7 Apr
2007
7 Apr
'07
8:55 p.m.
It should also be noted (if it hasn't already)
that the Deluxe Dption
board and the Option board are not the same animal.
I was aware of that - I've found detailed info on the OB but not the DOB.
But neither will
run in anything much faster than a slow 386. I've still got one in
original shrink wrap as well as one installed in a 5160.
I was afraid of that - Getting a 5160 to network (to get the
images off) is a little painful - I believe I have an 8088 compatible
network client, but all my network cards are 16-bit etc.)
I seem to remember something the DOB having a tie-in
with a group of
Hong Kong investors, and for the life of me, can't seem to recall the
story. It may have been that the DOB was killed off when the HK
people came in because the business of copying protected software was
a little too much of a legal gray area for them.
Rumors are that they bowed to presure from the software makers - I
don't know - I really don't care about copy protection, I just wanted
to see if I could copy some non-IBM format disks.
Be advised that the number of formats that a DOB can
process is
fairly limited. A Catweasel is far more flexible--and programming
information is freely available, as well as being able to run on the
fastest x86 PCI-equipped boxes. At one time, I began accumulating a
pile of notes on DOB operation, but dropped it when the CW came out.
There was no point in continuing the mental abuse.
Yeah, I have to order a cat - The DOB came in with some other material
last year, and I've just gotten around to trying it out. It is
"interesting",
but IMHO fairly useless as an archival tool because it's tied up in
closed formats and proprietary software (at least I've not been able to
find any information on the formats) - That means that the archives can
only last as long as I have access to a working DOB system...
I though the DOB would make a bitwise copy (they call it transition
copy) - with warnings about testing the copy because it can't do CRC
check etc. I assumed it was at a lower level than any actual formatting
and that it could copy "most anything" ....
Dave
--
dave06a (at) Dave Dunfield
dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com
com Collector of vintage computing equipment:
http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/index.html