Lifted pin 9, same output. Then, I lifted pin 8 just to be thorough. Still nothing. As a last ditch resort, I pulled the entire chip. Here's a new boot log with the SMC removed:

Code:
empeg-car bootstrap v1.02 20001106 ([email protected])
If there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
or forever hold their peace...it seems not. Let fly the Penguins of Linux!

e000 v1.04
Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...
Uncompressing Linux..................................... done, booting the kernel.
Linux version 2.2.17-rmk5-np17-empeg55-hijack-v518 ([email protected]) (gcc version 2.95.3 20010315 (release)) #2 Tue Jun 3 14:28:51 EDT 2014
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11
Checking for extra DRAM:
c1000000: wrote ffffffff, read e28cc001
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 9, serial number 30102293) 16MB DRAM
Command line: mem=16m
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 15000k/16M available (996k code, 20k reserved, 364k data, 4k init)
Dentry hash table entries: 2048 (order 2, 16k)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 16384 (order 4, 64k)
Page cache hash table entries: 4096 (order 2, 16k)
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.2
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
TCP: Hash tables configured (ehash 16384 bhash 16384)
IrDA (tm) Protocols for Linux-2.2 (Dag Brattli)
Starting kswapd v 1.5 
SA1100 serial driver version 4.27 with no serial options enabled
ttyS00 at 0xf8010000 (irq = 15) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS01 at 0xf8050000 (irq = 17) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS02 at 0xf8030000 (irq = 16) is a SA1100 UART
Signature is 206f6972 'rio '
Tuner: loopback=0, ID=-1
show_message("Hijack v518 by Mark Lord")
empeg display initialised.
empeg dsp audio initialised
empeg dsp mixer initialised
empeg dsp initialised
empeg audio-in initialised, CS4231A revision a0
empeg remote control/panel button initialised.
empeg usb initialised, PDIUSBD12 id 1012
empeg state support initialised 0089/88c1 (save to d0005d80).
empeg RDS driver initialised
empeg power-pic driver initialised (first boot)
RAM disk driver initialized:  16 RAM disks of 4096K size
empeg single channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0400
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0400
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0400
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0400
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0400
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0400
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0400
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0400
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0400
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0400
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xffff
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaaaa
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5555
hda: SAISQNC IZIT@216HACM)00004, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: SAISQNC IZIT@216HACM)00004, 7559MB w/0kB Cache, CHS=15359/16/63
empeg-flash driver initialized
smc chip id/revision 0x0003
smc_init couldn't find card
Partition check:
 hda: hda1 < hda5 > hda2 hda3 hda4
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... |/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\done.
EXT2-fs warning: checktime reached, running e2fsck is recommended
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:05


The only difference I can see is that the last four IDE tests read the same write values. This is a good thing according to Tony's FAQ, but what exactly does it indicate? At this point, I wonder if it's an issue with the data line on the StrongArm itself. Is there anything else on the parallel bus that utilizes D8-D15? The PDIUSBD12 and CS4231A chips only seem to utilize D0-D7, and they're properly recognized by the kernel. I should really put an oscilloscope on the D10 line and see what (if anything) it does when the unit powers up. I found the expected waveform format in the datasheet.