24 Sep
2005
24 Sep
'05
4:16 p.m.
The Dysan 3.25" was kinda neat. Dysan bet the
company that the
"shirt pocket" disk (3", 3.25", 3.5", 3.9") that would
succeed
I've always felt that the 3" (Hitachi) disk, as used by Amstrad, was
mechanically superior to the 3.5" disk...
would be the one with software availability. So, they
overextended
themselves creating a software publishing/distribution company
providing MOST of the big popular software titles on 3.25".
'Course George Morrow said that the solution was to cut a deal with
the clothing industry to enlarge shirt pockets to 5.25" or even 8".
FWIW, some Barbour raincoats have inside pockets large enough to take 8"
floppies (unfolded, of course).
My favorite weird drive was the Amlyn. It was before the AT came out.
It used a "proprietary" 8 bit ISA controller that had a 500K data
transfer rate (could also be used for 8"). It used a cartridge that held
5 600 Oersted disks (total of 6M), with a few extra holes punched in
corners of the jackets, and could change disks from the cartridge under
software control. One of mine is now in Sellam's collection; NO idea
where the other one is.
Somewhere I have another Epson 5.25" drive. It's odd. It's got 2
logic-level cables going to it (i.e. not counting the power cable, which
looks conventional), one 34 pin, the other 20 pin. It's in a case about
the same size as the Epson TF20 with a controller board and a PSU. The
controller has what seems to be an MFM _hard disk_ conteoller chip on it.
the interface to the drive looks very much like ST506.
I have no idea what it was designed to be used with, I've never seen a
disk for it.
-tony