Catweasel Definitions (WAS: Catweasel Northstar Project)

[Jonathan Gevaryahu]

While I cannot help you with the catweasel northstar project, I do know 
that at least the linux cwtool toolkit is missing a number of disk 
definitions which are very useful and common.
It does NOT normally support:
SSDD 5.25 8 sectors/track 160k
SSDD 5.25 9 sectors/track 180k
DSDD 5.25 8 sectors/track 320k
SSHD 3.5 18 sectors/track 720k <- very unusual format
SSHD 5.25 15 sectors/track 600k

I produced some simple definitions for these 5 modes (by hacking the 
msdos_dd_5.25 definition, which is DSDD 5.25 9 sectors/track) which will 
work for reading but are probably not good enough for correctly writing 
the disks owing to timing differences. Please email me if you want them.

It DOES support:
msdos_dd which is DSDD 3.5 9 sectors/track 720k
msdos_hd which is DSHD 3.5 18 sectors/track 1440k
msdos_dd_5.25 which is DSDD 5.25 9 sectors/track 360k
msdos_hd_5.25 which is DSHD 5.25 15 sectors/track 1200k
and a number of extended msdos_hd modes which use extra tracks and other 
tricks to achieve the following sizes:
1476k (82 tracks)
1494k (83 tracks)
1600k (20 sectors/track)
1680k (21 sectors/track) <- DMF format used by Microsoft for Win95 
disks, among others
1722k (82 tracks, 21 sectors/track)
1743k (83 tracks, 21 sectors/track)
1760k (11 sectors/track, 1024 byte sectors)
1802k (82 tracks, 11-19 variable sectors/track, 1024 byte sectors)
a couple variations of those are missing too: (82/83 20 sectors/track; 
82/83 11 sectors/track 1024 byte sectors; 80/83 11-19 variable 
sectors/track 1024 byte sectors).
It does not support the 1880k 2m or 1992k fdutils formats.

It also supports a number of commodore, amiga, atari, and apple/mac 
modes, though probably not all of the possibilities.

It also does not support the Sirius 1/Victor 9000 9-speed/rate-zone GCR 
5.25 format, which probably will require adding an entirely new GCR mode 
to the source code. Both single and double sided versions of this exist. 
I can only test the single sided versions because head 1 is inoperable 
(blown/open? needs further testing, doesn't seem to either read or 
write) on my Victor 9000. I have not even attempted to write a 
definition or GCR code for this yet, and could use any assistance available.

My goal is to get ALL of this stuff supported by the cwtool catweasel 
driver eventually.


OP: Sending the original request message 3 times was unnecessary.

--
Jonathan Gevaryahu
jgevaryahu(@t)hotmail(d0t)com
jzg22(@t)drexel(d0t)edu