19 Feb
1998
19 Feb
'98
6:27 a.m.
From: Sam Ismail <dastar(a)wco.com> wrote:
They did, ever hear the term "the lumbering
hippo", that was a nickname
many gave the 1541 disk drive...
Dumpster diving at the then-recently closed offices of Amiga Corp.
in Los Gatos, I found several disassembled 1541s. Later I talked to
the engineer who'd thrown them out, and he described the 1541 as
the "best computer that CBM ever made." :-)
I distinctly remember a 1541-to-1541 disk copy taking about 40 minutes
when I first got my C-64, but later "fast loaders" reduced that.
The inane serial-to-parallel-to-serial business was no doubt due to
a desire to get things done quickly and with the least disruption of
existing ROM code and known-working applications migrating from the
PET to the VIC-20 and C-64.
- John
Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>