Floppy disks again

From: Bill Yakowenko <yakowenk_at_cs.unc.edu>
Date: Tue Oct 12 02:35:27 1999

Okay, one final question before I drop this topic
forever (or until tomorrow, whichever comes first).

How is it possible that DD media could be of such
poor quality that it can't (reliably?) do 96 TPI,
while still being just fine at 48 TPI?

I mean, it is recording something like 3000 bits per
inch along each track, right? How could that same
media not have enough resolution to keep the bits of
adjacent tracks separate at less than 100 per inch?
Can somebody who believes this can happen give me a
mental model of what is going on there? I mean, in
terms of physics or geometry or mechanics or anything
measurable and specific.

It sounds to me like it must be the drive, and not
the media, that limits the number of tracks to
anything below 1500 TPI.

        Thanks,
        Bill.
Received on Tue Oct 12 1999 - 02:35:27 BST