Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!sharkey!mcf!mibte!jbh
From: jbh@mibte.UUCP (James Harvey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: disk size ...
Message-ID: <2832@mibte.UUCP>
Date: 4 Jul 89 22:02:03 GMT
References: <4167@merlin.usc.edu> <269@tardis.Tymnet.COM>
Organization: Michigan Bell Telephone Company
Lines: 40

In article <269@tardis.Tymnet.COM>, jms@tardis.Tymnet.COM (Joe Smith) writes:
> In article <4167@merlin.usc.edu> wdao@castor.usc.edu (Walter Dao) writes:
> >Couldn't one write more data on track 0 (outer most) than on track 80
> > (innermost) ? .
> 
> As long as the drive uses a constant speed (RPM) and the disk controller uses
> a constant frequency (bits per second), the outer tracks will hold the same
> number of bytes as the inner tracks.  That's the easiest way to design the
> hardware, even though it means that the bits are farther apart on the outer
> tracks and squeezed too close on the inner tracks.
> 
> By increasing the data clock or decreasing the motor speed, one can put more
> bytes on the outer tracks.  Apple does the latter on the Macintosh drives,
> using 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 sectors per track, depending on which track it
> is reading.
> 
> Which leads to a commonly asked question: Why can't the Amiga read Mac
> floppies?  Answer: Because it wasn't designed to.  Hacking with the existing
> hardware does not work; the only reliable way to do it is to use a different
> drive.  Such as plugging an Apple compatible disk into the A-MAX box.
> 
> -- 
> Joe Smith (408)922-6220 | SMTP: JMS@F74.TYMNET.COM or jms@tymix.tymnet.com
> McDonnell Douglas FSCO  | UUCP: ...!{ames,pyramid}!oliveb!tymix!tardis!jms
> PO Box 49019, MS-D21    | PDP-10 support: My car's license plate is "POPJ P,"
> San Jose, CA 95161-9019 | narrator.device: "I didn't say that, my Amiga did!"

The latest and greatest Copy II PC option board for the
International BM computers will read (and convert to IBM) Mac
disks.  If they can do it, why can't Amiga?

-- 

Jim Harvey                        |      "Ask not for whom the bell
Michigan Bell Telephone           |      tolls and you will only pay
29777 Telegraph                   |      Station-to-Station rates."
Southfield, Mich. 48034           | 

ulysses!gamma!mibte!jbh