the users in this area would buy another computer because of the lack of support Atari is showing today. Finally- 92% thats right 92% of the users say Atari support for the 8 bit people is either below average or non-existant (49% nonexistant!) This may be too little and too late, but, there is always hope Atari will wake up and get back on track. ______________________________________ BBS Listing ______________________________________ This is the pre-release of the ZMag/ST-Report BBS list. This will be updated weekly and published every few months here. You will notice a rather large gap in the registration numbers. These systems have not be validated, so will not be added until that time. This list is not complete. These systems support our publications. Please call and support these systems. If you are not on any of the pay services, call these boards and pass the word. We thank each and every BBS listed here many thanks. Without your weekly support we would not have made it this far. Reg No.Area Phone Number BBS Name ====================================== H001- 201 968-8148 Syndicate H002- 216 784-0574 Stairway H003- 312 690-3724 Lions Den X004- 609 451-7475 C.C.B.B.S. X005- 219 223-8107 Manitou X006- 718 648-0947 Dateline X007- 718 604-3323 New York City X008- 301 437-9813 Ratcom X009- 916 962-2566 Shadow Haven X010- 918 835-5198 Tektron X011- 201 Closed Timelink X012- 201 298-0161 J.A.C.G. X013- 216 545-4817 Pirate Busters H014- 904 786-4176 Bounty Atari ST Z015- 305 747-9196 Alternate Z016- 813 821-3188 ST Petersburg Z017- 505 897-4306 Asylum BBS X018- 808 423-3140 Wonderful World X019- 219 674-9288 M.O.U.S.E. Z020- 404 945-6021 Buford Byte Size X021- 813 726-3449 Harbor Lights X022- 912 244-1726 Talisman X023- 617 674-8361 Westport! X024- 817 444-3023 Rivendale X025- 415 825-2952 West Coast X026- 315 638-8569 The D.E.N. X027- 505 525-0388 Atari C.A.L.C. Z028- 201 723-0824 Wild West BBS X029- 216 758-0284 Command Z030- 707 252-0631 Irata Z031- 617 675-8503 S.W.A.T. X032- 703 560-6318 The Ark X033- 615 665-1217 Vanishing Point X034- 301 967-2207 Orion X035- 207 784-0631 M.A.C.H. Z036- 516 698-7456 WQNR BBS X037- 713 923-7392 W.A.S.T.E. X038- 504 244-0768 Milliways X039- 617 586-8840 Lost Byte Z040- 303 796-0539 The Vault Z041- 404 796-3805 Garden City Z042- 609 939-6247 Satelite Z043- 206 848-3371 The Reef S044- 816 761-2190 Elysium Z045- 315 454-9612 Atari Hotel X046- 212 617-0153 The Bunker X047- 201 247-8252 E.B.B.B.S Z048- 402 466-5339 Griffon's Nest X049- 011 494-12997 Kisa Monitron X050- 011 0340-51117 First Star Z051- 718 253-8602 Outsiders Z052- 805 773-5907 Hot Rodders X053- 203 776-9723 New Haven X054- 502 964-2964 Bargain Basement X055- 609 931-3014 Gateway X056- 602 846-7357 Network 23 Z057- 313 547-0440 Cosmic Stompers Z058- 804 379-4156 Midnight Express X059- 314 647-3290 Gateway City Z060- 312 457-2219 Bluemoon X061- 617 625-5348 Mall Five Z062- 312 430-4234 Runequest X063- 205 772-8526 Bloom County X064- 205 461-7893 H.A.U.G. X065- 812 985-2083 West Terrace Z066- 502 778-9846 WAEL Z067- 502 964-2924 Atari Scene Z068- 614 471-8559 ACEC BBS X069- 614 471-9209 Pandora Z070- 918 251-5450 Help BBS Z071- 716 875-7376 Bates Motel Z072- 516 884-4140 Ol' Hackers Z073- 203 443-5200 Phantasmal S074- 402 466-5339 S.T.U.N.N. S075- 201 929-9351 CoaSTline S076- 703 665-0087 Infonet Z077- 201 388-1676 White House X078- 616 245-8259 Exte Z079- 404 968-4380 Dark Crypt Z080- 601 388-3490 C.A.U.U.G. Z081- 601 374-0709 Irata II Z082- 612 522-2687 T.A.I.G. X083- 219 336-3774 Pipeline X084- 313 736-3920 Facts BBS Z085- 808 261-2184 Muskrats Den X086- 507 60-0530 BugBBS X087- 219 875-8205 One Stone Z088- 305 793-2975 Carina Z089- 305 734-6026 Atari Computer Z090- 216 441-3816 Mega Vision X091- 419 289-8392 Balloon Works X092- 517 371-1106 C.H.A.O.S. X093- 011 470-22183 Sorman Z094- 206 631-8056 Knotts Nook Z095- 312 889-1240 C.L.A.U.G. Z096- 915 757-0788 House of Chance Z097- 714 653-0447 Thunderbeast Z098- 203 445-4094 Spiders Web Z099- 219 693-3485 Acorn BBS Z100- 606 271-1466 Missing Link Z101- 704 253-3614 Office X128- 805 239-8710 The LookOut Z129- 201 286-6189 AtlantiST S130- 201 271-8765 Great Fire X131- 918 622-1121 Future City X132- 805 872-0377 Home Bace Z133- 201 752-9466 Piscataway Z134- 718 373-4669 Blue BBS X135- 216 376-7618 Rubber City X136- 317 243-2177 Dog House X137- 907 338-5005 Public Domain X138- 309 797-5926 Checkmate Z139- 707 437-6366 Elsinore Brewery S140- 602 435-9645 Think Tank X141- 813 823-1471 MegaPlex X142- 314 696-3506 AXE***BBS X143- 201 343-1426 Launch Pad Z144- 416 648-8359 19th Hole Z146- 213 631-7328 L.B.C.S. X147- 314 581-3801 Brickyard X148- 215 289-5247 Star Fleet X149- 201 938-6906 Starbase I Z150- 805 929-1624 My House Z151- ??? 855-1317 Atarian Domain X152- 816 637-6163 Schwarzer Drache Z153- 201 689-4550 Kilroy's Castle Z154- 415 565-9742 Eagle BBS ______________________________________ ZMag Area on GEnie ______________________________________ Welcome to the Atari 8-Bit ** ** ** RoundTable!...Official ** ** ** Atari Online Support!! ** ** ** ** ** ** SysOps: ** ** ** *** ** *** DARLAH Darlah Hudson *** ** *** MARTY.A Marty Albert & CRAIG.S.THOM Weekly RTC is Atari Online: Every Thursday Evening - 10PM NHARRIS Neil Harris (7PM Pacific) TOWNS John Townsend DMAY Darryl May DANSCOTT Dan Scott GEnie Page 667 Set Atari Software Library Library: ALL Libraries 1. Help Files 2. Programming/Disk Utilities 3. Educational Atari 4. Music/Graphics Utilities 5. Atari Tunes 6. Great Graphics 7. Textfile Graphics 8. Telecommunications 9. Information Processing 10. Atari Amusements 11. Everything Else 12. User Group Newsletters & Info 13. ZMAG <--------------------- 14. ALL Libraries Enter #,

revious, or elp? ______________________________________ ZMAG Area Debuts on Compuserve ______________________________________ April 11 -- ZMAG comes to DL 11! ATARI8 is pleased to announce ZMAG's new home on CIS -- DL 11! The library description tells it all... This Data Library is devoted to Zmagazine. You will find the weekly issues of ZMAG as well as other support files in this Data Library. Articles written will be extracted and made available for user group editors to reprint in local newsletters. You will find ALL issues of Zmag in this area. Some issues have been difficult to find, as they are found, we will upload them. If you have an article you would like to have published in the magazine, Please upload it here. Remember, upload time is Free ALL day on CIS! Publisher/Editor Ron Kovacs Assistant Publisher Ken Kirchner ______________________________________ DESTROYING THE HARD DISK MYTH ______________________________________ by TOM "REX" READE To begin, 99% of all hard disks made conform to IBM standards. With this thought in mind we shall proceed.... The most readily available and in my opinion, the most reliable, hard disk is from Seagate......next in line is the Miniscribe. There are others, you must make sure they conform to the IBM standard. IBM STANDARD: ST-506/ST-412 --------------------------- Most commonly found hard drives do not have controllers built in. These are the most reliable and economical drives to use. WHAT IS THE CONTROLLER??? ========================= This goodie is the custodian of your hard disk! It directs all I/O functions to the hard disk it also points to and accesses each cylinder. It "controls" everything. FACTS FOR REFERENCE ------------------- ST 412 DRIVES WITH MFM ENCODING 5.0 MEGABITS/SEC. -------------------------------------- DATA ST125 ST138 ST225 ST251 ST251-1 -------------------------------------- SIZE f'm'd 21 32 21 42 42 -------------------------------------- # HEADS 4 6 4 6 6 -------------------------------------- CYL's 615 615 615 820 820 -------------------------------------- STEP RATE uS 3-200 3-200 5-200 3-200 3-200 -------------------------------------- AC'S TIME mSEC 28 28 65 40 28 -------------------------------------- WRITE PRE'C N/A N/A 300/614 N/A N/A -------------------------------------- POWER watts 10 10 14.8 11 12 ====================================== ST4038 ST4051 ST4053 ST4096 ====================================== SIZE f'm'd 31 42 44 80 -------------------------------------- # HEADS 5 5 5 9 -------------------------------------- CYL'S 733 977 1024 1024 -------------------------------------- STEP RATE uS 10-70 10-70 3-70 3-70 -------------------------------------- AC'S TIME mSEC 40 40 28 28 -------------------------------------- WRITE PRE'C 300-732 N/A N/A N/A -------------------------------------- POWER watts 25.5 25.5 23 25.5 ====================================== ST 412 INTERFACE DRIVES WITH RLL ENCODING 7.5 MEGABITS/SEC -------------------------------------- DATA ST138R ST157R ST238R ST251R ST277R -------------------------------------- SIZE f'm't 32 49 31 43 65 -------------------------------------- # HEADS 4 6 4 4 6 -------------------------------------- CYL'S 615 615 615 820 820 -------------------------------------- STEP RATE uS 3-200 3-200 5-200 3-200 3-200 -------------------------------------- AC'S TIME mSEC 28 28 65 40 40 -------------------------------------- WRITE PRE'C N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A -------------------------------------- POWER watts 10 10 14.8 11 11 ====================================== SCSI INTERFACE (EMBEDDED) HARD DISKS -------------------------------------- DATA ST138N ST157N ST225N ST251N ST227N -------------------------------------- SIZE f'm't 32 48 21 43 64 -------------------------------------- SECTORS 63,139 95,015 41,170 84,254 126,790 -------------------------------------- ACCESS TIME 28 28 65 40 40 -------------------------------------- POWER watts 12 12 16.8 13 13 -------------------------------------- Be Advised, as of 01/01/88, Seagate began using the new I'ntl light code the front light on the drive is GREEN not RED only if it is made after Jan. 01 1988. I do not advise the use of the "N" models as they are limited in the flexibility of use by the embedded controller and are more expensive. Seagate may cost more, but they are the workhorses of the industry. The Seagate Hard Disk is extremely RELIABLE. Seagate units above 40mb have auto-park. All of the above are:FCC,TUV/UL/CSA [CERTIFIED] The list of other types of drives is large, some are, Disctron, Lapine, Microscience, Micro-memories, Miniscribe, Priam, Rodime, Shugart, Tandon and Tulin. The formatted size of these range anywhere from 5-87Mb. I purposely avoided name Brand Names of packaged drives because in most cases they use Adaptek and seagate...I have found that Atari and Supra have gone to the small 3.5 hard disk. I will cover those next. As far as Atari is concerned, I wish they would have save a fortune in R&D and went with the standard assembly, as the method they used is so typical of Atari, "they walked all 'round the barn to walk in the front door", why did they have to change the 'prom it made the SH204 a problem maker, why the dip switches?, do they really think the Atari user cant handle Terminal resistor packs and jumpers??? Bad Move....Some of the companies have gone to Miniscribe, (the coffee grinder) to cut production costs, they will go back to SEAGATE as soon as they realize the RMA volumn is eating their lunch! Remember that all these drives (except for a few) come without a controller, you really want it without a controller ..it's less expensive and works out much better for you in the long run.....you will see! The actual chain of connection for a hard drive is: 1-hard disk 2-controller 3-interface..and the DMA port. MFM- This is a format style most commonly found in use although recently, RLL has been becoming far more popular as it is a condensed compact format thus allowing more data to be stored on an equivalent size hard disk. The major difference is the media itself in the hard disk is PLATED to insure accuracy and longevity. Think of it like plain recording tape and CrO2 Chromium Dioxide tape. The recording media in the "R" drives is of a high quality and plated. In most cases, the Interface, ( Host Adapter ) determines what type of system the hard disk will comply with. It also (usually) has a clock/calendar built in. In reality you can take a hard drive system made for an 8bit XL/XE and change the interface to one for an ST and it will now work on the ST (after a format). The two most widely used controllers, and I might add, ARE REALLY THE BEST, are made by Adaptek they are designed with the user in mind and provide for expansion for the future. ADAPTEK 4000 SERIES CONTROLLERS ------------------------------- ACB-4000A ACB-4070 --------- -------- Interface SCSI dr type ST506/412 ST506/412 [RLL-Certified] These hard disk systems are special in one way, they have embedded controllers. IOMEGA ------ ALPHA 10H BETA XXX interface SCSI dr type Cart 10mb Cart xxmb RODIME ------ RO650 RO652 interface SCSI dr type 10mb 20mb SEAGATE ------- ST225N interface SCSI dr type 20mb *** NOTE Iomega, Rodime, and the 1 Seagate listed are the embedded controller type. These are slowly fading from popularity. WESTERN DIGITAL --------------- WD1002-SHD interface SASI dr type ST506/412 XEBEC ----- 1410 1410A interface SASI dr type ST506/412 ST506/412 * These devices are SASI also slowly fading into the sunset...... ADAPTEK CONTROLLERS =================== ACB4000A / ACB4070 are highly recomended and of excellent design. These controllers will handle most any application. HARD DISK INTERFACE =================== There are three types available for the ST: ICD, Supra, and Berkley ICD --- The "MIO"...Designed for use in the 8 bit field comes in two configurations 256k 1MB ---- --- Both units handle all your needs as they include all the fuctions of the Atari 850 interface. PLUS a printer spooler and buffer. THE ICD ST HOST ADAPTER INTERFACE ================================= The Host Adapter is designed for the 16 bit ST hard drive system or for most anything you care to couple to it...ie, tape backup and hard disk and laser printer etc.. The host adapter interface is also equipped with an outstanding clock made non-volatile thru the use of a lithium battery. Rated **** ICD has real winner here! SUPRA ----- Both of supra's interfaces are quite good, not as flexible as ICD's but good. BE ADVISED! SUPRA IS SLOWLY DROPPING THE 8 BIT HARD DISK SYSTEMS. This is the end of the first installment to placed here for you, there will be more in the near future. The configuration for the hard disk systems are variable, for example, if you wished to use the stand alone system with a different computer you would be able to do so simply by changing the interface. Expandable means you can add another drive at a later date in the existing cabinet. NOTE: This article and the "Hard Disk Series" are for the readers of ST REPORT MAGAZINE and ZMAGAZINE and may not be duplicated in any form without the written permission of the publisher and author. ______________________________________ Syndicate ZMagazine Issue #103 April 25, 1988 (c)1988 SPC/Ron Kovacs ______________________________________