6 Dec
2006
6 Dec
'06
9:21 a.m.
Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 6 Dec 2006 at 10:46, Simon Fryer wrote:
I've been toying with the idea of using a CF to provide emulation for
floppy drives. More complicated, as the thing has to look like a
floppy. Rather than record separated data, I'm inclined to record
flux transitions on the CF, so a disk would require something on the
order of 128KBytes per track (for a 300 RPM 500KHz drive). i.e.,
the drive would be data-encoding independent. Since one can get 4GB
CF cards, this shouldn't be a problem .
Yep, gut-feeling is that it'd be useful (see other post, assuming it made it -
been having some email troubles today).
I was a bit concerned about the write speed of CF (remember the discussion
about a 'universal floppy disk reader' gadget a short while ago), but I think
it works out as being fast enough for recording flux transitions at suitable
oversampling.
I suppose you need a fair bit of on-board CPU power to process the data (given
that it has to do serial-parallel conversion between drive interface and card).
Managing multiple images
from a single CF card will require some careful thought.
Darn interesting idea, though :) That implies some intelligence controlling
the gadget 'remotely' though, or at the mickey-mouse end of the scale, a
rotary switch on top of the device to say which image to select. Perhaps a
version 2 thing?
Simulating multiple drives with a single unit is
another possibility.
Hmm, that 'feels' messy, somehow. Not sure why - but I think I'd prefer one
gadget per drive...
cheers
Jules
--
there's a carp in the tub
there's a carp in the tub
so nobody's taken a bath