Chrislin docs? - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

20 Jul 1999

On Jul 19, 20:36, Chuck McManis wrote:

...
  I just got (from Chrislin no less!) a Chrislin Q-bus
based floppy
 controller called a "Flex02". [ ... ]
...
  My contact at Chrislin said it "emulates and RX02
and the indicated jumper
...
  specifies 'boot rom' enabled or not
enabled." Which is fine except what he
...
  didn't know is whether or not the 50 pin connector
expected to go straight
...
  to a pair of 8" floppies or to a breakout board
ala the RQDXn series. [ ... ]
...
  It has a 50pin edge plug and ahead of that plug is an
NEC 8255 (this is a
 parallel port so it suggests to me at least that there might be some "off
 board" intelligence required. No sign of a floppy controller chip. 
The RQDX series only need a breakout board because they cram the signals
for hard drives and floppies together.  This Flex02 most likely goes
straight to standard drives -- a quick check is to see if all the
odd-numbered pins (ie, everything on one row of the connector) is grounded.
 If so, chances are it's a Shugart interface.

Don't be put off by the lack of a floppy controller chip.  No ordinary FDC
can handle the mixture of FM and MFM usd by an RX02.

-- 

Pete						Peter Turnbull
						Dept. of Computer Science
						University of York