Soft Sector Controller
Posted: July 25th, 2021, 4:56 pm
I’m toying with the idea of adding two new drive types to the Altair FDC+. Operation of the Pertec FD3712 and its S-100 interface board could be duplicated with the FDC+ and 8” drives like the Shugart SA-800. This would allow support of the IBM standard SSSD 8” soft sector format on your Altair. Likewise, operation of the FD3812 and its interface board could be duplicated to provide support of the IBM System 34 double density format.
Existing FD3712 and FD3812 software (e.g., CP/M) could be run with these new drive types if the FDC+ is strapped to the I/O address used with the FD3x12 (C0h). Unfortunately, selecting this address would require a couple of minor board cuts/jumpers to the FDC+. Alternatively, a couple of minor patches to software would allow existing FD3x12 software to use the default address of the FDC+ (08h) instead.
Thoughts?
Mike
Existing FD3712 and FD3812 software (e.g., CP/M) could be run with these new drive types if the FDC+ is strapped to the I/O address used with the FD3x12 (C0h). Unfortunately, selecting this address would require a couple of minor board cuts/jumpers to the FDC+. Alternatively, a couple of minor patches to software would allow existing FD3x12 software to use the default address of the FDC+ (08h) instead.
Thoughts?
Mike