My _EA line is tied high. The EEMEN bit is set to '0'.

I'm trying to use as few chips as possible, and I've read about an implementation that doesn't use anything but an 8051 and a drive.

The reason I'm trying to use MOVX in the first place is to overcome the lack of pull-ups on port 0. During a MOVX instruction, these pins, which are usually open-collector, are given internal pull-ups.

I decided not to use external pull-ups because the hard drive doesn't seem to be able to sink enough current to drive 0's onto the port for a read cycle.

The funny thing is that the brief "ringing" of the ALE doesn't happen if I am frequently toggling it. ie. The line is completely stable unless I leave it idle for several seconds.

To further complicate the issue, I've been testing my design by latching the value driven by port 0 during these MOVX cycles, and REGARDLESS of what value I have in DPTR or the Accumulator, I always get a value of 0xEE showing up on port 0 during the write cycle.

Any thoughts??

-Justin