On 7/19/10, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote: In the case of the Rainbow, the hardware was capable of formatting media, but ISTR some other DEC controllers didn't have bits left over in a CSR or didn't have enough command packet varieties to include a media format request or some other design limitation that was left out for various reasons, not primarily to force users to buy pre-formatted media, but since DEC had been selling pre-formatted media for years (RX01, RX02, RL01, RL02, TU58...) (vs older devices that *could* be user-formatted - RK05, DECtape, etc) it was believed at the time that users wouldn't complain enough to make a more complicated (and expensive) solution necessary. I think for the most part, they were right - there might have been some grumbling about the cost of media, but commercial customers were used to paying for places to store their bits. Home users were another market entirely, and I don't think that it went over as smoothly when trying to sell expensive disks to that crowd. I remember complaints from the later RX50 era that I don't remember difference lies, I think, more with the audience than the technology on this one. -ethan