11 Feb
2014
11 Feb
'14
6:29 a.m.
On Mon, Feb 10, 2014 at 9:51 PM, Kyle Owen <kylevowen at gmail.com> wrote:
Greetings,
I am attempting to cobble together a system and non-system device driver
for OS/8
to allow me to use my new OS/8 DiskServer utility with my -8/M and
its Xebec floppy drives.
I have quite a bit of documentation on these drives (that will eventually
get
pushed to bitsavers, if I find more time) but unfortunately, I'm
lacking in software.
Lack of handlers is okay. The instruction manual gives some programming
examples,
which is enough to get me started. But it also cites a test
program which is supposed to be run to initialize any new disk.
From the book:
Test 1: Format Sectors
Function: To format a new disk or prepare a disk for a series of
diagnostic tests.
There is no prerequisite for Test 1 which is normally the
first test to be run in the diagnostic sequence.
Test Procedure:
(inadvertently hit send)
Test Procedure: The test writes a correct preamble, known data field and
correct CRC for each sector, for each track, of each drive as specified by
the input parameters to the diagnostic program. In the data field the first
word contains the unit number, the second word the drive number, the third
word the track number, and the fourth the sector number. Remaining words in
the sector are left at zero. The CRC is generated by the formatter.
[end quote]
Is this a standard procedure for, say, RX01s? This disk drive is not
emulating the RX01, but I ask because I'm curious whether or not I have the
required info to do this in the book. The instructions for the disk drive
are as follows:
6XX0: Skip if not busy
6XX1: Skip f not interrupting
6XX2: Skip if no error
6XX3: Load memory buffer address
6XX4: Load command word (selects read, write, check CRC, and seek/no-op,
interrupt enable/disable, memory field, and full/half sector)
6XX5: Load disk block address
6XX6: Read status
I'm curious if the functions provided are enough to initialize a new disk.
Any advice?
Kyle