Northstar disk controller family tree

From: Jim Battle <frustum_at_pacbell.net>
Date: Sat Feb 24 00:01:03 2001

I'm starting work on adding support for a Northstar disk controller to my
Sol emulator program. Before I start writing code, I figured I'd see if
anybody could clarify the relationship of the various Northstar disk
controller boards I have either seen on ebay or I've seen mentioned on the web:

        1) "Micro-Disk System MDS-A"
        2) "MICRO-DISK MDS-A-D DOUBLE DENSITY" (I have the manual to this)
        3) MDS-AD2
        4) MDC-A2
        5) MDC-A3
        6) MDC-A4 (I have one of these but haven't tried it yet)
        ... and others?

I assume that #3 is just a different name for #2.

How do they compare? Does anybody have programming/technical docs for the
ones that I don't have? If it isn't a stretch (and I'd assume it isn't,
since they are all from Northstar), I would like to add support for the
other disk controllers, but without the docs that won't happen.

My real Sol has a "Micro Complex Phase Lock II" disk controller in it,
which is compatible with the MDS-AD2 (I think) [ single/double density disk
controller ]. I also have an MDC-A4 board, but no docs on it, so I haven't
played with it.

Thanks for any information, code, tips, vague recollections...
-----
Jim Battle == frustum_at_pacbell.net
Received on Sat Feb 24 2001 - 00:01:03 GMT