3 Aug
2005
3 Aug
'05
6:49 a.m.
Here's another idea I've had on the
back-burner for quite some time, I've
mentioned to a couple of you during private correspondance, but here it is
for open discussion.
The idea is to make a small single-board computer with a microcontroller,
a WD2793 or similar floppy disk controller, enough memory to buffer a
few tracks, and a high-speed serial port for communication with the PC.
The board would have connectors for 5.25"/3" drives and 8" drives, and
would properly interface to all drive types.
Firmware would be developed to provide read/format/write/analysis
capabilities around the more powerful WD chip. Images would be transferred
via the serial connection to and from the PC. This should allow us to
archive soft-sector formats that are not compatible with the PC, and also
to perform these functions under virtually any PC environment.
I just haven't had time to design and build the board ... anyone else
interested in working together on such a project?
Sure, I'd like to help. But, as someone else has already pointed out, it
would be nice if we could make it support more platforms with a hardware raw
sampler/software decode design. In specific, once we get it working on more
popular formats, I would work towards getting such a system to support Ohio
Scientific (surprise!).
Bill