Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu!toddpw
From: toddpw@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: AE 1.6 MB 3.5" drive
Message-ID: <1990Nov18.084108.21918@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 18 Nov 90 08:41:08 GMT
References: <189@generic.UUCP>
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Lines: 21

taob@pnet91.cts.com (Brian Tao) writes:

>    The AE drive is a standard 1.44-meg high density floppy drive. 
>Unfortunately, it requires the SWIM disk controller chip to take advantage of
>the higher capacity.  At present, only the Mac SE/30 and Mac II's have this
>chip.  The IWM controller in the Apple II's will only be able to use it as a
>800K drive.  ....

Not according to AE.

They claim it can be upgraded to 1.4 or higher on a II, and I remember hearing
from someone who had actually gotten through to tech support say that it was
an EPROM revision _in_the_drive_ -- my guess is that higher densities can be
accessed via the smartport packet interface (finally, Apple's in-house attempt
at SCSI is good for SOMETHING), which only requires an IWM or equivalent. That
is most likely the case if they >800K upgraded drives can be plugged into the
disk port; if they need AE's controller then I don't know what scheme they are
using.

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ tybalt.caltech.edu