Ultimate FDC? (Was: IBM 6360 - Filesystem(ish) info?

alan at alanlee.org alan at alanlee.org
Tue Feb 19 21:29:03 CST 2019


Doesn't SuperCard Pro already do this?  The hardware isn't open source, 
but the USB control protocol to read and write flux transitions on an 
entire track is open and well documented.  And there are already several 
tools to exercise the protocol.  Sure, one could replicate the hardware 
work for kicks, but that isn't the real heavy lift.  Advanced tools for 
manipulating the flux images for low level encoding, high level format, 
and file system is the prize.  The Amiga ADF disk tools project is a 
really good start... (supports dozens of formats beyond Amiga).

-Alan

On 2019-02-19 17:31, dwight via cctalk wrote:
> Actually, I'd like to see it just read/write flux changes +  index
> marks onto a SD card for later analysis. Building all the smarts into
> the controller means that some formats will get missed. One can later
> write translation code for what ever format one has. Make this
> information open source, much of it is already in bits and pieces.
> Make sure it can read and buffer an entire track of data in RAM (
> Gotek can't ).
> We no longer need proprietary hardware. There are a number of off the
> shelf controller boards capable of handing this. It would only need
> cables to match the drive.
> Dwight


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