ST-506

ST-506

The ST-506 was the first 5.25 inch hard disk drive. Introduced in 1980 ["Disc-storage innovations keep coming while manufacturers ponder user needs," EDN, May 20, 1980, pg 59] by Seagate Technology (then Shugart Technology), it stored up to 5 megabytes after formatting. The similar (but more expensive) 10 MB ST-412 was introduced in late 1981. Both used MFM encoding (already widely used in disk drives). A subsequent extension of the ST-412 used RLL for a 50% boost in capacity and bit rate.

The ST-506 was interfaced to a computer system using a disk controller. The ST-506 interface was derived from the Shugart Associates SA1000 interface [the principal difference was that the data rate was increased from 4.34 to 5.00 Mbit/s.] . which was in turn based upon the floppy disk drive interface ["Simplify system design with a single controller for Winchester/floppy combo," Electronic Design, October 25, 1979, pg 76-80.] thereby making disk controller design relatively easy. [op. cit. EDN]

In the ST-506 interface, the drive was connected to a controller card with two cables; a third cable provided power. The drives were "dumb", so-called because the control card translated requests for a particular track and sector from the host system into a sequence of head positioning commands, then read the signal from the drive head and recovered the data from it. A 34-pin "control cable" would control the mechanical motions of the drive with pins such as "HD SLCT 0" through HD SLct 3" used to select one of up to 16 heads and "STEP" / "DIRECTION IN" used to move the heads to the appropriate track. Data then could be read or written serially using the appropriate two pins of the 20 pin "data cable". This led to slow potential performance due to the limited bandwidth of the data cable, although this was not an issue at the time. Modern disk drive systems have considerable processing power on-board, so that the host system only needs request a particular block of data and the drive internally carries out all the steps required to retrieve it.

A number of other companies quickly introduced drives using the same connectors and signals, creating an ST-506-based hard drive standard. IBM chose to use it, acquiring adapter cards for the PC/XT from Xebec ["Xebec Lands Key IBM Controller Pact", Computer System News, November 29, 1982, pg. 1, 29.] and for the PC/AT from Western Digital. As a consequence of IBM's endorsement, most of the drives in the 1980s were ST-506-based.

However the complexity of the controller and cabling led to newer solutions like SCSI, and later, ATA (IDE). In most cases SCSI drives were in fact ST-506 drives with a SCSI to ST-506 (or, in some cases, ESDI) controller on the bottom of the drive; this continued until the early 1990s, when single-chip ATA and SCSI host adapters from Western Digital, Adaptec and Emulex/QLogic (as well as custom ones designed by the hard drive makers themselves) became commonplace.

Connector Pinouts

From ST506/ST412 OEM Manual [http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/seagate/ST412_OEMmanual_Apr82.pdf]

In the following table, "~" denotes a negated (active low) signal.

Notes


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • 506º Regimiento de Infantería de Paracaidistas — 506º Regimiento Infantería Paracaidísta Escudo de armas del 506º Activa 1942–1945 1948–1949 1950–1953 1956–1984 1987 presente País Estados Unidos …   Wikipedia Español

  • 506º Batallón Pesado Antiaéreo — 506° Batallón Pesado Antiaéreo Activa Abril de 1940 – Febrero de 1945 País …   Wikipedia Español

  • 506 (nombre) — 506 Années : 503 504 505  506  507 508 509 Décennies : 470 480 490  500  510 520 530 Siècles : Ve siècle   …   Wikipédia en Français

  • (506) Марион — Открытие Первооткрыватель R. S. Dugan Место обнаружения Хайдельберг Дата обнаружения 18 января 1903 Эпоним Marion Orcutt Альтернативные обозначения 1903 LN; 1948 PF1 Категория Главное кольцо …   Википедия

  • 506 Carlton — CLRV #4059 heads north on Main Street towards the eastern terminus Overview Type Streetcar Route Locale …   Wikipedia

  • 506 On the River Inn Woodstock — (Woodstock,США) Категория отеля: 4 звездочный отель Адрес: 1653 West …   Каталог отелей

  • 506 Lighthouse Mall Self Catering Apartment — (Дурбан,Южно Африканская Республика) Категория отеля: 4 звездочный отель …   Каталог отелей

  • (506) marion — est un astéroïde de la ceinture principale. Lien externe (en) Caractéristiques et simulation d orbite sur la page Small Body Database du JPL [java] Navigateur astéroïdal …   Wikipédia en Français

  • 506 Cascades — (Кейптаун,Южно Африканская Республика) Категория отеля: 3 звездочный отель Адрес: 9 Ves …   Каталог отелей

  • 506 Marion — is a minor planet orbiting the Sun …   Wikipedia

  • (506) Marion — Descubrimiento Descubridor Raymond Smith Dugan Fecha 17 de febrero, 1903 Nombre Provisional 1903 LN …   Wikipedia Español

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”