ST506/412

From HwB

MFM Controller WD1006

Developed by Seagate.
Also known as MFM or RLL since these are the encoding methods used to store data. Seagate originally developed it to support their ST506 (5 MB) and ST412 (10 MB) drives.
The first drives used an encoding method called MFM (Modified Frequency Modulation). Later a new encoding method was developed, RLL (Run Length Limited). RLL had the advantage that it was possible to store 50% more with it. But it required better drives. This is almost never an problem. Often called 2,7 RLL because the recording scheme involves patterns with no more than 7 successive zeros and no less than two.

Contents

Pinout

Idc34m.png

34 PIN IDC MALE at the Controller.

Idc20m.png

20 PIN IDC MALE at the Controller.

Idc34f.png

34 PIN IDC FEMALE at the Harddisk.

Idc20f.png

20 PIN IDC FEMALE at the Harddisk.

Control connector

Pin Name Description
2 Head Sel 8
4 Head Sel 4
6 Write Gate
8 Seek Complete
10 Track 0
12 Write Fault
14 Head Sel 1
16 RES (reserved)
18 Head Sel 2
20 Index
22 Ready
24 Step
26 Drive Sel 1
28 Drive Sel 2
30 Drive Sel 3
32 Drive Sel 4
34 Direction In

Note: All odd pins are GND, Ground.

Data connector

Pin Name Description
1 Drive Selected
2 GND Ground
3 RES (reserved)
4 GND Ground
5 RES (reserved)
6 GND Ground
7 RES (reserved)
8 GND Ground
9 RES (reserved)
10 RES (reserved)
11 GND Ground
12 GND Ground
13 Write Data+
14 Write Data-
15 GND Ground
16 GND Ground
17 Read Data+
18 Read Data-
19 GND Ground
20 GND Ground

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