>Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2000 15:48:30 -0500
>From: "ajp166" <ajp166_at_bellatlantic.net>
>>From: David Gesswein <djg_at_drs-esg.com>
>>I haven't spent too much time looking at the interface but most of the
>>smarts are in the drive and serial communication is used to send
>>commands to it. I have a bunch of information on the RX01, the RX02
>should
>>be similar.
>
>Do look. the two are very different.
>
I don't know if anybody is still interested...
I scanned the RX02 technical manual and it is now online
http://www.pdp8.net/pdp8cgi/query_docs/view.pl?table=pdp8docs&id=139
It looks like they added some stuff such as DMA and AC low status for the 11
but when in the RX28 PDP-8 mode it still uses the same electrical interface as
the RX01. The RX02 drive has 3 different modes it can operate in via a
switch setting. It appears that the RX8E does not know if it is talking
to a RX01 or RX02, only the software running on the PDP-8 knows. From
a programming standpoint you have to write to the command register
differently in RX02 mode even when single density media is used.
I could still be missing something.
This is probably the easiest mode to talk to the drive in from bit banging
on a PC.
David Gesswein
Received on Fri Dec 01 2000 - 07:23:41 GMT