Raven. A homemade Atari-like computer

[Atarian Computing]

Yep it can easily decode and support multiple ports, and each port can have one master + one slave as usual.
I haven't fully committed to the layout yet but I do know I want a CF socket right on the card itself, so that's a master on one port.

The two headers would mean up to 4 devices on top of that. That's surely overkill and I've been thinking perhaps reduce it to one.
But then I keep reminding myself that master/slave could be a bit of a lottery even back in the days on PC and it was a thing to avoid hooking stuff up as slave unless as a last resort.

I don't remember it being as bad as this article though
https://www.os2museum.com/wp/the-dual-drive-ide-hell/

I'm sure it got a lot better over time. Today I assume the situation is worse again with all the cheap no-brand stuff.

Oh wow. So, somehow, you would use the OG IDE to generate two Master/Slave pairs? Or is it a passthrough for the built-in, and you're creating a new master/slave from the ISA? But either way, that's really cool. Having multiple drives is almost essential. I'm in the boat where I regret my partitioning choices and would like to redo that. I'd need an extra drive or two to do that without hassle.

[bbisi]

@agranlund

thats a very good idea
IDE with Network ? You make a egg-laying wool-milk sow
Couldn't an adapter with a USB port be made? For USB sticks and other USB devices?

[PhilC]

Great updates as always. Been a bit busy here but booted up the Raven and it all worked first time, so I'll give it the latest updates later on this week.

[alexh]

Couldn't an adapter with a USB port be made? For USB sticks and other USB devices?

There is silicon for this. I know because we owned the company that once made them. They were used in Amiga USB host cards (Subway, Deneb, Freeway). Whether you can still source them is another matter. ST Microelectronics isp1760/isp1763 or Transdimension TDUHC124B

The problem is probably not making the hardware but the software. The USB stack and compatible class drivers are quite complicated beasts.

[agranlund]

Hmmn, probably will end up something like this:
I wasn't intending for two CF sockets but I ended up with tons of unused space and realised another one will fit.

Screenshot 2026-01-18 at 12.32.09.png (662.64 KiB) Viewed 739 times

The card will have two physical interfaces for a total of four devices, where the CF cards are master devices on each interface.
Meaning if you have a CF card attached then its corresponding 40 pin header can take a slave device only.
If not, then the 40 pin header can take one master + one slave device.


That (optional) pushbutton and header is there for a convenient way to trigger NMI from outside the case.
Or perhaps reset if the case doesn't have that. Or anything.. it's just a button and a header

[LarryL]

Hmmn, probably will end up something like this:
I wasn't intending for two CF sockets but I ended up with tons of unused space and realised another one will fit.

Screenshot 2026-01-18 at 12.32.09.png

The card will have two physical interfaces for a total of four devices, where the CF cards are master devices on each interface.
Meaning if you have a CF card attached then its corresponding 40 pin header can take a slave device only.
If not, then the 40 pin header can take one master + one slave device.


That (optional) pushbutton and header is there for a convenient way to trigger NMI from outside the case.
Or perhaps reset if the case doesn't have that. Or anything.. it's just a button and a header

Excellent

Need it…

[luciodra]

@agranlund Would it be possible to have a rom without the integrated hddrivers?
I'm having some difficulties with partitioning the SD and I don't understand if it's due to this...

[Mikerochip]

Speaking of HDD Drivers.

@luciodra have you (or anyone else) seen, Uwe Seimet has released his EmuTOS HDD Driver loader!

He calls it EmuTOS_FIX

And it lets you load HDDriver (or other atari HD driver) that already exists on a disk.

https://www.hddriver.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=419

So, you could use that?

I was just about to post, and ask if anyone else used it, or tried it out...

[luciodra]

Speaking of HDD Drivers.

@luciodra have you (or anyone else) seen, Uwe Seimet has released his EmuTOS HDD Driver loader!

He calls it EmuTOS_FIX

And it lets you load HDDriver (or other atari HD driver) that already exists on a disk.

https://www.hddriver.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=419

So, you could use that?

I was just about to post, and ask if anyone else used it, or tried it out...

Great, I'll try it when I get back from work!

[agranlund]

I was just about to post, and ask if anyone else used it, or tried it out...

I tried it out here some day ago and it appears to work from the little testing I did.
At least HDDRVUTL is reporting HDDRIVER as the active driver, and XFERRATE shows a different score so I'm assuming it's active