28 Feb
2011
28 Feb
'11
3:21 p.m.
On 28 Feb 2011 at 13:05, Mr Ian Primus wrote:
On the subject of disk interface converters, I do
believe an MFM to
IDE bridge to be possible. Philip Pemberton has already proven it's
possible to interface an MFM type device to a modern microcontroller -
albiet the other way around, with his DiskFerret project. The MFM
interface is very different from SCSI and IDE, true, but with modern
microcontrollers, the data rate should be achievable.
Sure, the MFM interface is primitive. You've got the analog-ish data
stream from the disk and some stepper motor drive signals, but you can
translate those with a microcontroller, have it request the block from
the IDE device, buffer it, and stream it out to the host. I think it's
doable. Just, more complicated than, say, SCSI to IDE.
There already exist floppy drive emulators that take an SD card (or
other storage device) and interact with the floppy controller. Heck,
a FlashPath drive does this quite handily with little more than some
SRAM, an AVR and a CPLD, conversing with with the floppy drive head
via a small coil.
You could certainly simulate an MFM hard drive running at 10x the
clock rate, using more horsepower (perhaps a DSP or even an FPGA?).
The hardware shouldn't be too difficult; the programming will
probably be the bulk of the effort.
But what would someone pay for such a beast and how many could be
sold?
FWIW,
--Chuck