20 May
2013
20 May
'13
6:59 p.m.
On 05/20/2013 09:38 PM, Philipp Hachtmann wrote:
Nice!!
> But this
guy did it the hard way: Create an emulation that makes use of the
> serial drive interface.
I did NOT mean serial TTY. I meant the serial
bitstream between the
controller and the drive's read/write part! The discussion went into another
direction.
> interface is (pure assumption!) quite low
level bit serial,
For RK05 it IS trivial. I read the manual in the meantime :-)
Yebbut...having a grand old system like a
PDP-11 on "life support" by
connecting it to a PC is something that I (and others) find extremely
distasteful. A standalone device would definitely have a market.
No, my solution
would be a card with a mass storage interface that can be
plugged into the bus. It would then play controller+drive(s)+media. Who would be willing to pay $300+ for an RK05 or
RL01/02 emulator which can
be plugged in instead of a real drive?
Another aspect of drive level emulation is that you would have to store raw
sector data which could not be used on a PC without a tool playing the
specific controller in software...
I would, yes. Likely several, over time.
I was midway through designing and writing the firmware for something
similar when I heard recently that someone else has already built one, and
just gotten it working. I had studied the RL wire protocol and was
implementing a device that would plug into an RL controller and emulate one
or more drives, but using the original controller. I'm working on that for
RX02 now, but it's unlikely to be finished anytime soon due to being busy
with work. I'll get there eventually, though, and make it available.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA