Bernoulli Box

[Jimmy]

As usual when I have a question I come here for answers. I seem to remember that an IBM 5150 would support a Bernouilla Box, but you had to have a controller card.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Iomega-CDS-...506&pid=100015&prg=1006&rk=1&sd=261134669284&

Thanks,

Jimmy

 

[Stone]

It's been a while but IIRC, the Bernoulli I used to use connected via the parallel port and had a pass through.

 

[Chuck(G)]

That drive appears to be the SCSI-ish one that shipped with its own controller. DC-37 connector.

I say "SCSI-ish" because it's actually closer to SASI. It looks something like this one. Note that there are no LSI ICs on the board.

 

[mbbrutman]

This page might be interesting to you:

http://www.brutman.com/Bernoulli_Box/Bernoulli_Box_A220H.html

It took a long time for me to get the pieces assembled. Yes, it does have it's own controller card but it is nominally SCSI so older SCSI cards might be able to drive it. One of the beautifully strange things about these older Bernoulli Boxes is that the media uses 256 byte sectors. (512 is more common, and now hard drives are moving toward 4KB with 512 being supported through emulation in the hard drive firmware.)


Mike

 

[tomasont]

I remember using one of these around 1987 or 1988. We had it connected to a Compaq 386. I sure thought they had their own controller card, but I don't remember any details. I did hear some horror stories about not leaving the disks in the drives too long. They tended to get stuck if you left them for days at a time.

 

[Jimmy]

Thanks guys, I knew you would know. I am considering making him an offer.

 

[Shadow Lord]

Thanks guys, I knew you would know. I am considering making him an offer.

Maybe this will catch you before you bid but that unit looks like it uses the older "disks" which are much harder to find. If you go that route make sure you can get media for it. Or if you just want a Bernoulli drive I see them pop up on a regular basis on eBay. I think there was even a new in box (for whatever that is worth) one that sold just recently for a cheaper price then that.

 

[Jimmy]

Dan:

Thanks for the information, I think I will wait and see what is available.

 

[mbbrutman]

There are two sizes of cartridges - 8 inch and 5.25 inch. The 8 inch cartridges are commonly available in 10MB formats. The 20MB format is more difficult to find. The 5.25 inch cartridges are pretty common.