Hi Laurent,
I'm *pretty* sure it could be done, based on conversations I've had with
ex-Newton OS Engineers. *BUT*, it would not be simple or cheap, the ATA
standard addresses the card in a radically different way, and there would be
indexing and speed issues. There are resources, both in print and on the
web, that discuss the different architectures. But with the lack of
information on the Newton at a hardware level, part of the effort is in
reverse-engineering exactly what the Newton is doing to re-engineer the
protocol to work with the new card. There is also a PCMCIA DDK that might
be of some use. I hope this helps...
Of all the programmer and techno-geek types I know, I know of only one guy
who *might* be able to figure all this stuff out and might have the hardware
resources to investigate it, but his job prevents him from doing much "play"
work on the side. I've been bugging him to help me figure out the protocols
to write a sync tool for the REX cards, but it's been over a year and he
hasn't been able to get to it yet...
Regards,
Gary
----Original Message Follows----
From: "Laurent Daudelin" <laurent_daudelin@fanniemae.com>
To: <newtontalk@planetnewton.com>
Subject: Re: NTLK Compact Flash Memory PCMCIA Adaptors
Date: Wed, 01 Mar 2000 10:32:54 -0500
Gary Moody wrote:
[nice explanation removed]
> If and until someone looks through the Lantern DDK and seriously attempts
to
> write an ATA driver for the Newton, we're stuck...and the likelyhood of
> someone expending this much effort to do this is low, but stranger things
> have happened...recently...with the very quiet release of the IrDA
> enhancements for the Newton.
I have the Lantern DDK, though I've never seriously looked at it. I'm
wondering
if an ATA driver could be made to work. Anybody knows for sure?
What about ATA cards requirements? Are they compatible with the Newton at
all?
This question, if we can use CompactFlash cards (ATA-based) comes on a
regular
basis, and we always read the same response, that there's no driver for it.
But,
suppose a driver was there, would there be other concerns or show-stoppers?
And
if someone is really into that kind of low-level stuff, do you think that it
would be reasonnable to write such a driver?
-Laurent.
=====================================================================
Laurent Daudelin
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