[PARPORT] Project MatchMaker (aka Iomega ZIP Plus driver)


David Campbell (campbell@gear.torque.net)
Sat, 11 Apr 1998 11:23:54 +0000


Iomega MatchMaker (ZIP Plus) Parallel to SCSI interface driver (for Linux)
==========================================================================

First the web links so you start downloading the code while reading the
rest of this email.

ZIP Plus page:
        http://www.torque.net/~campbell/zip_plus.html
Source code:
        http://www.torque.net/~campbell/imm.tar.gz
Code archive:
        http://www.torque.net/~campbell/ppa/

MatchMaker is the code name Iomega gave to the parallel to SCSI interface
used in the Iomega ZIP Plus drive.

imm-0.10 First release (based on the Iomega document)
This is based on a few port traces supplied by a few people.
Also on the Iomega document EN144302. (received Fri 10 April 1998)

NOTE: The Iomega document refers to the parallel port pins,
some of which (BSY or STR bit 7) are inverted. As a result
it is a little hard to correlate what happens in the manual
and what happens in reality. After several hours of double
checking I have finally been able to reconcile what is stated
in the manual with observed values. This means the manual can
be trusted (at least for forward byte and reverse nibble).

The skelton for this driver is the Linux 2.0.x ppa 1.42 driver.
However a fair amount of code was removed since ONLY SPP mode
is supported. I want to make sure it works in this mode before
trying PS2 (bi-directional), EPP and ECP modes.

For those who have a standard parallel port ZIP drive might
want to know that the ZIP Plus can support ECP in a native
format and would appear to be able to exceed the 35 MB/min
limit with ppa (this is hardware related).

I will be unavailable between Apr 14 and Apr 21 (1998) as
I am needed elsewhere (Adelaide *again* - There is zero chance of the stay
being extended as I have a grad ceremony on the 22nd). I intend to
have a working driver of some kind even if it is just SPP by the end of
May. From there on it is considered code "tweaking" to add in other modes
as compared to writing a driver from scratch.

I will be EXTREMELY happy if someone actually gets the word "ZIP PLUS"
and "96 MB" in the dmesg trace (the bit where the SCSI disk code probes
the device for size information).

Enjoy - and don't forget to send dmesg traces with your reports.

David Campbell
=======================================================
campbell@torque.net (Parallel port device related mail)
dcampbel@p01.as17.honeywell.com.au (For all other mail)

"All parallel ports are equal - Some are more equal than others"

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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Wed 30 Dec 1998 - 10:17:36 EST