23 Apr
2010
23 Apr
'10
11:17 a.m.
On Thu, 22 Apr 2010, Tony Duell wrote:
The disk drive was standard -- a standard 3" unit
(and the Amstrad PCW --
and Amstrad Z80 machines in general -- were not the only machines to use
that size disk). The disk cotnroler was, IIRC, a standard 765=, the disk
format was a normal-ish MFM one. I suyspect it would be very easy to link
an Amstrad 3" drive (or any other 3" drive -- some of the Hitachi ones
had a 34 pin edge connector with the stnadard pinout) to another machine
and write Amstrad disks on it.
Some to think of it, didn't the CPC6128 pre-date the PCW? It had an
external drive connector which IIRC was a standard 34 pin one. Was there
ever an external 3" srive unit for that machine? If so it would be very
easy to link to another machine.
Amdek sold an external drive unit with two 3" drives. Their advertising
targeted the RS Color Computer. Trivial to connect to most machines with
a "standard" floppy interface.
Amdek also sold an external unit for Apple ][!
Unless it had its own proprietary interface card, then I would have to
assume that that unit had different "logic board". Anybody know?
Was "Amdek" affiliated with Amstrad in any way? Or were the names purely
coincidental?
At one of the Silicon Valley computer swaps (John Craig's "Computer Swap
America"), there were occasional drives for sale. They had "standard"
interfaces, even "standard" data and power connectors, so connecting them
was truly trivial. There were 2-sided drives and single sided "flippy"
drives.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com