Machine Independent Storage Idea...

Jay West wrote: I think some of us (myself included) sort of hijacked the thread (sorry Warren!). Personally I don't think that true independence (i.e. a device for any machine) is possible, partly because as you say some systems lack the necessary abilities, and mainly because it's so much work (heck, how many different systems have been built over the years? How many different interface boards would have to be made and software written to access them?) Targetting a specific storage medium - such as the floppy, whose days are numbered - does seem like a worthwhile project, though. Even there there are a lot of access methods to rotating removeable magnetic media, so picking the most common (such as SA400/800 drives) seems a sensible starting point. Only within the context of the on-board memory for a device which emulated a floppy drive, I think. Such a device doesn't make any assumptions about the system's hardware other than needing to know the data transfer rate across the floppy interface. Great, so that's one tiny corner of the HP world covered, then ;-) Seriously, I really think it's waaay too much work (and in fact probably impossible; there must be plenty of systems out there for which sufficient technical documentation to build an interface and write the software no longer exists) However, emulating the common devices used as primary storage on vintage machines I think is a little more achievable; there are way less possible types than there are possible systems. It'd still be a daunting task to try and do everything - hence my feeling we should pick something common like the floppy drive (with the most common interface) for starters. cheers Jules