Subject: Re: NetBSD and 730 MB IDE Hard Drives
To: Brian D. Carlstrom <bdc@ai.mit.edu>
From: Craig M. Chase <chase@pine.ece.utexas.edu>
List: port-i386
Date: 11/26/1994 21:03:43
Brian D. Carlstrom writes:
> 
> >>> Michael Graff writes:
> 
>     >> I am planning on purchasing a 730 megabyte Western Digital IDE
>     >> drive.  Will NetBSD be able to use this drive, or will it
>     >> complain about the number of cylinders being greater then 1024?
>     >> Thanks.
> 
>      > I believe the limitation on cylinders is a DOS problem.  Other
>      > smarter OS's have no such limitation.  My SCSI drives have way
>      > more than 1024 cylinders...  ;)
> 
> um, its a problem I believe with IDE drives in particular more than SCSI.

Hmmmm... I was looking through Computer Shopper yesterday, and I
noticed some "Enhanced IDE" propoganda which claimed something about
"breaking the 528Meg boundary".

No mention of > 1024 cyls, just 528Meg.  The advertisement seemed to
suggest that the original IDE spec was somehow limited.  (and the
New-And-Improved spec solved this problem with some 21st century black
magic) 

Can anybody authoritatively declare this "boundary" to be B.S. (at
least as far as NetBSD is concerned)?


Thanks

Craig