>
> I'm building a digital audio recorder to hard disk, controlled by a 17C42.
> I need to interface that to an IDE Hard Drive.  Does anyone have any knowledge
> of chips that will do this, or of another newsgroup I could try, eg a PC
> one?

Interesting project. This is one I plan to work on one day.

You need two things:

1) The data book for your disk drive. Call the manufacturer.
2) The ATA (read IDE) disk interface standard. Not sure where to get this
   one from.

IDE drives are really just an extension of the AT bus. The paddle cards
(before the advent of multi-IO) were simply buffer chips between the
bus and the drive. The 17C42 (or even an 8 bit PIC for the matter) can
simulate the same interface.

Also there's a BYTE magazine article (early nineties) that described the
process.

But you sir are not off the hook (so to speak):

1) Tell us how you are interfaceing to the phone line including ring
   detection? Someone pointed out to me that the old trick of using a
   neon lamp coupled to a photodector is quite effective.

2) How are you converting audio to digital and vice-versa. Are you going
   to use a CODEC. If so which one?

3) How are you programming the 17C42? I'm in the process of developing a
   16C84 based RAM loader for my 17C42 development board. It'll give quick
   development turnarounds (no eprom erasing) and avoid all the programming
   hassles (spending bucks on a programmer is a hassle).

Anyway I have a 40 Meg IDE drive waiting to go into a project just as
you describe. So let us know what's going on!

Later,

BAJ