Interface to the IDE port

From: Andras Tantos (andras_tantos_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 10/26/04 

Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 08:57:23 -0700

Hi!

I would like to interface some relatively high-speed components to a couple
of different computers. The datarate would be in the range of 2-5Mbyte/sec,
sustained. I would like to use the same interface with a variaty of
form-factors (PC-104, Mini-ITX, ATX, etc.) I thought that the IDE port on
the motherboard would be an ideal connection point. I don't want to
implement a complete ATA or ATAPI compatible device, just interface directly
to the address/data lines on the IDE port. I will implement my own
communication protocol over my register-set.

So, my question is, has anybody done this? Any comments, recommendations?
How different todays highly integrated chipsets are from the original IDE
interface (in HW and SW interfaces)? How hard would it be to get direct
access to the IDE port registers under an OS, like WinXP, Linux, etc?

Thanks for all the help,
Andras Tantos