HP-IB disc drive emulation program available

[jd]

Tony Duell さんは書きました:
>> The Xebec OEM controller for the 9134A uses a 9914. It speaks Amigo.
>> IIRC, the later HP board used for the 9133A also uses a 9914. The 9121
> 
> Interesting...
> 
> I wonder why HP went away from the 9914 in the drive units (all later 
> drives seem to use either the 8291 or the Medusa) while keeping it in 
> the host computers. 
> 

I've wondered about that too. I wanted to use a G/HPIB ISA card with a
cheap PC to emulate the then more pricey 9134 and I was told that it
was not possible to make a 9914 based ISA card talk Amigo as a device.
But considering that they're used in Xebec controllers that doesn't
seem right. What changed in the Amigo/SS/CS-80/IEEE specs that made it
impossible? I vaguely remember something mentioned about a problem
with how MSDOS talked to discs: by reading/writing sector by sector
instead of files and some associated timing problems. I don't know if
that's correct though, since the Xebec controllers--both the 1-disc
and the 2-disc talks fine to the HP-150. The only problem with it is
that it cannot format a 10Mb disc; it insists on formatting it as a
single 5Mb. Reads & writes it fine, though.

(I'd like to find out how to format discs on a PC for use in the 9134
drives. I could probably use bigger discs if they could be formatted
properly.)

>> also uses a 9914.
> 
> Every 9121 I;ve seen has an 8291 in it. I have the 'service manual' for 
> the 3.5" floppy drive units, and while the only schematics it contains 
> are for PSUs it does contain full parts lists for the controller board in 
> the 9121. It states it uses a 8291.

This was from memory. Unfortunately, the 91xx discs are buried deep,
not quickly accessible. I was pretty sure it was a 9914 for some
reason. Perhaps I was thinking of the older floppy drives. Somehow I
forgot to take pix of the HP controllers and only had pix of the Xebec
controllers. Which I can't find now.

--
jd