ATW800/2 SD slot FAQ (MegaST and VME)

[uweseimet]

From feedback I have received there appears to be some confusion regarding SD slot support for the ATW800/2. Let me summarize some important points, which have been verified and confirmed by the ATW800/2 team. Note that there is wrong informationen provided by users who are neither involved with the ATW800/2 nor with the HDDRIVER development. Just ignore them.

- The ATW800/2 exposes its SD slot as an IDE hard drive, not as a removable media drive.
- The firmware of the first batch provides SD slot support for the MegaST version only. The latest firmware also supports the SD slot of the VME version.
- With hardware from the first batch, In order to use the VME version's SD slot, a firmware update and a small hardware patch is required. With hardware from newer batches the VME version's SD slot can be used out of the box.
- Both slot variants currently only support certain types of SD cards. This may change with future firmwares. I have asked the ATW800(2 team to publish a list of cards they recommend and have tested. ATW800/2 users might help to maintain this list.
- The ATW800/2 team have successfully tested both SD slot variants with HDDRIVER 12.6. Older versions may or may not work with the MegaST slot, but definitely do not work with the VME slot.
- The MegaST slot corresponds to SCSI driver device 2.0, the VME slot to device 2.6, when configuring HDDRIVER with "Devices and Partitions".
- TOS can only boot from the MegaST slot, but not from the VME slot, due to the VME slot's unusual port address. This has advantages and disadvantages.
- The hardware of both slot variants is identical and only the port address differs. Therefore SD cards that works with one slot variant also work with the other.
- The IDE_INFO tool displays the properties of IDE drives/memory cards and does not require any driver to be installed. The latest IDE_INFO release supports both ATW800/2 SD slot variants.
- The transfer speed is about 900 KB/s. This is faster than with some lost-cost ACSI memory card solutions, but less than with dedicated IDE hardware extensions.
- As has always been recommended for not officially supported hardware, test your hardware with the HDDRIVER demo version.
- HDDRIVER works exactly the same with any IDE interface for the Atari. There is no separate code for different IDE interfaces.
- I can only provide support for HDDRIVER and IDE in general, e.g. on how to configure HDDRIVER, but not specifically for the ATW800/2. For ATW800/2-specific questions, e.g. about the SD card types supported, please contact the ATW800/2 team.

I hope that this summary resolves the most common questions.

Also see the ATW800/2 SD slot hints and the information on cloning drives/memory cards. An SD card that is always available and does not block an external port can be useful in many respects, e.g. for temporary data or as a convenient backup medium. In case of the ATW800/2 you more or less get it for free.