If you got better informations than we do then why do you open multiple threads to ask things that were discussed already in other threads, especially when you seem to know better than most of us do ? :-)
[/quote]

Why? Because I didn't read any other thread, I just open my own thread for this thing. I ask you for a support, I didn't ask you for why am I doing it.

We are developers.

The board is compliant with ATA-4 specifications (so 2 drives HD/CDROM could theorically be managed).
For people reading French, here is simple explanation page here :
http://www.commentcamarche.net/pc/ide-ata.php3

But as said SSQ the connector is not the standard one but a connector which does not require a ribbon cable.

I've read somewhere that it was possible to connect a CDROM to the EFIKA, but maybe it is only on the USB port ? Now I don't know (and there is maybe a mistake about this in the Efika book).

p381 of MPC5200B user manual:
ATA-4
ANSI
Single word 0,1,2
Multiword 0,1,2
Block transfers, logical block addressing, improved drive command
SMART improved reliability
Single word DMA retired

syner:
First of all you need a sexchanger for the IDE connector.
The onboard connector is female, as opposed to the standard
where all onboard connectors are male. This is
because you plug the 2.5" HDD directly into the connector
with no ribbon cable in between. Neko has told us that
this is due to the fact that the controller doesn't like
devices that are too far away from the 5200B. I think he
mentioned 10 cm..

But if you want to try connecting a CD-ROM and a HDD,
by all means, be my guest! I know I wouldn't go through
the trouble of it.. But I'm a network streaming guy. I
don't like CDs/DVDs. :P

I know what connector has my EFIKA. I still search for male connectors and male/female cables over internet.
Yes, maybe controller doesn't like more than 10cm, but in 5200B user manual is described a cable with max length about 45cm.
Btw 10 cm is enough for some optical drive above graphic card.

How can I stream a network if I have EFIKA in my car?
I solve an end costumer product. eg. EFIKA as a DVD player together with internet browser. Here are families, who don't have a network.
It's not for me, it's for customers.
I solve it because we participate in www.power2people.org.

If I can speak about myself: I don't use DVDs or CDs, I use only mp3 in my harddrive.

Remember you have maybe 5-6 cm powerlines
between the connector and CPU.

But I understand what you are trying to
do. Try it out and see if it works. I am
happy to be proven wrong in this matter.

This is cool:

http://www.cablesonline.com/44pinmalidc2.html

@syner:
so did you try ?
Is is working ?

Indeed. I guess you would need this, in order to have a regular male connector on the Efika. Next, you would plug the clable at "http://www.cablesonline.com/102driv44pin.html". But I would modify it to make it much shorter. It's not difficult, but IDC connectors are fragile. I guess you can have a cable store do it for you.
Now, for the optical drive. Anyone knows about one of those internal laptop drives, with a regular 44 pin connector?

That's for ATA as a discrete unit.

ATA pins and data lines are multiplexed with PCI and other local chip functions. Extending trace lengths on one side causes the electrical nature of that entire bus to change; don't be careful enough and PCI will become unstable.

If you are using an onboard PCI chip (directly connected to the bus), you are fairly safe due to the fact that you can rely on much more safe timings, but we have NO way of predicting what card you put in there. The L-connector is the safest way to ensure compatiblity and secure capability of the board.

The official statement from the engineer is that it is not wise. However you can break your board however you like; we would recommend if you are reselling devices not to take risks with the stability as it impacts the reputation of Genesi and bplan in general.

I guess that gender changer isn't in the whole Europe. I ordered it in USA. I am waiting for a package.

For my plans with the efika i need acces to an internal storage device and one external. Searching the inet i found the following device:
http://www.synchrotech.com/products/card-rw_32.html
It states that it is capable of simultations reading and writing from 2 slots (1cf and 1sd) that is with only one ide connection. Thus (at least for me) it would eliminate the need for an second ide connector. Are there ppc drivers for this kind of device or am i left with the useage of only one slot. Or are drivers for devices like this included by default in ppc linux? Or is this kind of device not compatible with the efika ide connector?

The only device I'd consider compatible is a notebook hard disk, flash drive or CompactFlash-IDE adapter of the same form factor.

We really don't expect anything else to work particularly reliably, caveat emptor on these things.

I Just got an mail from synchrotech stating that the device is not bootable. So exit for that idea. Better stick to an harddisk with usb card reader. Or the gender changer is to bring some good.

My 2 cents : the openfirmware recognizes a cdrom plugged in USB via the correct adapter (I use one for my project).

If i understand correctly:
An usb sd card reader will be recognized as an usb cdrom? Is that bad or good? Or is that for the synchrotech device?