1 Nov
2007
1 Nov
'07
10:38 p.m.
Please bear with me one more time... What was that URL to the stuff about
the mythic 3.25" floppy disk? (the one that looked like a shrunken 5.25"
and loaded onto a tray).
--
David Griffith
dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu
1 Nov
1 Nov
10:54 p.m.
On Thu, 1 Nov 2007, David Griffith wrote:
Please bear with me one more time... What was that
URL to the stuff about
the mythic 3.25" floppy disk? (the one that looked like a shrunken 5.25"
and loaded onto a tray).
don't know a URL, but Dysan bet the company and lost.
During the big "debate" about which size (3", 3.25", 3.5",
3.9") would be
"shirt pocket" disk to replace "bar napkin" disk, many
"experts" said
that it would go to whichever had software. So, Dysan set up an enormous
software distribution system.
The "experts" were, of course clueless, and objective "bests" were
irrelevant; it went to what the biggest companies went with.
Seequa Chameleon 325 is the only machine that I've heard of actually going
with it. I got disks, drives, alignment disks, etc. from Micropro.
BTW, George Morrow said that the answer was to cut a deal with the
clothing industry to enlarge shirt pockets to 5.25" or 8".
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com
11:19 p.m.
On Thu, 1 Nov 2007, Fred Cisin wrote:
On Thu, 1 Nov 2007, David Griffith wrote:
I'm not sure how I decided I found an URL here, but here it is in case
someone's curious.
http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/drive.html#325
--
David Griffith
dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu
A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?
Please bear with me one more time... What was
that URL to the stuff about
the mythic 3.25" floppy disk? (the one that looked like a shrunken 5.25"
and loaded onto a tray).
don't know a URL, but Dysan bet the company and lost.
2 Nov
2 Nov
12:01 a.m.
On Thu, 1 Nov 2007, David Griffith wrote:
I'm not sure how I decided I found an URL here,
but here it is in case
someone's curious.
http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/drive.html#325
one of many whose content on this and related subjects consists entirely
of material from THIS list.
1 Nov
1 Nov
11:34 p.m.
On Nov 1, 2007 9:54 PM, Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote:
don't know a URL, but Dysan bet the company and
lost.
During the big "debate" about which size (3", 3.25", 3.5",
3.9") would be
Not sure if any computer ever used them, but I remember having an old
Akai sampler that used a bizarre "Quickdisk" format. The sampler is
long gone, but somewhere I have one or two of the disks, which will be
handy should I ever try to create a magnetic media display of some
sort. I think they measured...2.75" (?) and held...not much at all.
2 Nov
2 Nov
12:02 a.m.
On Thu, 1 Nov 2007, Jason T wrote:
Not sure if any computer ever used them, but I
remember having an old
Akai sampler that used a bizarre "Quickdisk" format. The sampler is
long gone, but somewhere I have one or two of the disks, which will be
handy should I ever try to create a magnetic media display of some
sort. I think they measured...2.75" (?) and held...not much at all.
was that a 2.8" diskette with a single continuous spiral track?
5:35 a.m.
On Friday 02 November 2007 04:02:19 Fred Cisin wrote:
On Thu, 1 Nov 2007, Jason T wrote:
That's it exactly. It was the Akai S612 - or more specifically, the Akai
MD280 external disk drive. IIRC the sampler could be bought without the
drive, and either send and receive samples over sysex or from tape. I
*think* it had 48k of memory.
I passed up the chance to buy one, with the drive and a large library of
disks, for 50 quid in a music shop in Inverness a few years ago. Oh well.
Gordon
Not sure if any computer ever used them, but I
remember having an old
Akai sampler that used a bizarre "Quickdisk" format. The sampler is
long gone, but somewhere I have one or two of the disks, which will be
handy should I ever try to create a magnetic media display of some
sort. I think they measured...2.75" (?) and held...not much at all.
was that a 2.8" diskette with a single continuous spiral track? 
5:35 a.m.
On Friday 02 November 2007 04:02:19 Fred Cisin wrote:
On Thu, 1 Nov 2007, Jason T wrote:
That's it exactly. It was the Akai S612 - or more specifically, the Akai
MD280 external disk drive. IIRC the sampler could be bought without the
drive, and either send and receive samples over sysex or from tape. I
*think* it had 48k of memory.
I passed up the chance to buy one, with the drive and a large library of
disks, for 50 quid in a music shop in Inverness a few years ago. Oh well.
Gordon
Not sure if any computer ever used them, but I
remember having an old
Akai sampler that used a bizarre "Quickdisk" format. The sampler is
long gone, but somewhere I have one or two of the disks, which will be
handy should I ever try to create a magnetic media display of some
sort. I think they measured...2.75" (?) and held...not much at all.
was that a 2.8" diskette with a single continuous spiral track?
6:34 a.m.
On Nov 2, 2007 4:35 AM, Gordon JC Pearce <gordonjcp at gjcp.net> wrote:
That's it exactly. It was the Akai S612 - or more
specifically, the Akai
MD280 external disk drive. IIRC the sampler could be bought without the
Yes! That was it. It was old even when I had it (1996 or so.) I
traded it up for a Roland S-330, which used 720k 3.5" floppies (format
unknown.) Wish I still had them both!
12:49 a.m.
On 1 Nov 2007 at 22:34, Jason T wrote:
Not sure if any computer ever used them, but I
remember having an old
Akai sampler that used a bizarre "Quickdisk" format. The sampler is
long gone, but somewhere I have one or two of the disks, which will be
handy should I ever try to create a magnetic media display of some
sort. I think they measured...2.75" (?) and held...not much at all.
I've got the 3.25" floppies and drives if anyone cares. The drives
are unlabeled, but I'll swear that I saw some once upon a time that
were labeled "Shugart Venture". There were one or two early CP/M
boxes that used them.
I also have the 2.8" Quikdisks and can handle those too. The Akai
used them as did some Smith Corona word processors. I don't recall
the exact capacity (I'd have to look at my notes) but it wasn't much
more than about 60K--and yes, it was a continuous spiral. You turn
the drive motor on, wait for it to get to speed, pulse a line that
pulls in a clutch and you get ready to read or write the entire disk.
The head makes a continuous spiral and then returns to the start of
the disk and the clutch disengages. The spiral is divided into
sectors.
I've also got a working Smith Corona PWP-7000 that uses these.
Curiously, it has a terminal program and speaks XMODEM at 1200 bps.
IIRC, the CPU is something like an 8051--it's definitely not an x80
family chip.
Cheers,
Chuck
6107
days inactive
6107
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9 comments
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-
cclist＠sydex.com -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu -
gordonjcp＠gjcp.net -
gpearce＠curiousgroup.co.uk -
silent700＠gmail.com