zilog system 8000

[Tony Duell]

On Sat, Jul 21, 2018 at 3:26 AM, Al Kossow via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
>
> On 7/20/18 2:43 PM, Mattis Lind wrote:
>
>> And as Al wrote:  No it is not at all QIC. The drive has four fixed tracks and the encoding is MFM.
>
> These 4-track fixed-head drives were common drives prior to the invention of movable head devices. TI used them in 990

I seem to remember the original QIC11 standard was (or at least included) a
4 track version. And the later 9 track format kept those 4 tracks in the same
place and put 5 more, one on each side and 3 between them if you see what
I mean.

So unless you need to read 2 tracks simultaneously (e.g. becuase it uses the
encoded where a pulse on one track is a '0', a pulse on the other is a '1' and
pulses on both together are a marker) you can probably get the data off the tape
with a raw 4 track or 9 track drive and a custom controller.

-tony