"CP/M compatible" vs. "MS-DOS Compatible" machines? - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

2 Feb 2008

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Subject: Re: "CP/M compatible" vs. "MS-DOS Compatible" machines?
   From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com>
   Date: Sat, 02 Feb 2008 17:25:27 -0800 (PST)
     To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at
classiccmp.org>

  > I asked Gary Kildall, "Now that most
commercial machines are going to
 > 5.25 inch disks, what is the STANDARD format for 5.25?"
 > He answered, "8 inch single sided single density." 
On Sat, 2 Feb 2008, Roy J. Tellason wrote:
> Can you do that on a 5.25" disk?  What is that,  77 tracks,  I forget how many
> sectors... 
26

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 IF your disk controller is "cooperative". 
The "1.2M" drive is almost the
same as an 8" drive. 'course, his remark was during the days of 48 tpi 35 
track 5.25", . . . 
Therein lies the problem.  I'd asked the same question in 78 IE: are you 
ever going to consider a different disk format?  No, there ae so many and 
none compatable, some too small and a few limited to a specific vendor.

Until there was a viable and better standard 8" SSSD was it.  I think
that standard emerged around 1983 with 360K (40tracks two sides DD) 
soft sector and again with 1.44MB 3.5".  Other than those what other
wide spread and not limited to a specific vendor and those two were 
standard only for PCs.

Allison