MFMulation? (Solid-state replacements for MFM drives) - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

16 Apr 2007

...

Subject: MFMulation? (Solid-state replacements for MFM drives)
   From: M H Stein <dm561 at torfree.net>
   Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 03:23:54 -0300
     To: "'cctalk at classiccmp.org'" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>

Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2007 23:05:49 +0100 (BST)
From: Entity <entity at nenevr.demon.co.uk>
Subject: MFMulation? (Solid-state replacements for MFM drives)

<snip>
 I've got a Northstar Horizon that I mentioned
on here many, many years
ago and I've just started looking at it again; once I've got it up and
running it'd be nice to add some sort of permanent storage, but without
jettisoning one of the floppy drives. The SuperIO board is one option,
but I'd like to keep it as stock-Northstar as I can. <snip>
-------------
If you mean Howard Harte's SuperIO board, apparently he's no longer 
making or supporting it; too bad.

mike 
Thats also a factor.  One I'd point out is the only reason for stock 
NS* Horizon is NSDos (and related NS* software) as the dos is locked 
to the disk controller hardware. Once you use another disk interface
(ANY) NSDos is a non player and CP/M or one of the similar OSs becomes
the choice as you can create your own BIOS to match whatever IO 
hardware you have.

An NS* horizon as a S100 crate is a good system and with a higher density 
FDC or HDC added and CP/M it has a place as a retro system or as an 
example of hobbiest systems of the time.  It was not uncommon to 
upgrade a NS* with denser disks or even add a hard disk of some form.

For the extreme user, since NSDos is on the net in assembly form it's 
possible to rewrite it to use a differnt disk or disk equivilent. I've 
played with that so it can be done.

Allison