The Paravision SX-1 is an expansion unit for the Commodore Amiga CD32, produced by Paravision, Inc. (also known as Microbotics) in 1994. It adds an IDE hard disk interface, serial and parallel ports, a floppy connector, RAM expansion, and a keyboard port to the otherwise closed CD32 platform. The external IDE port on the SX-1 uses a proprietary 37-pin D-Sub (DB37) connector rather than the standard 40-pin IDC header found on desktop ATA drives, carrying the 16-bit data bus, address lines, chip-select signals, and +5 V power across its 37 pins. This adapter maps the SX-1’s DB37 external connector to the 40-pin IDC connector used by standard 3.5-inch ATA hard disk drives.
37-PIN D-SUB FEMALE (DB37) to the controller
40 PIN IDC FEMALE to the harddisk
| Description | D-Sub | IDC |
|---|---|---|
| Drive Reset | 1 | 1 |
| Data bit 0 | 2 | 17 |
| Data bit 2 | 3 | 13 |
| Data bit 4 | 4 | 9 |
| Data bit 6 | 5 | 5 |
| Ground | 6 | 2 |
| Data bit 8 | 7 | 4 |
| Data bit 10 | 8 | 8 |
| Data bit 12 | 9 | 12 |
| Data bit 14 | 10 | 16 |
| Ground | 11+12 | 19 |
| Ground | 13+14 | 22 |
| Ground | 15+16 | 24 |
| Ground | 17 | 26 |
| 5V Power | 18 | n/c |
| 5V Power | 19 | n/c |
| Ground | 20 | 30 |
| Data bit 1 | 21 | 21 |
| Data bit 3 | 22 | 22 |
| Data bit 5 | 23 | 23 |
| Data bit 7 | 24 | 24 |
| Ground | 25 | 40 |
| Data bit 9 | 26 | 26 |
| Data bit 11 | 27 | 27 |
| Data bit 13 | 28 | 28 |
| Data bit 15 | 29 | 29 |
| I/O Write | 30 | 23 |
| I/O Read | 31 | 25 |
| Interrupt Request | 32 | 31 |
| Address bit 2 | 33 | 36 |
| Address bit 1 | 34 | 33 |
| Address bit 0 | 35 | 35 |
| Chip Select 1 | 36 | 38 |
| Chip Select 0 | 37 | 37 |
Notes
- DB37 pins 18 and 19 supply +5 V and may be used to power the hard disk; most 3.5-inch drives also require +12 V from a separate power connector, which the SX-1 does not provide via this cable.
- The SX-1 also includes an internal 44-pin connector for 2.5-inch IDE hard disks; the external DB37 port is intended for standard 3.5-inch drives connected via this adapter cable.
- The DB37 does not carry DMARQ, DMACK-, or IORDY signals; the SX-1’s IDE interface operates in PIO mode only.
Signals
- D0–D15 — 16-bit bidirectional data bus; even bits (D0, D2 … D14) on DB37 pins 2–10, odd bits (D1, D3 … D15) on pins 21–29
- /IDE-RESET — hardware reset to the IDE device (DB37 pin 1, IDC pin 1)
- /IOR — I/O Read strobe from host to device (DB37 pin 31)
- /IOW — I/O Write strobe from host to device (DB37 pin 30)
- IDE-IRQ — interrupt request from device to host (DB37 pin 32)
- IDE-A0–IDE-A2 — 3-bit task-file register address bus (DB37 pins 35, 34, 33)
- /BICS0 — Chip Select 0, selects the command block registers (DB37 pin 37)
- /BICS1 — Chip Select 1, selects the control block registers (DB37 pin 36)
- GND — ground; multiple DB37 pins (6, 11–17, 20, 25) tied to IDC ground pins
- +5V — 5 V power supply on DB37 pins 18 and 19; not connected on the IDC side