Disk hardware emulation, was Re: Grandfather system RTE6/VM?

From: Patrick Finnegan <pat_at_computer-refuge.org>
Date: Wed Dec 10 10:04:45 2003

On Wednesday 10 December 2003 10:47, Peter C. Wallace wrote:
> Usually you know the encoding scheme, and I dont see anything wrong
> with using whatever knowledge you have of the interface to optimize
> it. If a different encoding scheme is used, an FPGA based design
> could easily adapt.

"Knowing the encoding scheme" prevents this from being a "universal"
interface. You'd need to make different version for, say, your PC/XT,
your PDP-11 with an RQDXn, and TeleVideo TS816. (Or shouse I say "my"
as those are all system I have that'd benefit from this). At most, (I
think) you'd need a different cable set for all three of these if you
didn't claim to "know" the encoding.

Also, with at least two of these examples, you probably *don't* know the
encoding method... as mentioned earlier, the RQDX(1) isn't based on any
'standard' controller IC. Also, the TeleVideo's controller is based
upon an 8X300 microprocessor, and may not be RLL/MFM/FM.

> But you're right, its probably possible to undo write-precomp by
> simulating the drives tendency to push close transitions apart. I do
> think some adjustments are needed per drive type... The write Precomp
> value is pretty small - in the order of 5-10 % of the data period.
>
>
> Peter Wallace

Pat
-- 
Purdue University ITAP/RCS
Information Technology at Purdue
Research Computing and Storage
http://www.itap.purdue.edu/rcs/
Received on Wed Dec 10 2003 - 10:04:45 GMT

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