Funny, when I asked a few months ago if anyone was interested in collaborating on doing exactly this, I was practically run off the list with comments about how impractical it was, nobody would build it, and wouldn't a catweasel be ever so much better... So I let the idea drop (still might build one privately however). I think the 8271 is pretty limiting ... I'd vote for a 1793 (or 2793 which has a bulld in data-separator) - it is used in a lot of classic systems, can handle a wide variety of formats, and can do raw track reads. A single 32k SRAM should be plenty to buffer a few tracks, which is really all you need. Have you tried just using the diskette controller in a PC? - I've found that almost all of my P1ish machines can read/write FM, and I've used ImageDisk to backup and restore almost all of the soft- sector formats that I have here (although some are better than others. I've found that Intel mainboards work very well, although the ones I have only support one drive select). Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html