31 Oct
2006
31 Oct
'06
2 p.m.
Subject: A question regarding floppy drives functionality..
From: Marian Capel <marian.capel at bluewin.ch>
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2006 18:26:22 +0100
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at
classiccmp.org>
Since this list has a number of people that are very knowledgable on the
subject :
Am i correct in thinking that, given a custom FDC, i could run a modern
1.44 floppy in FM mode, and at much lower data rates i.e. (say 50 KHz.) ?
You may not be able to run that slow but you could test by recording square
waves of varying frequencies and look at what comes back.
Background : I am musing on how to give a small amount
of storage, say
around 100kb, to a very small low tech cpu.
I do not care about speed and efficiency.
Myself for 100k I'd use a EEprom. Eprom or even 128k ram with a battery.
I am aware that IDE-based solutions are simpler, both
hard- and software
wise, but I would prefer a floppy based solution.
FYI the slowest floppies are the oldest 5.25 like the SA400 and TM100
as they will reach down to 64khz, I did some testing once. I'd suspect
some of the later 360k drives would do well (slow data) too. I do
know that most of the 360k drives work fine at FM (single density) data
rates (125khz).
Allison
1 Nov
1 Nov
3:08 a.m.
Allison wrote:
That was my immediate thought too, but it perhaps depends on whether the OP
meant KB or Kb. And of course whether they have ease of portability issues in
mind. But certainly from an interfacing point of view to a 'low tech CPU' I
doubt there's anything easier than an EEPROM.
cheers
Jules
Background : I
am musing on how to give a small amount of storage, say
around 100kb, to a very small low tech cpu.
I do not care about speed and efficiency.
Myself for 100k I'd use a EEprom. Eprom or even 128k ram with a battery. 
9:38 a.m.
Jules Richardson wrote:
Allison wrote:
That was my immediate thought too, but it perhaps depends on whether the
OP meant KB or Kb.
I meant 100Kbytes.
And of course whether they have ease of portability
Background : I am musing on how to give a small amount of storage,
say around 100kb, to a very small low tech cpu.
I do not care about speed and efficiency.
Myself for 100k I'd use a EEprom. Eprom or even 128k ram with a battery. issues in mind.
Not really, it was more a
question of having some "stylish correct"
storage for the planned system.
But certainly from an interfacing point of view to a
'low tech CPU' I doubt there's anything
easier than an EEPROM.
I fully realize there are easier options. If that was my concern I would
have gone for the SD-card solution.
However I might cut corners and go for a simple one-sector per track
implementation.
Allison's suggestion of feeding squarewaves and looking at what comes
back seems like a good idea, and will be a starting point.
Jos Dreesen
6400
days inactive
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days old
2 comments
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