Altair Minidisk 88-MDS

[AltairClone]

The Altair Minidisk (88-MDS) was a 5.25" floppy drive system offered by MITS for the Altair. It was slower and had much less capacity than the 8" drive (70K vs 308K)., however, it was also physically smaller, fitting in the Altair 680 sized cabinet instead of an 8800 sized cabinet. Both BASIC and Altair DOS were available for the Minidisk.

Modern support for this drive (emulation, disk drive images, etc.) was non-existent until some very recent work by a few Altair hobbyists. I am now in the process of adding Minidisk support to the Altair Clone so that Minidisk images can be loaded and executed on the Altair Clone.

So now I'd like some input. In a real Altair running standard Altair software, you could not mix 8" and 5.25" drives. Should I stick with this restriction in the Altair Clone for accuracy's sake, or should I allow both types of drives to be present at the same time?

Mike

[toml_12953]

I'd go for accuracy, although if I could have my way, I'd have a real floppy Interface instead so I could add physical drives! :)

Tom L

[AltairClone]

Do you still have a real Altair as well? I am going to make myself finish the Altair floppy controller I've been working on for the original Altairs. It will allow readily available 8" Shugart drives to work identically and interchangeably with original Altair hardware, software, and media. It also has RAM and PROM on it if your system needs those

Mike

[toml_12953]

Do you still have a real Altair as well? I am going to make myself finish the Altair floppy controller I've been working on for the original Altairs. It will allow readily available 8" Shugart drives to work identically and interchangeably with original Altair hardware, software, and media. It also has RAM and PROM on it if your system needs those

Mike

Sadly, no. Your Clone is my only Altair now. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope! (or something like that!)