What is it?

This bootable expansion card provides a Compact Flash card interface to 8-bit ISA systems such as PC/XT. It is typically paired with a 64MB to 1GB CF card. Silent, and more reliable than an old mechanical hard drive.

Available in HASL finish or ENIG finish + Gold Fingers, if you do not intend to extract and insert the card many times (dozens of times), HASL could be is more than enough. Therefore, I offer it cheaper too.

Why did you make it?

There is an Open Source version developed by Monotech-PCs. Which, in turn, is based on the schematic from Sergey Kiselev.

I have a large batch of inverted CF connectors, which must be soldered on the back of the PCB, so I decided to develop this project with the aim of making the board very low profile.

What makes it special?

The version which I publish further reduces the size of the board developed by Monotech-PCs and combines most of the logic in an SPLD ATF16V8B, from which addressing of the IC 28C64B, as well I/O port of the XTCF interface, are established.

By default, the ROM addressing will be set to D000h, and the XTCF interface to I/O port 300h. If other configuration is required, please let me know at the time of ordering.

Access to the ROM can be enabled and disabled using a switch. In the same way, write access to it can be enabled and disabled with another switch, but it is recommended to keep it disabled once it is configured.

BIOS

By default the XT-IDE BIOS comes configured for:

• XT(and higher)-compatible BIOS.
• Boot first hard drive unless user presses A for floppy.

Any of the above can be changed on purchase, or in your own time with the simple DOS utility and built-in switches. I recommend using the 186-compatible BIOS instead if you have an 80186 or NEC V20/V30, or higher, as the performance is better.

512Mb or 1GB CF memory card is offered as an option with MS/Dos 6.22 english version just installed.