--- Stan Barr <stanb(a)dial.pipex.com> wrote:
Hi,
"Chandra Bajpai" <cbajpai(a)attbi.com> said:
I bet Exatron just OEM the drive of other
applications.
As far as I know Exatron built drives for the TRS-80 market.
Yes, I've got one for a TRS-80. I used it for a couple of months
until I saved enogh money for a couple of floppies - floppies
cost serious money in 1978! ISTR it was quite reliable, if a
bit slow.
I remember that they had a version for the PET (ads in Byte and/or
Creative Computing, IIRC) and I seriously considered getting one
PET floppy drives (2040 and 4040, at this point in time) were
*outrageously* expensive (more than the computer by a *lot*).
Fortunately (?) for me, I didn't even have enough money in high school
for even a Stringy Floppy. My first floppy drive was a 1540 that
belonged to my first employer (I got to take the machine home to
code on it, C-64 S/N 00002008) I still have "Disk 1" down in the
basement - saw it just last night.
Eventually, I did get a 2040 (with upgrades making it a 4040 except
for the sticker), but that was so much later that it was $10.
The first Stringy Floppy drive I saw up close was the one in the
device programmer. I don't think it ever ran a single tape. I
disassembled the programmer a few years ago - the drive is completely
integral with the case... it doesn't mount _in_ the case, the boards
and mechanicals mount _to_ the case. One would have to build an
armature to consider a transplant, and even then, it would lack any
sort of controller... I had thought to use it elsewhere (since my
need to blast bipolar PALs is nearly nil), but no dice.
-ethan