I wasn't expecting such an enthusiastic response, thanks everyone! Right now, I'm focused on getting the RL02s back in proper working order. Both drives have worn spindle ground brushes (the little graphite conical things under the spindle) and I'm looking around for replacements. Graphite is neat in that it's a conductive, self-lubricating material. There are a few places that will manufacture custom graphite parts that I'm looking into, but it will likely need to be a bulk order to make it economically effective (and it may still be obscene). An alternative material is brass. That part is affordable in small quantities ($30ish for 1). It's still significantly softer than steel, but friction and galling could be a problem. Thanks for the info. After looking at the software architectures more closely, I really do like how de-coupled and abstracted everything is in LLVM/Clang. When it gets to that point, that's what I'll use. That was one of the first things I saw in Google when I originally researched the disk interface. There's plenty of good information there about the packs and the drive communication. Between that and the bitsavers technical manual, I think I have everything I need. I foresee some irony involving an emulated RL02 connected to an emulated RL02 controller... It all comes down to price and technical challenge. Original accessories are hard to find, and the ones I have seen are very expensive. By comparison RL02s are everywhere and packs cost almost 10 times less, but that's not the *real* reason. By day, I am a freshly minted computer scientist, but I find far more enjoyment developing system level stuff. I love vintage computing, and what better way to spend my off-hours than using super-modern technology to add new features to these landmarks of computing? In order to develop an interface between the HP and the RL02, I've had to learn all sorts of things about Verilog, timing closure, proper design constraints, etc. For me, it's the best of both worlds. I get to play with computers that are older than I am (don't judge me ;) ) and learn marketable skills that should help me down the road. Christopher