And running 😀

great work! what are the plans for this?
I am also abandoning software layers like DiskManager , if one has a spare ISA slot for a NIC then XTIDE BIOS is the way to go. 😎

You will also find that most Creative Sound blaster 16's will work too, mostly useful for
running the pc speaker sound through in an XT.
The 16 bit part is used for the IDE port only usually. I have a few 16 bit IO cards and they work
as well.

I must admit, I'm surprised myself you got your 16-bit IDE controller working in an 8-bit slot - I thought that the extended part of the bus interface of an IDE controller is normally used for the IDE interface.
But, if it has an "8-bit mode" and you got it working, then that's great.

Yes, I can also confirm it doesnt work with all. When trying one of these combo controllers with Serial/Parallel on it the board doesnt even power up.

The 8-bit mode is a feature of XT-IDE, not of the controller. Therefore, if you can get the system up with such card it should work with an XT-IDE rom.

I am currently trying to get this running with an IDE interface on a sound-card. I already had this running with an Aztech card on a 286. XT-IDE was booting from a CF card connected to the CD-ROm interface of the Aztech. Should work here too.

I have inserted a CT2910 in the XT but with this it powers up, end with an error and asks me to preff F1...but this key is not reacting. Strange...

Got it 😎 😎 😎

XT-IDE now boots on my XT from the 16-bit Aztech Soundcard as primary controller on port 170h. No dedicated IDE-controller required.
Its an AZT2316A (FCC ID 138-MMSN830), but I think other cards will work too...no need to buy expensive hardware to get IDE working 😉

Will test the sound output later...

really great that you can use the soundcard ide port, I need to remember that 😁

I think this should work with every non-Pnp soundcard with a standard IDE interface. You need to figure out the I/O port and configure XTIDE to use that port.
Also a good way to save an ISA slot.
In case of the Aztech card it was easy as it uses standard port 170h (and as far as I can see it can not be changed on that card).
For the 8 bit slot I am still surprised that it works with 16bit cards. But as said, this seems to be a feature of XT-IDE.

what I do usually is to make a bootdisk with the XTIDE Configuration program in it and have it auto-configure and modify the bios I want to use on the diskette. Then I take the bios image, burn it and use it - worked for me every time.

Just a sidenote, one can find the latest compiled versions here: http://www.xtideuniversalbios.org/binaries/

XT-IDE auto-config might be a good idea, havent tested this. Also downloaded a pre-compiled package somewhere else.

I can now also confirm that 8-bit and 16-bit samples are working in the XT. Most important thing, Adlib sound, surprisingly not. Think I have found the reason on the board, there are some parts missing 🙁 Will try another card later.

oh my... looks like a transistor and a filter have been ripped 🙁

Yes I have found a picture of an intact card, but I think its not possible to figure out which parts are missing? Maybe somebody can help 😉

In the mean time I am glad to have a huge collection and tried the next Aztech: 138-MMSN824

This one works perfectly in an XT
- boot with IDE
- Adlib (tested with Populous + Space Quest 3
- 8 bit and 16 bit samples, tested with the Aztech Utility (you need the Stellar installation disk)

Summarized: These Aztech cards have been completely underestimated by me. Never used them as I called them cheap clones. Even if its not really Retro you can use it as all-in-one solution in your XT. As far as I remember MFM and not IDE was common in XTs, therefore it will be difficult to find an period-correct 8-bit IDE controller?

Hope this thread was useful, but I am afraid not too many people here are interested in XTs 😀

Well, I am interested in XTs and I have settled with a Hyundai one: Hyundai SUPER-16TE xt clone: restoration and info
I also worked on this before the Hyundai one: Acer 500+ XT system
Carlostex is another XT lover here , MMaximus also comes to mind...

About the damaged card, maybe someone has the same model and can tell us what is the missing transistor... the FB part is a filter - you can replace it with a solder bridge to see if FM works

You're in luck - I have both I38-MMSN824 & I38-MMSN830.
Both are packed away in my store room but, I can retrieve it and let you know what the missing components are (on your I38-MMSN830).
If you need the drivers for this model, here they are:

Just impressed did also not know that many isa 16 could work.

Question my 8086 does boot with controllers that has serial and parallel port so it would be possible to flash them to xt? Also where can I find information on that, also I heard it is possible to use xt version with floppy bios that allows the system to pass the 360kb limit which I need haha 😉

Keep up the good work.

jesolo wrote:

You're in luck - I have both I38-MMSN824 & I38-MMSN830.
Both are packed away in my store room but, I can retrieve it and let you know what the missing components are (on your I38-MMSN830).
If you need the drivers for this model, here they are:

Thanks for that! But I am not sure if a card for comparision is sufficient as the parts are not labelled and we cannot figure out what kind of cap or resistor is missing?

tabm0de wrote:

Just impressed did also not know that many isa 16 could work.

Question my 8086 does boot with controllers that has serial and parallel port so it would be possible to flash them to xt? Also where can I find information on that, also I heard it is possible to use xt version with floppy bios that allows the system to pass the 360kb limit which I need haha 😉

Keep up the good work.

Thanks! I think this should work as I described above, just put the XT-IDE Rom in a network card. Regadring floppy I also dont have experience. I assume the 360kb is fixed in the mainboard Bios. So if you have a drive and a controller supporting 1.2 MB you will need a Bios extension or a DOS-driver supporting this. I dont think XT-IDE is suitable for this.

Ha, I didn't know that XT-IDE BIOS was rewriten to support 8-bit mode on a 16-bit controller that's pretty neat. I would also like to see the high density floppy drives working on the multi I/O card in an XT.

Anonymous Coward wrote:

Ha, I didn't know that XT-IDE BIOS was rewriten to support 8-bit mode on a 16-bit controller that's pretty neat. I would also like to see the high density floppy drives working on the multi I/O card in an XT.

Yes, clearly described here

Menu items on "xxx IDE Controller" submenus

Back to Configuration Menu Moves back to "Configure XTIDE Universal BIOS" submenu.
Master Drive
Slave Drive Opens submenu for Master/Slave Drive specific settings for this IDE Controller.
Device Type [default=XTIDE for XT builds, 16-bit for AT builds] Following devices are supported:
16-bit ISA/VLB/PCI IDE [default for AT builds] 32-bit mode will be automatically enabled when supported VLB/PCI controller is detected.
32-bit VLB/PCI IDE For those 32-bit controllers that do not require software support (PIO mode is set with jumpers). Can be used with all 32-bit controllers but PIO mode is 0 just like on 16-bit controllers.
16-bit ISA IDE in 8-bit mode Allows to use 16-bit IDE controllers on XT systems. This will require drive that supports 8-bit transfers (CF card and Microdrives all support 8-bit mode).
XTIDE rev 1 [default for XT builds]
XTIDE rev 2 or modded rev 1 XTIDE with A0 and A3 address lines swapped.
XT-CF v2/v3/Lite in PIO mode
XT-CF v2 in DMA mode
XT-CF v2 in memory mode
JR-IDE/ISA
Serial port virtual device Note that a serial port controller must be the last configured IDE controller. XTIDECFG will automatically move any serial ports to the end of the list if needed. This is done so that serial floppy disks, if any are present, will be last on the list of drives detected.
Base (cmd block) address [default=300h for XT builds, 1F0h (Primary IDE) and 170h (Secondary IDE) for AT builds] Command block (base port) address where the IDE Controller is located. JR-IDE/ISA does not use this setting.
Control block address [default=308h for XT builds, 3F0h/370h for AT builds] Set to base port + 8h for XTIDE rev1, rev2 and Lo-tech XT-CF. Set to base port + 200h for standard IDE controllers. JR-IDE/ISA does not use this setting.
Enable interrupt [default=no] Enables interrupt but it does not offer any benefit for MS-DOS. Do not enable unless you know you need it.
IRQ [default=14 for Primary IDE, 15 for Secondary IDE] Appears only when MODULE_IRQ is available. IRQ channel to use for IDE controllers.
COM Port [default=COM1] Appears only when serial port virtual device is selected.
Baud Rate [default=38.4K] Appears only when serial port virtual device is selected.

Maybe I will also test the floppy problem, should also be a question of drivers only.

Was solved by somebody else 😀

http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/transfer/35_i … ch/2m-xbios.htm

2M-XBIOS
This page describes the procedure for using 2M-XBIOS software and a 16-bit floppy controller, to get a 1.44M diskette drive operating on an IBM 5150 (IBM PC) or IBM 5155 (IBM Portable PC) or IBM 5160 (IBM XT), at 1.44M capacity.