19 Sep
2004
19 Sep
'04
1:18 a.m.
On Sat, Sep 18, 2004 at 12:25:05AM -0700, Mike Ford wrote:
Apparently Intel has the trusty old floppy scheduled
for the chopping
block, so naturally I am more interested in them than ever.
Also I know the list talked about it a little, but does anybody know how
these USB floppy drives actually work? I saw a snippet in a dogpile search
from a page I couldn't download anymore (halfbaked.com) that suggested a
fairly raw signal is passed via the USB with the processing done by the
host PC cpu. That would suggest a lot of modification possibilities
wouldn't it?
I guess they simply work as a standard "USB mass storage" device,
representing the 1440 KB of a standard 3.5" HD floppy as a big chunk of
adressable storage. That would be a lot simpler and easier than
transfering the raw analog signal from the heads (digitized at high
resolution so things work at all) into the host and processing it there.
They most likely take a bog standard 3.5" HD floppy drive and slap
on some USB interface circuitry - way cheaper than the approach you
describe, I guess.
Regards,
Alex.
--
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and
looks like work." -- Thomas A. Edison