> > has anyone got any data on the UM8297 floppy disk controller IC?
> I've had a look at the floppy formats supported by my conversion system,
> which btw originates in the UK. I havnt come across BBC formats in the
> servicebureay, but according to the software BBC is found in quite some
> flavours, reaching from single-side single-density 5.25" to DSDD 3.5"
Well the prog I was hoping to get to work is called 'fdc' - see:
http://www.8bs.com/othrdnld/utilities/fdc.zip
Quoting from the notes in that zip file:
"Note that most PC floppy controllers have broken single density modes.
They may still be able to read single density disks with a few retries,
but they can't write or format them. However, FDCs based on the 37C65
series of chips appear to work OK; this chip is normally in a 40-pin
DIP or 44-pin PLCC package and has one 9.6 MHz crystal and one 16 or 32
MHz crystal (as opposed to the more common chips that use a single 24
MHz crystal)."
Hence I'm assuming the program actually works and the 3 motherboards
I've tried it on all have integrated fdc ICs that don't work. Plenty of
people out there seem to have used that program with good results
anyway. Whether this 8397 chip is also one of the ones that won't work
(and so I'm wasting my time anyway) I don't know.
I'm not exactly short on BBC hardware here so I could read and transfer
the images there (thanks for your offer anyway!), but it would be far
nicer to be able to read them on the desktop PC and be able to stick
them straight onto backed-up hard disk storage.
The other option is to use one of the SCSI floppy boards that I have.
That involves quite a bit of C coding though which is why I've been
putting it off lately :-)
cheers
Jules
Received on Fri Dec 26 2003 - 08:25:59 GMT