Software-based floppy disc data separator

Fred Cisin wrote: I've done this math about a million times. :) Absolute minimum read time: 200ms * 160 = 32 seconds. Practical minimum w/o circular buffer support: 220ms * 160 = 35.2 seconds. (you've got to read 12 amiga sectors(instead of 11) because you start reading in the middle of a sector) Stepping and settle: spec sheets say 3ms step + 15ms settle, but practically, it's a lot less. I transmit a 2us wide step, wait 5ms, and then I loop, selecting the lower head, and start reading the data. From most recent drives I've tested, they don't start outputting raw MFM until they are ready. (basically, good MFM comes out from the very beginning). I can tolerate junk at beginning of track anyways. Let's say 18ms * 80 = 1.44 seconds. So we're talking like 37 seconds best case. I'm doing it in around 50s, the time that's left is 1> pc processing time (which can still be optimized) around 10ms. 2> after track finishes being read, the fifo has to finish sending to the PC. I'm pretty happy with my times. Keith