8 Sep
2006
8 Sep
'06
8:35 p.m.
Is there any practical difference between
the CompuPro Disk 1
and Disk 1A that would prevent a 1A disk from working on a 1? I have a line
on a Disk 1 controller but only have access to 1A disks from Dave Dunfield.
I have a Disk-1A up and running in my Compupro box - unfortunately I do not
have a Disk-1 to test with. I do however have manuals for both controllers.
From what I can tell on a cursory readthrough - the
Disk-1 and the Disk-1A
are very similar, but not identical:
- The Disk-1A appears to have some functions available in the write side
of some registers which were read-only on the Disk-1 - these seem to
control features that had to be set by switches or board modifications on
the Disk-1.
- The Disk-1 has a bit-bang serial port which has been dropped on the 1A.
- The difference is NOT the difference between a 765 and a 765A - both
manuals list the 765A as the NEC FDC.
- The 765 and motor control registers appear to be in the same place on
both controllers.
I have a set of original Cromemco CP/M diskettes, and the labels do NOT
mention anything about a specific floppy controller board - my guess is that
the disks would boot and run on either controller. (But as noted above, I
cannot confirm this, so it is just a guess).
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