NorthStar FDC

From: Bob Stek <bobstek_at_ix.netcom.com>
Date: Thu Oct 28 12:48:19 1999

The N* controller was for 5.25" floppies only - Shugarts and later Tandons
were popular. The only board (AFAIK) capable of handling N* hard-sector and
8" soft-sector was made by Morrow and used in their Decision I S-100 box. I
bought one after selling my N* and was thrilled to have support for my old
N* disks as well as soft-sectored 5.25" floppies.

Bob Stek
bobstek_at_ix.netcom.com
Saver of Lost SOLs

-----Original Message-----
From: CLASSICCMP-owner_at_u.washington.edu
[mailto:CLASSICCMP-owner_at_u.washington.edu]On Behalf Of Richard Erlacher
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 1999 11:07 AM
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: NorthStar FDC


I got a question the other day, and it was one about which I have no clue.
A friend glommed onto an IMSAI box with a North Star disk subsystem, the FDC
for which is a model MDS-A4. He wants to know about whether it is capable
of handling 8" drives. I didn't think to ask whether it had a 50-pin cable
header on it. That would have been too easy. My recollection is that
NorthStar systems had a hard-sectored 5-1/4" drive, usually from Micropolis,
attached, and that one was pretty dense, but wouldn't do CP/M-standard
(IBM-3740 SSSD) diskettes. Is that the case with this controller?

Dick
Received on Thu Oct 28 1999 - 12:48:19 BST