bbs00068@uafcseg.uucp (Joel Kolstad) (08/13/90)
[Gobble gobble gobble]
Hi there... one of the places that I'm currently working for wants me
to build them a project that's basically an embedded microcontroller.
This is feasible for me, except that they threw in one hitch: it HAS
to be able to read and write MS-DOS format disks (3.5", low density,
in this case). Oops!
Since I do a fair amount of work on PCs, I do know the "high level"
disk structure -- once you give me sector #x off of track #y, I can do
something with it. I know the format of the FAT and directory
structures, too. The problem I'm having is the low level MFM stuff --
I know nothing about it! I need to know how I take a sector of data,
and actually turn it into something to feed the drive. Also, I have
to do it the other way around -- given a track and sector, read the
raw MFM data off the disk and turn in into the nice blocks that I'm
used to.
I do have some 3.5" drives and the pin outs, so if somebody could tell
me where to find this low level formatting information, I'd really
appreciate it! My friendly bosses do have a little money to blow, in
case you want to recommend a book or something.
Thanks in advance to those who reply. Please e-mail responses to
kolstad@cae.wisc.edu (DON'T hit reply -- I won't get it!).
---Joel Kolstad
kolstad@cae.wisc.edu