10 Sep
2001
10 Sep
'01
9:09 a.m.
It looks like what's needed is to get someone who has both the resources and the
need together with this task. I suggested a solution that requires a single
chip + and oscillator + a single SIMM/SIPP, simply because fewer people seem
inclined to build hardware than to build software. Though I've had several
VECTOR computers, albeit not in the past decade, I've never wanted to transfer
the content from hard-sectored 5-1/4" diskettes to some other environment. Not
even a NorthStar will read the hard sectored format, simply because
hard-sectoring allowed so much freedom in controller design. Soft sectoring to
a standard format required more uniformity than was generally applied to hard
sectoring. Consequently, the hard sectoring went away as a popular approach to
FD interfacing.
I can't blame anyone for NOT doing this job even though it can be done with only
three devices. The payoff just isn't there.
The easy way to solve the problem is to get the media to be read together with a
computer that can read them. That's already been proposed.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Duell" <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2001 12:29 PM
Subject: Re: Vector 3/Teledisk
Yes, I know :-). It's just that people so often forget that hardware
modifications are possible, and may sometimes be the best (or only) way
to solve a problem.
>
> > > Really?
> > > The Vector machines that I have seen have all been hard-sectored. I
would
> LOVE to see a PC (running Teledisk, or ANY other
software) be able to do
> anything at all except CHOKE on a hard-sectored disk.
On Sun, 9 Sep 2001, Tony Duell wrote:
Am I allowed to do some hardware hacking? I see
no reason why a PC with a
suitable card could not read a hard-sectored disk....
Of course I meant a stock unmodified PC, with "normal" hardware.
But yes, I'd love to have you make disk controllers for PC that can handle
hard sectored, GCR, etc. It's certainly quite doable, but there isn't
much of a commercial market for them.
Why did I open my big mouth. Looks (and based on some of the other
messages here) like I should think about designing some 'extra' floppy
controllers for the PC. It just won't be soon, so I hope somebody else
has a go (as in builds the thing, not just waffles about how to do it --
a circuit works when there's a working PCB in front of me, not before
;-)) so I won't have to :-)
-tony