[1. dec 2006]: Updated "Where to get one?" and "Technical documentation" section.
[15. aug 2006]: Updated "Software" section.

• divIDE uses full 16 bits of ATA bus (1)
• divIDE works on all ZX Spectrum flavours (16, 48, 48+, 128, +2, +2A, +3 and clones)
• Thanks to divIDE's onboard logic, theoretical transfer speed is 218 KB/sec (determined by the latency of INI/OUTI instructions) (2)
• divIDE has 8 KB of shadow flash ROM that hosts operating system core, leaving your original ZX Spectrum ROM intact. Additional 32 KB of RAM accessible as 8 KB memory banks are present.
• divIDE's auto-mapping feature transparently maps shadow ROM at important entry points, enabling standard tape emulation, BASIC extensions, NMI menu and DISCiPLE/+D or BetaDisk emulation.
• divIDE's MAPRAM feature helps developers and users to test new software without the need of reflashing their working system in shadow ROM. It can also emulate another 8 KB of ROM if necessary.
• divIDE works with all ATA-compatible devices (there are no known compatibility issues) (3)
• Available software supports widely used emulator formats (TAP, SNA, Z80, SCR). Just download your all-time favourite games from the web and play!

Firmwares:

• FATware 0.12 natively supports up to 8 standard FAT-16 partitions (including long file names). It loads TAP, SNA, Z80, SCR and interlaced SCR files. With FATware you don't need any low-level disk utilities to get up and running - just unplug your disk or CompactFlash from your PC and plug it to your divIDE. NOTE: Early versions of FATware are read only. Write support is planned for the next major release (probably 0.2 or 0.3).
• DEMFIR (DTP's Emulator Files Runner) handles ISO 9660 file system found on CD-ROMs. You can use either CDs or unfragmented ISO images stored on a disk. DEMFIR supports TAP, SNA, Z80, MFC and SCR files. You can download these from numerous software archives such as World of Spectrum. As it is possible to fit thousands of games to a single CD, DEMFIR can turn your Speccy into huge retro-gaming console. NOTE: DEMFIR is read only.
• MDOS3 is a divIDE enhancement of MDOS/MDOS2 systems which were used in D40/D80 disk units. MDOS3 is a full-featured OS working with raw diskette images and supporting up to 4 virtual drives. One of its divIDE-specific add-ons is a tape emulator. With huge D40/D80 software base available this is worth a try, especially if you're a former Didaktik user.
• +DivIDE is an adaptation of the GDOS/G+DOS system found in the DISCiPLE/+D disk interfaces. It should work with all DISCiPLE and +D software which doesn't call routines in GDOS/G+DOS ROM directly. +DivIDE uses virtual disks of 1600 sectors each on the ATA drive. Certain GDOS/G+DOS features are extended and improved. NOTE: +DivIDE uses raw LBA access to disk images so take care if you're hosting another file system on your disk.
• TBIOS is basically a hardware testing utility. If you just built your divIDE you will probably want to flash this. TBIOS source code is available for starting developers as a demonstration of how to interface with ATA devices, how to handle shadow ROM entry points etc. Some goodies are included, such as divIDEo player and dithvIDE picture viewer.

Emulators:

• Spin (Windows) - one of the best Speccy emulators around that contains complete divIDE emulation.
• Spediv (Linux) - enhanced version of Spectemu by Dusky. Spediv's emulation of memory mapping and ATA layer is well-tested and is able to run any existing divIDE software.
• Fuse (Linux, Windows) - mature ZX Spectrum emulator which adopted divIDE courtesy of Matthew "Gasman" Westcott.
• EightyOne (Windows) - polished Sinclair/Timex emulator by Michael D. Wynne.

Other projects:

• ZX Spectrum +3e maintained by Garry Lancaster is an enhancement of the original Amstrad ZX Spectrum models +2A and +3. The +3e ROM supports various ATA interfaces including divIDE.

Check out ESXDOS homepage for upcoming operating system that looks packed with features. As authors state, there's a device / filesystem abstraction layer, which means that BASIC or user-land programs don't need to know anything about the underlying filesystem / device. FAT 12 / 16 / 32, TR-DOS and ISO 9660 drivers are to be supported. Sounds great :)

We are encouraging skilled developers to write BetaDisk emulator. divIDE handles BetaDisk entry points therefore writing a replacement of TR-DOS disk routines should be a manageable task.