16 Oct
2007
16 Oct
'07
10:36 a.m.
On 16 Oct 2007 at 10:11, David Griffith wrote:
Is anyone here qualified to design PCI cards? This morning I got the
bright idea that since PCI floppy interfaces don't seem to exist, one of
us ought to make one. I'm aware of the Catweasel, but it doesn't appear
to behave as a bog-standard floppy interface. This wouldn't be a
replacement for the Catweasel, more of a compliment, especially for
machines that lack a floppy interface entirely or can't handle
double-density 5.25" media.
While I can support your idea, one might as well make the floppy
controller a standalone device, given the availability of
microprocessor cores. In either case, new software drivers weill be
needed, as the legacy floppy depends on the old ISA-style DMA (does
that exist for any other reason in modern systems without ISA
slots?). One could supply local RAM instead, but what with the PCI
interface logic, the drivers and the board cost, it might as well be
a USB, Firewire or ethernet device that could hook to darned near
anything, not just PeeCee boxes.
My two inflation-prone cents worth, at any rate.
Cheers,
Chuck