Slim CD/DVD drive support announced

By Chris Williams. Published: 11th May 2005, 19:08:04 | Permalink | Printable

Just what we've always wanted

Stuart Tyrrell Developments have produced drivers for a USB based slim CD/DVD combo-drive. Measuring 138mm x 135mm x 21mm, the drive is, according to STD, "ideal for those people using machines with limited expansion capabilities to add optical disc support without consuming a drive bay".

The device's drivers are compatible with the Simtec USB stack, which includes the Unipod, and will be made available at this month's Wakefield 2005 show. In an accompanying announcement, the company said that the drivers were a "retail release", possibly hinting that the software has otherwise been developed for its embedded OEM customers.

STD were unavailable to immediately provide useful specifications of the drive, such as its speed and transfer rates.

Links

STD website

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Discussion

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nice!

harmsy on 11/5/05 9:10PM
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Hurray!

Oh!

For a moment I thought we could use slim drive on an IDE interface at last.

Never mind.

ajpullan on 11/5/05 11:50PM
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Wouldn't it be slow under USB1? Now drivers for it for my Iyonix which has USB2 would be nice.

ianscott on 12/5/05 12:11PM
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That would fit nicely into a laptop, I suppose.

martin on 12/5/05 2:54PM
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Martin:

Shhh... Don't give the game away ;-)

Stewy on 12/5/05 3:58PM
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Excellent News for RISCOS users !!!

Let us hope, it soon will be available for NON USB users as well.

datawave on 12/5/05 5:50PM
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datawave:

I can't see that ever happening RISC OS is moving on and USB is the way to go

leeshep on 12/5/05 6:04PM
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In reply to leeshep:

You NEVER know, maybe someone feels the need to write it for fellow RISC OS users

datawave on 12/5/05 6:36PM
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datawave:

I think that USB (or firewire) are the only options for connecting up this kind of device, the datarate of Parallel or Serial ports would be far too slow for this kind of thing IMHO although a SCSI solution could be developed it's incredibly unlikely (given the fact that SCSI's going the way of the Dodo, or so i've been informed)

leeshep on 12/5/05 7:18PM
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And the madness of having two mutually exclusive USB stacks continues, meaning I cannot use this very attractive piece of kit on my Iyonix.

JWCR on 12/5/05 7:33PM
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So... this will be a great addition to the forthcoming "basic" A9 Home. ;-)

gj on 12/5/05 7:49PM
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In reply to leeshep :

USB or Firewire you do NOT need at ALL, it is possible to run this on RISC OS only as well !!! Hopefully on RISC OS 3.70 and RISC OS 3.71

datawave on 12/5/05 8:29PM
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In reply to gj:

Indeed for the A9 Home, but hopefully with a better desktop case then they have now.

datawave on 12/5/05 8:33PM
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datawave:

I don't understand what you are saying, how do you propose the external CD/DVD drive will be connected to the computer in order for RISC OS to make use of it, the drive is a USB drive. No USB, No drive it's as simple as that, RISC OS 3.7 is irrelevant as far as i know the Simtec USB card will work with RISC OS 3.5 and above

leeshep on 12/5/05 9:18PM
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In reply to leeshep:

Who is talking about External ones, there is in this article no mention of external CD/DVD rom combo players. I have NOT talked about the simtec usb stack at all. with a little fix, it should work on NON USB drives as well, so simple as that !!!

datawave on 12/5/05 9:28PM
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datawave: CD/DVD combo drives work under RISCOS anyway (the IDE variety) So theres no software to be fixed, what makes this drive & software so special is the fact that it is USB

Back on-topic - Well done STDevelopments another much-needed piece of hardware now working (although untill it works on the iyonix its no good to me ;-)

)

leeshep on 12/5/05 9:37PM
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datawave> Whether it's internal or external, it's based on USB. It says so in the first line of the article.

jonix on 12/5/05 10:12PM
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in reply to jonix : I have READ that about USB. I said: I hope, it will be available for NON USB drives as well. If it is possible on USB, it SHOULD ALSO be possible on NON USB COMBO drives. SO SIMPLE AS THAT !!!!

datawave on 18/5/05 8:21AM
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datawave: So you want a USB drive to work without USB? Or you want non USB combo drives, which already work anyway?

SimonC on 18/5/05 11:39AM
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datawave:

You can find non USB CD/DVD combo-drives that work with RISC OS close to you at [link] or you can buy there a UNIPOD or more modern RISC OS machine with USB.

egel on 18/5/05 2:08PM
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