barton@latcs1.oz.au (The Wasp) (09/06/90)
I was wondering if any amiga users out there have heard of a driver for
HD disk drives?
I heard about this new 2.88Meg ibm 3.5" drive and am interested in seeing if
it would be possible to use one of these on ami?
If there isn't a driver out there for HD disk drives then how would one go
about writing a "proper" driver for one?
Doug
barton@latcs1.oz.au
PS: No replies to my last article (yet)...
I am disappointed... Thought more people would be interested in larger
capacity floppies!david@twg.com (David S. Herron) (09/07/90)
In article <8708@latcs1.oz.au> barton@latcs1.oz.au (The Wasp) writes: >I was wondering if any amiga users out there have heard of a driver for >HD disk drives? Not easily possible. With the HD disks and, assumably, these new 2.88 meg drives the information is recorded at a higher bit density (clock speed) than Amiga's are able to handle. Or, more properly, designed (off the shelf) to handle. Since, on the Amiga, the floppy disk decoding is done with the Custom Chips they would have to be fast enough to be able to decode the higher clock rate on 1.44 or 2.88 meg disks. On other systems, at least ones which use standard floppy disk controllers, they have to use one which can handle these higher clock rates. One could fairly easily design a plug in board which contains a floppy disk controller. This would require a device driver (fdc.device?) and changes to `format' so it knows about this new format. (Or is it that format simply sends a FORMAT-DEVICE packet to the device driver?) This wouldn't really be any harder than any other plug in board design. I hope this answers your question. -- <- David Herron, an MMDF & WIN/MHS guy, <david@twg.com> <- Formerly: David Herron -- NonResident E-Mail Hack <david@ms.uky.edu> <- <- Sign me up for one "I survived Jaka's Story" T-shirt!
don@vax1.acs.udel.EDU (Donald R Lloyd) (09/07/90)
In article <7906@gollum.twg.com> david@twg.com (David S. Herron) writes: >they have to use one which can handle these higher clock rates. > >One could fairly easily design a plug in board which contains a floppy >disk controller. This would require a device driver (fdc.device?) >and changes to `format' so it knows about this new format. (Or is >it that format simply sends a FORMAT-DEVICE packet to the device driver?) >This wouldn't really be any harder than any other plug in board design. > What about a SCSI floppy? People who don't have hard drives wouldn't be able to use them, but then again, people who don't have hard drives should get hard drives before they worry about high density floppies :-) I guess if the speed is the main problem, it should be possible to put some controller circuitry into the drive to read into an on-drive buffer, then pass it on to the Amiga. I realize that either of these solutions would probably be expensive... -- Gibberish .sig for sale or lease. is spoken Contact don@vax1.acs.udel.edu for more information. here. DISCLAIMER: It's all YOUR fault.
U3364521@ucsvc.ucs.unimelb.edu.au (Lou Cavallo) (09/07/90)
G'day, In article <7906@gollum.twg.com>, david@twg.com (David S. Herron) writes: > In article <8708@latcs1.oz.au> barton@latcs1.oz.au (The Wasp) writes: >>I was wondering if any amiga users out there have heard of a driver for >>HD disk drives? > Not easily possible. > > With the HD disks and, assumably, these new 2.88 meg drives the information > is recorded at a higher bit density (clock speed) than Amiga's are > able to handle. Or, more properly, designed (off the shelf) to handle. [..deleted..] > One could fairly easily design a plug in board which contains a floppy > disk controller. This would require a device driver (fdc.device?) > and changes to `format' so it knows about this new format. (Or is > it that format simply sends a FORMAT-DEVICE packet to the device driver?) > This wouldn't really be any harder than any other plug in board design. > > I hope this answers your question. I didn't ask the original question but you've answered my questions just the same. :-) Thanks David. However your explanation begs the questions of o whether there are floppy controller boards for any Amigas (2000's most likely) o if not, then why not? Too small a market perhaps? I cannot buy that nowadays though with there being near 2M Amiga's out there. Any one have any ideas? > <- David Herron, an MMDF & WIN/MHS guy, <david@twg.com> yours truly, Lou Cavallo.
jeh@sisd.kodak.com (Ed Hanway) (09/07/90)
Here's a silly thought that just occurred to me: If the Amiga floppy controller reads raw data into RAM and relies on software (the blitter, I think) to do MFM decoding, would it be possible, with a new driver, to encode floppies in RLL and get a 50% increase in capacity? Of course, that does nothing for compatibility with 1.44 meg disks, and the RLL decoding in software might be slow, but I'm sure that someone could find a use for cramming 880K x 1.5 = 1.32M on a disk. Ed Hanway uunet!sisd!jeh
caldwell_t@darwin.ntu.edu.au (09/08/90)
Ok, Here is my question about 1.44 and greater disk drives. I assume that you can add a 1.44 or (2.88 ect), SCSI drive to the amiga. (Has anyone done this?) Would you be able to read these disks on the AE drive? If C= do bring out a 1.44M drive would this be compatable with the AE as well. Would C= drive be SCSI? If not would it be compatable with SCSI drives? Since the file system is the same, it should only depends on the low-level format. If these drives are not compatable then C= should quickly fix the problem (just proposing a standard). BTW: Does SCSI have any kind of DiskChanged or other Floppy controll lines. (eg disk eject,disk motor speed?) My guess is not but what about SCSI-2. If not how do removable media drives cope? These days we rely on our floppies less and on harddisks more. But files do get bigger and bigger. Perhaps we should all get tape drives??? Malcolm Caldwell | CALDWELL_T@DARWIN.NTU.OZ 18 Todd Cres | MALAK DARWIN NT 0812 | Fido 3:690/648.3 AUSTRALIA |
monty@sagpd1.UUCP (Monty Saine) (09/08/90)
In article <6903@vax1.acs.udel.EDU> don@vax1.udel.edu (Donald R Lloyd) writes: > What about a SCSI floppy? People who don't have hard drives wouldn't ^^^^^^^^^^^ Thank you. This reminded me about the Floptical drive by Insite Periphials. Has any one heard how they are doing? For a reminder the Floptical was a 20 meg magnetic media with optical tracking for accuracy, 3 1/2 disk form factor. They were working on a model that was supposed to handle "standard" 3 1/2 disks also. If you know, post a respose for all. Monty Saine
donb@bushido.uucp (Donald Burnett) (09/10/90)
In article <1990Sep8.050832.354@darwin.ntu.edu.au> caldwell_t@darwin.ntu.edu.au writes: >Ok, Here is my question about 1.44 and greater disk drives. I assume that you >can add a 1.44 or (2.88 ect), SCSI drive to the amiga. (Has anyone done this?) > >Would you be able to read these disks on the AE drive? >If C= do bring out a 1.44M drive would this be compatable with the AE as well. >Would C= drive be SCSI? If not would it be compatable with SCSI drives? > >Since the file system is the same, it should only depends on the low-level >format. > >If these drives are not compatable then C= should quickly fix the problem (just >proposing a standard). > >BTW: Does SCSI have any kind of DiskChanged or other Floppy controll lines. (eg >disk eject,disk motor speed?) My guess is not but what about SCSI-2. If not >how do removable media drives cope? > >These days we rely on our floppies less and on harddisks more. But files do >get bigger and bigger. Perhaps we should all get tape drives??? > > Malcolm Caldwell | CALDWELL_T@DARWIN.NTU.OZ > 18 Todd Cres | > MALAK DARWIN NT 0812 | Fido 3:690/648.3 > AUSTRALIA | I am not an expert on this, but I do own an AE 3.5"HD drive. It is definitely NOT a SCSI drive. As far as SCSI standards go, I have seen for myself good cross-compatibility with Hard Drives between different controllers (as long) as they use the RIGID DISK BLOCK standard Commodore unified close to a year ago. In other words, if they have the right information and follow this standard, any controller should be able to read another controllers partitions just fine. Also, most controllers handle removable media. A friend just bought a new A3000. He had previously bought an IVS trumpcard SCSI sysquest system. It plugged right into the A3000 scsi controller and worked correctly from day one. Even understood the cart had been removed. -- **************************************************************** ********* donb@bushido.uucp ****** ********* "My Opinions are my own, not anyone else's ****** ********* Organizational Affiliations ****** ********* CreativEdge Systems, the Multimedia Solution ****** ********* The Computer Shoppe, Ypsilanti-Ann Arbor, MI's ****** ********* Commodore-Amiga Education Dealer ******
lar@pc.usl.edu (Robert, Lane A.) (09/10/90)
In article <929@sagpd1.UUCP> monty@sagpd1.UUCP (Monty Saine) writes:
Thank you. This reminded me about the Floptical drive by Insite
Periphials. Has any one heard how they are doing? For a reminder
the Floptical was a 20 meg magnetic media with optical tracking
for accuracy, 3 1/2 disk form factor. They were working on a model
that was supposed to handle "standard" 3 1/2 disks also.
If you know, post a respose for all.
This drive was reviewed in Computer Shopper recently. When I called
the company, they predicted its release sometime in the first quarter
of 91. I can't wait.
Lane
lar@usl.edu