26 Jun
2012
26 Jun
'12
5:05 p.m.
On 26 Jun 2012 at 19:40, Steven Hirsch wrote:
Instead of tying in at the MFM signal level, why not
replace the drive
controller chip with something that looks like it at the register
level?
Granted it's not a universal solution, but the common WD and NEC
controllers seem like candidates.
I exchanged e-mail with someone who was thinking in that direction a
while ago. Probably time to dig that up.
I suppose you could, but emulating a drive is a better "one size
fits all", methinks. Someone with a Televideo TS802H CP/M box isn't
going to want the same controller-replacement as someone with an IBM
5160--and once you get to the 5170 and later, MFM and floppy
controllers usually cohabit the same board.
At any rate, those with commodity IBM ISA buses don't need to emulate
a controller--they can avail themselves of an IDE replacement.
At least that's the way I see it.
--Chuck