6 Sep
2010
6 Sep
'10
12:05 p.m.
On 05/09/10 22:31, Jules Richardson wrote:
Maybe they were a little misleading though if they
gave the impression
that the software to do task x already existed (or if it did exist - but
only in the sense that someone somewhere had written it, but had no
plans to release it for everyone else to use). That would be rather sly
marketing, I think. Of course saying something like "these are the
features, you *could* do x, y and z with it" might be different. It's
all in the wording...
I hope I've not given anyone that impression with the DiscFerret...
In simple terms...
- As sold, a DiscFerret will read floppy discs into timing-format images.
- Write support is on the cards, I need to port it from the old
"FDRW1" proof of concept. For the hard-of-thinking, this means it's not
done yet :)
- It will read anything you feed to it in Timing mode. Anything
written by a NEC 765, WesternDigital 177x or 179x or clone in MFM mode
should also decode to sector data. Decoding of anything else will
require software to be written.
Documentation is on the TODO list -- including a full Theory of
Operation for the FPGA logic and microcontroller firmware, and a
Programmer's Guide which will explain how to talk to the baseline
firmware and make it do stuff, and how to do the same with DiscAPI.
I want a magic box that'll image MFM/RLL/ESDI hard drives and floppies
at transition level, so I can play with the data on the computer and do
data recovery, format analysis, preservation and disc copying.
At the moment, the biggest problem is that the %#$!ing Elektor PCB
Service just charged my card for 100 Euros, the payment went through and
the website now says "There was an unknown error with your payment!".
The 'contact us' link which is SUPPOSED to be there.... isn't. And email
doesn't work (apparently). So I have a pro-forma invoice, a Receipt
Number, and a website that insists I haven't paid when I couldn't
possibly have #2 without having paid first... Ho hum.
--
Phil.
classiccmp at philpem.me.uk
http://www.philpem.me.uk/