a186@mindlink.UUCP (Harvey Taylor) (01/13/91)
In <1991Jan3.003449.1@ccvax.iastate.edu>, taab5@ccvax.iastate.edu <in another group> Marc Barrett writes: | | CASE 5: HIGH-DENSITY FLOPPY DRIVES: | High-density 1.44MB 3.5" floppy drives have been available for PC/AT | and 80386-based systems for several years. | [...] | Now that 2.88MB drives are becoming increasingly common, I am a little surprised that no third party manufacturer has thrown together a floppy controller card that would support regular IBMish 2.88M, 1.44M & 720K drives. I'm sure a lot of people would much rather use the 2.88M disks for backups. -harvey "Let's see. George Bush is going to war to protect a feudal monarchy & it has nothing to do with oil? Tell that to a Tibetan, an East Timoran." -lenny Harvey Taylor Meta Media Productions uunet!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!Harvey_Taylor a186@mindlink.UUCP
skipper@motaus.sps.mot.com (Skipper Smith) (01/15/91)
In article <4439@mindlink.UUCP> a186@mindlink.UUCP (Harvey Taylor) writes: >In <1991Jan3.003449.1@ccvax.iastate.edu>, taab5@ccvax.iastate.edu > <in another group> Marc Barrett writes: >| >| CASE 5: HIGH-DENSITY FLOPPY DRIVES: >| High-density 1.44MB 3.5" floppy drives have been available for PC/AT >| and 80386-based systems for several years. >| [...] >| Now that 2.88MB drives are becoming increasingly common, > > I am a little surprised that no third party manufacturer has thrown > together a floppy controller card that would support regular IBMish > 2.88M, 1.44M & 720K drives. I'm sure a lot of people would much rather > use the 2.88M disks for backups. > -harvey > > "Let's see. George Bush is going to war to protect a feudal monarchy & > it has nothing to do with oil? Tell that to a Tibetan, an East Timoran." > -lenny > Harvey Taylor Meta Media Productions > uunet!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!Harvey_Taylor > a186@mindlink.UUCP Why would anybody want to use a 2.88M floppy (that almost no one uses currently) when they could get an Insite Peripheral's Floptical which holds 20M. Before anyone goes off and shouts "But they aren't shipping" I have talked with Insite and they are shipping evaluation units right now (which is about all the 2.88M drives are doing) and expect to be up to full volume RSN (as usual, whatever that means). This is a SCSI drive, so all you need is a SCSI controller instead of hacking your 500 to add a new floppy controller, and it reads any format you can program it to handle (with onboard ROM handling IBM 720K and 1.44M from the factory). They expect to be able to handle up to 80M on future versions of the drive, but I wouldn't mind a 20M floppy right now. This drive has been tested on an Amiga 2000 with a 2091 controller and it DOES work with the Amiga with no further hacking unless you want to read Amiga formatted disks with it- then you are going to have to come up with some software to do that (I am sure some enterprising hacker will do that quickly enough). However, I certainly wouldn't use it for doing backups- with a 150 Mb hard drive and soon a 535 Mb hard drive, tape is the only way to go :-) -- Skipper Smith | skipper@motaus.sps.mot.com Motorola Technical Training | 8945 Guilford Rd Ste 145 All opinions are my own, not my employers | Columbia, MD 21046
a186@mindlink.UUCP (Harvey Taylor) (01/15/91)
In <1991Jan14.181643.5@motaus.sps.mot.com>, skipper@motaus.sps.mot.com (Skipper Smith) writes: :In <4439@mindlink.UUCP> a186@mindlink.UUCP (Harvey Taylor) writes: :>In <1991Jan3.003449.1@ccvax.iastate.edu>, taab5@ccvax.iastate.edu :> <in another group> Marc Barrett writes: :>| :>| CASE 5: HIGH-DENSITY FLOPPY DRIVES: :> :> I am a little surprised that no third party manufacturer has thrown :> together a floppy controller card that would support regular IBMish :> 2.88M, 1.44M & 720K drives. I'm sure a lot of people would much rather :> use the 2.88M disks for backups. :> -harvey : :Why would anybody want to use a 2.88M floppy (that almost no one uses currently) :when they could get an Insite Peripheral's Floptical which holds 20M. Cost. For people with a <=100M hard drive, large floppies make sense. I'm sure a high capacity drive & card could be sold for ~US$200.00. Insite is what? >$500.00 without the controller? : [...] : However, I certainly wouldn't use it for doing backups- with a 150 Mb hard : drive and soon a 535 Mb hard drive, tape is the only way to go :-) Agreed. For large systems it makes sense. There are a couple of tape drives available now, but I imagine that when CBM ships SysVR4 (with tape drive), a lot more compatible systems will appear. -harvey "I'll help you if I can, I'll kill you if I must. I'll kill you if I can, I'll help you if I must. The peacock spreads his fan." -Cohen Harvey Taylor Meta Media Productions uunet!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!Harvey_Taylor a186@mindlink.UUCP