Software-based floppy disc data separator

[Keith]

Philip Pemberton wrote:
> On 16/06/10 23:31, Keith wrote:
>> <sarcasm> hohoho my project is better than yours in some way. </sarcasm>
> 
> "Bender, you said 'wink wink' out loud!"
> "No I didn't... raise middle finger..."
> 
> :)
> 
>> My amiga floppy project will read a full disk and write an .ADF in
>> around 50 seconds, total. There's still room for more optimization, too.
> 
> Interesting -- the SX2DEV can transfer data that quickly? Or are you 
> dumping to FRAM then reading the FRAM data back to the host in some way?
> 
> Ah wait -- that schematic's out of date. A 2Mbit serial link to an FTDI 
> chip, then onto USB? Not bad.

Sorry sorry, yes, I've got to update my stuff.

Originally I had a Parallax uC with FRAM memory.  That was disk->fram, 
and then fram->usb.

Now, I've got a Spartan-3E FPGA, and it basically goes 
disk->fifo->USB2SER converter.  The converter does USB<->TTL voltages, 
up to 3mbps.  I run it at 2mbps reliably.

> I'm dumping a track at a time to static RAM, then dumping the SRAM to 
> the PC over a USB link. Unfortunately it's only USB Full Speed (10Mbps 
> give or take), so the peak transfer rate with protocol overheads is, at 
> best, 500Kbytes/sec.

You are still getting 4mbps, that's pretty good.  Yes, I was using 
serial FRAM.  Neat stuff to work with. Nonvolatile and I used the serial 
version so I didn't eat too many pins on my uC.

> I do note with some interest that the SPS are getting quite far along 
> with the "Kryoflux" reader, which is supposedly going to be open-source. 
> Given the fact that their capture and analysis stuff is still very 
> hush-hush despite promises of OSS releases and more information on it, 
> I'm taking their statements with a pinch of salt...

I've tried several times to get involved.  I'm an old amiga guy, working 
on similar floppy projects, and my emails to them have basically been 
ignored.  I'm frustrated with them too.  They tell us about how great 
the stuff they've made is --- and then don't let us download (heck, even 
a binary) of the effort.  And then they say they are "preserving 
software", but it's completely inaccessible to the public.  (even though 
  you can download on the pirate networks)

I remain completely unimpressed until I see first hand exactly what 
they've "accomplished."

Keith