On Sat, 2005-07-02 at 23:10 +0100, Tony Duell wrote:
I don't
have any kind of docs for a tape-only system though; only ones
Nor do I. I've never actually seen a system without disk drives either,
although I am pretty sure they existed.
We've got several 380Z's (well, two or three) that have no drives in
them - I expect those are tape-only systems. Unfortunately I've never
had time to look inside them as there's always been something more
important to do! I know we've got one of the 8" drive setups too which
are rather rare, plus we've got one 380Z-FD machine which should have
the "full disk" controller in it (on-board RAM, ROM, its own Z80 cpu
etc.).
(Said disk controller also has the SIO-4 on board, and the on-board
firmware should allow communication direct between the disks and the
serial port - I believe it's the same board as used for the 480Z shared
disk system)
What we don't have is keyboards. In some cases that's not such a big
deal as with the later serial boards they could run from a terminal
rather than system keyboard & display.
The Disk
Information File does mention a "Firmware reference manual" as
having more info on the COS tape routines and a description of the
interface - maybe that one has more details in it about the dual tape
controller. It's not a document I've seen.
I think I do have a COS firmware manual somewhere, but it will take some
finding...
Good - RML documentation seems to be *very* thin on the ground! (Not
like the machines are common either!)
I've
brought a bunch of RML floppies home for the week from the museum,
so I'll see what's on those and at least make a few backup copies. Might
well be something interesting (I don't believe we've got any RML stuff
on tape though)
Pity. I'd hoped at least one original RML cassette esisted somewhere.
From reading the manual, it appers that the phase
of the replay signal is
critical (it was with some other tape interfaces too) and
I was hoping I
could get an original tape to set up against. Oh well....
Presumably saving some data on one (or more) tape-based system(s) would
be enough to you to read it one yours and setup against that. Not as
ideal as going from an original manufacturer tape maybe, but probably
the best that can be hoped for.
Aside - ever seen a 480Z ROM cartridge? I only found out that they
existed (according to the documentation) the other day. Never heard of
anyone owning or seeing one before though...
cheers
Jules