Hi all, Nasta has just verified that QubIDE works with the CF adapters, however a small fix is needed (which he identified and fixed very fast indeed). This fix "upgrades" the QubIDE according to newer ATA specs! (So CF cards did something to advance the QL after all :-) I have posted the fix on my page at : http://www.redoak.net/QL/proforma.html Investigation so far has shown that IBM Microdrives work without problems, and so SanDisk cards. I am sending Nasta an extra 64Mbyte card (of the ones I can provide) for further testing. Nasta says that as long as the cards store their parameters according to the CF ATA standard they should work.
Unfortunately Nasta has found an incompatibility between Lexar cards (at leat the ones he owns) and the CF / QubIDE combo. In his own words: "The Qubide reads sector 1 before it actually initializes the proper CHS parameters because the parameters are stored in sector 1. This is a workaround since there is no CMOS to store the parameters so they can be initialized before the drive is first accessed. It appears that on the Lexars sector 1 before and after setting of the parameters is not the same (although this is contrary to both IDE and CF specs!!!)" He is still investigating this problem and we'll inform you on the results... This does not affect people that ordered the card readers for use with their PCs/QPCs as the PC uses a different mechanism to identify the drives (non standard of course). Lexar cards DO work with the CF readers in PC environments (I have already tried a couple with success). As for the Q40/60 I believe that there will be no problems with SMSQ/E equipped systems but there MIGHT be a slight problem with Lexar cards and the readers on QDOS Classic equipped machines (due to the QubIDE rom). In total 1 for Nasta, 0 for the ATA Protocol ! :-) For more information contact me Thanks, Phoebus
