11 Jan
2006
11 Jan
'06
4:19 p.m.
Regarding ImageDisk and Linux - all I see needed to do
it properly are
some enhancements to the floppy driver - the ability to configure for all
possible formats the 765 can do (if Linux does not do this already which
AFAIK linux does do this already. Bsically, there is an ioctl() call that
lets you sent any sequence of command bytes to the disk controller. The
linux driver (not your program) takes care of selecting the drive,
controlling the motor, and setting up the DMA controller (you tell it how
many bytes to transfer and give a pointer to the buffer you want them put
in, Linux takes care of the 64K boundary problem on ISA machines, etc).
I think that should be veratile enough. Certainly I've never found a disk
that can't be read/written using this call if the hardware is capable of
it. OK, the tricks of swithcing between drives mid-sector, or pulsing the
motor line in an attempt to control the speed won't work, but I don't
think Imagedisk uses those.
I think it might), and the ability to do
track-by-track analysis. These things
Yes, you would have to add that. It is too time-critical to do in user-space.
-tony