10 Oct
2012
10 Oct
'12
10:25 a.m.
On Wed, 10 Oct 2012, Camiel Vanderhoeven wrote:
I think you're on the right track. My guess is
that they're building
an on-line software repository to archive the 15,000 diskettes with
software they have, and want to do it using original-era hardware.
They will need 14 bits of address select for them!
That would handle 16383 drives. Does that mean that they already have
1383 drives already online?
(That is 16383, NOT 16384, because 0000000000000000 is reserved for "NO
DRIVE(S) SELECTED")
The calling protocol for INT13h could only handle 127 floppy drives, since
the high bit of the 8 bit value is reserved for hard disks. Some hardware
mods would be needed, and most versions of INT13h would require some
tweaking.
Isn't MS-DOS limited to 63 drive letters? (and some versions won't let
you go past 'Z'!)
What OS's have a 14 bit (or 16) for the drive number?
Each drive better have motor-on with drive select. Having 15000 drive
motors running might be a problem for the power supply! How much 5V and
12V would be needed for the 'FRAID?
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com