At 07:36 PM 11/19/98 EST, you wrote:
>i was talking to my manager who is just about ready to give me a complete and
>working trs80 model 1 with ALL accessories. he also said he used something
>called a stringy floppy with it which used a loop of string/wire to save
data
>with not quite the speed of floppies but certainly faster than cassette. has
>anyone seen these or can explain how they work? he said there were carts that
>were put into the drive so it seems to be a removeable media device? can
>anyone explain further?
Ok, consider if you will a tape cartridge loaded like a 8-track audio tape
cartridge (set the 'wayback' machine, Sherman), but in a form factor of
about 1.5 x 3 x .2 inches and you've got it.
The "Exatron Stringy Floppy" was a tape loop cartridge that had a basic
'structured' file system on it so (with the proper software) it could be
treated similar to a disk device, altho serial in nature. Don't remember
the capacity right off, but it was not a lot.
Had a friend who always thought that these were the greatest thing since
sliced bread. They were around for less than a year as I recall however...
Hope there are at least a few cartridges with it, cause you will (never
say never) have a REAL interesting time finding more...
-jim
---
jimw_at_agora.rdrop.com
The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw
Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174
Received on Thu Nov 19 1998 - 19:40:21 GMT