2 Feb
2014
2 Feb
'14
11:47 p.m.
On 02/02/2014 04:45 AM, Erik Baigar wrote:
BTW: One problem with the old MFM HDDs is, that the
controller had
to be informed on the geometry of the harddrive. Rolm solved this
problem by using track0, head0, sector0 to store a configuration
block on the harddrive and the first thing their MFM->SASI controller
does, is to read the configuration data from the harddrive itself.
Of course the price for this is incompatibility with the standard,
the lost cylinder0 and the need for a special formatting routine.
But there wasn't a standard...
A few of the ST412-to-something-else bridge boards employed that same
'trick', others had geometry hard-coded into the controller's firmware, and
others relied entirely on software.
cheers
Jules