16 Sep
2007
16 Sep
'07
8:33 p.m.
Jim Battle wrote:
Prior to the Mk IV design, writing to hard sectored
formats was not
really possible (unless you count writing a track blindly with semi
arbitrary rotational phase, then attempting to read it back and starting
over if it didn't work counts as possible). Mk IV has added some
mechanisms for having the hardware wait until index/sector marks are
seen before initiating a write.
I'm not quite sure how this would apply to the Amiga though - that uses a
softsector MFM format.
Looks like I'll mark this up as an unsourced statement - I can't find anyone
other than SPS calling the Catweasel unsuitable for archiving, nor can I find
any reason why it's so important to use an Amiga drive and controller (except
maybe the old scientific rule of 'keep variables to a minimum').
Just that if there was a problem, I'd like to at least try and find a
workaround before I commit my design to copper-and-fibreglass. I can always
change the microcode and firmware later, but I'd rather get it as close to
perfect on the first pass as possible...
Thanks,
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