mcmiller@uokmax.uucp (Michael C Miller) (09/14/90)
Hello, I am now involved in a design project that requires the use of a floppy disk controller IC. I am building a dedicated/stand-alone formatter/copier and I was wondering if any of you kind folks have info on latest available chips. I have data on some of the older Western Digital chips but I want to know if there is some thing newer and more exciting that I should look into. Does anyone have a toll free number to WD support? Can anyone point me towards an optimum source of info for the IBM-PC 360K diskette format/standard? I have a good deal of experience with the CPM disks and have used the on chip features of the '2797 to meet various comatibility difficulties, so I'm sure that it will work for this application, but again, I wanna ask you\ experts ;-). Ideally I need to be able to upgrade to control for HD Diskettes but for now 360K is just fine. I'm grateful for any info in advance..... thanks.... michael -- ################################################################################ < sans => mcmiller@uokmax.UUCP or mcmiller@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu > < '..this one goes up to eleven. Its ONE louder.' >
rmf@bpdsun1.uucp (Rob Finley) (09/14/90)
In article <1990Sep13.180820.7993@uokmax.uucp> mcmiller@uokmax.uucp (Michael C Miller) writes: >I am now involved in a design project that requires the use of a floppy >disk controller IC. I am building a dedicated/stand-alone formatter/copier >and I was wondering if any of you kind folks have info on latest available >chips. I have data on some of the older Western Digital chips but I want >to know if there is some thing newer and more exciting that I should >look into. Newer simpler and more exciting: Intel released the sequel to their popular i82072 FDC on a chip with the i82077. The 82077 has added features including the perpendicular recording format of some unknown Toshiba drive (?) and built-in drivers to make a neat one-chip solution. I just finished marrying it to an 80C186. I needed to add a pullup sip resistor pack, three caps, a 68pin PLCC socket, 20mhz crystal and a 34pin connector. It does have a neat data separation scheme which could be better than analog or digital. I got one in my hands for $27 from my distributor. I didn't want cheap, I wanted something SIMPLE and easy to get working. P.S. Any information on the Toshiba recording format would be VERY much appreciated! >Does anyone have a toll free number to WD support? Dial 1-800-555-1212 for "800" assistance. If I were near a phone... ----- "Lets go kick some Earthling butt!" -- Spaced Invaders quintro!bpdsun1!rmf@lll-winken.llnl.gov uunet!tiamat!quintro!bpdsun1!rmf
stevenw@disk.UUCP (Steven Weller) (09/17/90)
I can vouch for the Intel 82077 chip. It really is a floppy controller on one chip and requires very little glue to make it work. The software is made much easier since it supports multi-sector transfers and implied seeks. You can tuirn off the 765-style polling of drives with a command. Formatting is simpler than the old WD chips: you make a buffer with 4 bytes per sector instead of hundreds and the chip does the rest. -- : Phone: (502) 425 9560 << Steven Weller >> Fax: (502) 426 3944 : : Windsor Systems, 2407 Lime Kiln Lane, Louisville, KY, 40222 USA : : "A substance almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea" : : stevenw@disk.UUCP or uunet!ukma!corpane!disk!stevenw :