1 Nov
2007
1 Nov
'07
9:49 p.m.
On 1 Nov 2007 at 22:34, Jason T wrote:
Not sure if any computer ever used them, but I
remember having an old
Akai sampler that used a bizarre "Quickdisk" format. The sampler is
long gone, but somewhere I have one or two of the disks, which will be
handy should I ever try to create a magnetic media display of some
sort. I think they measured...2.75" (?) and held...not much at all.
I've got the 3.25" floppies and drives if anyone cares. The drives
are unlabeled, but I'll swear that I saw some once upon a time that
were labeled "Shugart Venture". There were one or two early CP/M
boxes that used them.
I also have the 2.8" Quikdisks and can handle those too. The Akai
used them as did some Smith Corona word processors. I don't recall
the exact capacity (I'd have to look at my notes) but it wasn't much
more than about 60K--and yes, it was a continuous spiral. You turn
the drive motor on, wait for it to get to speed, pulse a line that
pulls in a clutch and you get ready to read or write the entire disk.
The head makes a continuous spiral and then returns to the start of
the disk and the clutch disengages. The spiral is divided into
sectors.
I've also got a working Smith Corona PWP-7000 that uses these.
Curiously, it has a terminal program and speaks XMODEM at 1200 bps.
IIRC, the CPU is something like an 8051--it's definitely not an x80
family chip.
Cheers,
Chuck