CF adapter for Toshiba portables

From Conventional Memories Wiki
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CF adapter Toshiba.jpg

Intro

This project started off with my Toshiba collection, Many of these early Toshiba T-Series have an expansion slot in the back. Looking through the maintenance manual's for these Toshiba's I found out that they just used the ISA bus with a different connector and formfactor for the expansion slot.

I already had some of Lo-tech's XT-CF cards and wanted something similar for the Toshiba slot. Therefore this card is based entirely on Lo-tech's design, I used the schematics on his website with some small changes, Of course I asked James if he was cool with that.

Features

The card has an easily accessible CF card slot. which allows you to expand upgrade or replace the storage of your Toshiba portable up to 8.2GB.

The XT-ide BIOS on the card allows booting from the CF card.

On Toshiba portables with an internal IDE controller the BIOS on this card can also be configured to control the internal IDE controller. This allows you to both use the CF card slot and/or replace the internal drive with any standard IDE drive.

Compatible Toshiba models

This card is compatible with every Toshiba model that has the expansion slot, or as it is named in the official Toshiba documentation "Toshiba proprietary expansion slot - "A" form factor".

  • T1100 PLUS  (not T1100)
  • T1200
  • T1600
  • T2100 from 1986 (not the later "satellite T2100")
  • T3100 (E)(sx)
  • T3200sx(c)   (not T3200)
  • T5100
  • T5200(c)

Some of the Japanese models J-3100… have the same expansion slot and should work as well, not sure. I have not been able to test this yet however.

Programming the XTide bios.

All the files discussed in this document can be downloaded from the folder “XTIDE” here.

(extract these files somewhere you can access from the portable from which you want to program the ROM with. Floppy, Hard Disk or CF card)

First let's discuss the different files included:

  • FLASH.EXE ; “Lo-tech XT-CF flash utility” For flashing config to ROM
  • XTIDECFG.COM ; XT-IDE configuration editor
  • XT.BIN ; Pre-configured for XT class machines (8088 & 8086)
  • AT.BIN ; Pre-configured for 286 and higher machines
  • AT-INT.BIN ; Same as “AT”, with support for internal IDE controller

What BIOS to use for which Toshiba portable?

Use “XT.BIN”for XT class machines.

T1100 PLUS,

T1200,

T2100

Use “AT.BIN” for 286 and higher machines.

T1600,

T3100(e)(sx),

T3200sx(c),

T5100,

T5200(c)

The “AT-INT.BIN” file is only for portables that also already have an IDE controller on board, only use this if you want to change out the internal HDD for another IDE drive or adapter. The original Toshiba BIOS has a lot of restrictions when it comes to HDD’s, it often only supports a few specific Conner disks.

With this configuration the BIOS on our board will also control the internal IDE controller therefore bypassing the restrictions of the original Toshiba BIOS.

Supported on:

T1600 (not /40 model, it doesn't have an IDE controller)

T3100e

T3200sx(c)

T5100

T5200(c)

Flashing a configuration to ROM.

Make sure the config (.BIN) file is in the same directory as the Flash utility.

Run the following command: FLASH “CFG.BIN” “base-address”

With “CFG.BIN” being the configuration you want to flash

With “base-address” being the base address for the ROM, “C800” on my boards.

EXAMPLE: FLASH XT.BIN C800

After Flashing is done, reboot.

Editing a Configuration.

Run “XTIDECFG.COM” to open the configuration editor.

Open the configuration you want to edit with the “Load BIOS from file” option.

Now you can change the configuration.


IMPORTANT: after editing a configuration always use the “Save BIOS back to original file” option, do not try to flash from within the Configuration program. Use the stand alone Flash utility as described above.

Useful Info:

My board is based on Lo-tech’s “XT-CF-lite” design with a fixed IO port address (300h - 31Fh) and ROM address (32KB at C800h). So much of the info on his website will also apply to my board.https://www.lo-tech.co.uk/wiki/XT-CF-lite_rev.2

Lo-tech XT-CF flash utility: https://www.lo-tech.co.uk/wiki/Lo-tech_XT-CF_flash_utility

XT-IDEuniversalbios - Manual: https://code.google.com/archive/p/xtideuniversalbios/wikis/Manual_v2_0_0.wiki


https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1APCPS0FjPjCEl6vuXwYDqW_fwdtbNOFP?usp=sharing


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