Contents: Did You Know...?

Did you know...

...you can have as many IDE ports as you physically have room for?

...if you're talking to a friend over the phone (by voice), the two of you can connect via modem without having to disconnect first?


...you can have as many IDE ports as you physically have room for?

Just install more PCI, ISA, VLB, or MCA I/O cards, and you'll have more IDE ports! Many (most?) sound cards provide an additional IDE port as well. However, unless your BIOS supports that many ports (nowadays, most only support two), you'll require an operating system that supports them (DOS is not one of them, unless you're able to acquire drivers that I'm unaware of). I believe Phoenix is the only BIOS that potentially supports many IDE ports. The semi-standard addresses and IRQ's assigned to the first four ports are as follows:

PortAddressIRQ
Primary01F0h-01F7h14
Secondary0170h-0177h15 or 10
Tertiary01E8h-01EFh12 or 11
Quaternary0168h-016Fh10 or 9

This information was garnered partly from personal experience, and partly from The Enhanced IDE/Fast-ATA/ATA-2 FAQ.

...if you're talking to a friend over the phone (by voice), the two of you can connect via modem without having to disconnect first?

Just perform the following steps:
  1. Both you and your friend start up your favourite terminal programs (e.g. Telix, Telemate, etc.)
  2. You type "atx3d" (without the quotes), followed by [ENTER].
  3. Your friend types "ata" (again, without the quotes), followed by [ENTER].
  4. After both of you have entered these commands, the two of you should be connected via modem and you can now hang up the phone!
It doesn't matter which of you types "atx3d" or "ata", as long as you type one and your friend types the other. I believe that most modem manuals mention these commands somewhere, but not everyone is aware of them. Ironically, my own manual (Motorola Lifestyle 28.8) says almost nothing about it.

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