HP1631D Logic Analyzer..Software???

[js at cimmeri.com]

On 12/5/2016 2:45 PM, Glen Slick wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 5, 2016 at 11:31 AM, Holm Tiffe<holm at freibergnet.de>  wrote:
>> I've heard from a friend that another friend that died in the menatime, had
>> managed to copy HP9121 disks on a plain PC with something like Super Copy.
>
> I tried using ImageDisk on a PC to read the two HP 1630 3.5-inch
> floppies I have (10304 8085 preprocessor, 10342 HP-IB, RS-232C/V.24,
> RS-449 preprocessor). It appeared to be able to read the expected data
> just fine. Singled sided disk with 16 256-byte sectors per track
> (sector numbers 0 - 15) and 70 tracks.
>
> But it also seemed to detect a sector number 17 with no data in each
> track. Is that a normal 9121 low level format? I haven't tried to
> write a floppy back out using ImageDisk to see if the result is
> readable on a 9121 drive.
>
> I should also try hooking up a 9121 drive to a PC and see if HPDir
> dumps the same binary data I get using ImageDisk.

Here are my notes on LIF disks and the 
utils I have.  I got this from 
somewhere, but can't remember where, so 
can't give the well-deserved credit to 
the rightful person -- I'm sorry.


There have been different tools provided 
for handling LIF discs:

1.  Still quite useful are the "LIF 
Utilities for DOS" from HP. The LIF 
utilities support the handling of LIF 
floppy discs in standard PC floppy disc 
drives and drives connected via HP-IB 
similar to the HPDir program.

    A DOS-based graphical user interface 
covers functions like initializing LIF 
discs, copying files from DOS to LIF and 
vice versa, purging files as well as 
editing LIF discs with a hex editor.

    The LIF Utilities work under DOS and 
Windows 9x, but not under NT based 
Windows like XP or Vista. The HP-IB 
operation is restricted to HP's own 
HP-IB interface cards (namely the 
HP82335A, the HP82990A and the HP88500A 
interfaces) and can communicate only 
with drives supporting the CS80/SS80 
command sets (not Amigo).


2.  Another LIF tool is HP's Standard 
Data Format (SDF) Utilities. Although 
originally intended for the exchange of 
data with HP analyzer instruments, there 
are two programs included (LIF.EXE and 
LIFDIAG.EXE) for LIF access, file 
conversion and diagnostics.

    Just like the LIF Utilities those 
programs allow initializing LIF discs as 
well as file copying, deletion, 
conversion and listing both using 
standard floppy disc drives and drives 
connected via HP-IB.

   The SDF utils support SS80 drives 
*only* [sic jws] but not AMIGO command 
set. However, these programs support the 
PCII and AT-GPIB IEEE488/GPIB cards from 
National Instruments in addition to the 
HP88500A and HP82335 interfaces.


3.  Finally, there is still a basic 
support for LIF under HP-UX. For a 
certain period, the LIF format was used 
as bootstrap format (an initial 
execution vector was added in the system 
record for this purpose).


See HPDir.