JRE103@psuvm.psu.edu (James R. Evans Jr.) (04/10/90)
I was reading May 90's InCider/A+ and I saw the new AE 3.5 drive. They made
a point of saying how it has the "top-quality Sony mechanism that Apple uses",
and it is offered for a price of $279 (Yes, I know it will be cheaper when the
mail-order houses get it), as opposed to Apple's $429 drive. You can get the
AMR 3.5 drive for $185 from Roger Coats, but it isn't the Sony mechanism. All
this is fine and dandy, but I feel cheated after I looked Computer Shopper. I
was reading a Jameco ad and they have a Sony 3.5" 720Kb drive for only $49.95.
Now, I never opened up my Apple drive (since I fried a disk ][ and card), but
I thought that most of the controller electronics were in my GS smart port, not
the drive, and I was wondering why there is such a price difference between
the IBM sony drive that Jameco sells and our apple drives. I know that my Apple
drive works well with my PC transporter in reading IBM disks, so it seems that
they are basically the same thing. Is there a lot of 'control' electronics in
the Apple 3.5 drive? I know that the PC transporter uses its own controller to
perform the MFM format, but the hardware of the drive supports it. Does anyone
know if it is possible to interface one of these Sony drives to an Apple, and
if so, has anyone done it? Just a confused and poor college student.
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$ Jim (of course) Evans [D-Chi] Quack Quack Moo!! :
$ JRE103@psuvm.psu.edu Gobble Gobble Goo! :
$ --- "Darn right I like my Apple IIGS" --- :
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