1 Feb
2012
1 Feb
'12
1:19 p.m.
A question for Chuck, Fred and anyone else with relevant
experience/knowledge: can OSI disks (specifically Challenger 4P disks) be
read by a PC and imaged/recreated ? If so, how? If not, why not?
Don't see 'em in either 22disk or Xenocopy, but then they're not CP/M.
It's a question from a third party and I don't have any disks or I'd try
some imaging programs myself.
TIA,
m
1 Feb
1 Feb
2:46 p.m.
On 1 Feb 2012 at 16:19, MikeS wrote:
A question for Chuck, Fred and anyone else with
relevant
experience/knowledge: can OSI disks (specifically Challenger 4P disks)
be read by a PC and imaged/recreated ? If so, how? If not, why not?
Don't see 'em in either 22disk or Xenocopy, but then they're not CP/M.
It's a question from a third party and I don't have any disks or I'd
try some imaging programs myself.
The C4P (as well as other members of the Challenger line) uses a 6850
ACIA and some monostables (for data separation) as a disk
controller. The format, data rate, etc. is utterly sui generis.
On the other hand, you could probably build something to read from
these disks fairly simply. There's not much to it.
--Chuck
4:46 p.m.
On Wed, 1 Feb 2012, MikeS wrote:
A question for Chuck, Fred and anyone else with
relevant
experience/knowledge: can OSI disks (specifically Challenger 4P disks) be
read by a PC and imaged/recreated ? If so, how? If not, why not?
Don't see 'em in either 22disk or Xenocopy, but then they're not CP/M.
It's a question from a third party and I don't have any disks or I'd try
some imaging programs myself.
In XenoCopy, I did a few other formats besides CP/M, such as P-System,
"Stand-Alone-BASIC", Coco, etc.
But, ONLY ones that could be done with PC hardware.
Alas, for the OSI, you will need to build some hardware to read them.
I do NOT know the details, but I've heard that that hardware can be built
around a UART!
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com
5:04 p.m.
On 1 Feb 2012 at 16:46, Fred Cisin wrote:
In XenoCopy, I did a few other formats besides CP/M,
such as P-System,
"Stand-Alone-BASIC", Coco, etc. But, ONLY ones that could be done with
PC hardware.
Alas, for the OSI, you will need to build some hardware to read them.
I do NOT know the details, but I've heard that that hardware can be
built around a UART!
Could be done with a pulse-timer board, such as a Catweasel pretty
easily. Or a small MCU with its built-in UART could also do the
trick. Moving heads, etc. is simple. To see what OSI used for data
separators and other interface, I believe that somone has a Sam's
Photofact online for the C4P showing schematics and timings.
--Chuck
2 Feb
2 Feb
5:14 a.m.
Chuck Guzis wrote:
Could be done with a pulse-timer board, such as a
Catweasel pretty
easily. Or a small MCU with its built-in UART could also do the
trick. Moving heads, etc. is simple. To see what OSI used for data
separators and other interface, I believe that somone has a Sam's
Photofact online for the C4P showing schematics and timings.
It's here:
http://www.osiweb.org/
Along with the C1P and a lot of other good OSI docs.
Bill
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