View source for CPC-IDE

[[Category:DATA Storage]]
The CPC-IDE was the first fully working IDE interface for the CPC. Later on it got expanded to the [[SYMBiFACE II]].

== History ==

In Autumn 2004 the '''CPC-IDE''' was developed by [[Dr.Zed]] with support from [[Octoate]] (financial), [[Tolkin]] (financial), [[TFM]] (finding a free port address, bringing Dr. Zed to CPC at first and indirect financial support in for of f.e. an C-programmable calculator etc.) and [[Prodatron]] (software support in [[SymbOS]]). It was the first released hardware solution ever that allowed connection of IDE harddrives and CF cards to the CPC. Technically the CPC-IDE interface was an independant development, though the idea of splitting 16bit words into two 8bit bytes for the data transfer came from the GIDE IDE interface by Tilmann Reh.

It was fully working, but still in a prototype state, so only 10 pieces have been produced.

During the production of the CPC-IDE [[Prodatron]] joined the team and created IDE-support in [[SymbOS]] for [[Disc_format|FAT]]16 and FAT32 hard discs by Xmas 2004.

After getting it working successfully, [[Dr.Zed]] and [[Prodatron]] made plans for a second version, which includes a lot of more extensions. So the [[SYMBiFACE II]] wasn't merely an IDE interface, but it merged the CPC with actual PC technology at that time (2006).

== Technical ==

The CPC-IDE interface uses port &FD06-&FD0F by default, but you can select the upper 8 bits with the jumpers on the board. The I/O Ports are compatible with the [[SYMBiFACE II:IDE registers]].

== Pictures ==

<gallery caption="Images of the CPC-IDE prototype">
Image:Symbiface 1 prototype 1.jpg
Image:Symbiface 1 prototype 2.jpg
</gallery>

== Clones ==

Beside the [[SYMBiFACE II]] hardware, which is an advanced successor with additional features, two clones of the CPC-IDE have been created:
* FreeIDE: This is a 1:1 copy of the CPC-IDE by [[Pentagon]] in 2005, which was using the original CPLD code from [[Dr.Zed]]. There were only a few prototypes existing.
* [[X-Mass]]: This new implementation by [[TotO]] from 2014 is based on a DOM (disc on module), which is working in 8bit IDE mode. It's not a fully compatible IDE interface, as it doesn't contain a real IDE connector and doesn't have support for IDE storages with the usual 16bit mode. It's designed for the very compact [[MotherX4]] expansion. During 2016 [[SyX]] released [[AcmeDOS]], which was the first full working Amsdos FAT16 implementation for the CPC.