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From: madler@pooh.caltech.edu (Mark Adler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: floppy drives / old cubes
Message-ID: <1991Feb10.184157.16920@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 10 Feb 91 18:41:57 GMT
References: <1991Feb5.153658.24248@athena.mit.edu> <1991Feb06.034803.5577@ecst.csuchico.edu> <1077@nada.cs.utexas.edu>
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John William Garnett craves:

>> I too would like to purchase a new-style drive chassis and the
>> new-style faceplate for an old-style cube.

Me too.  Oh NeXT, puhleeeeeze sell me one.

I have this connector on my 040 upgrade board that is simply *begging* to
have a floppy connected to it.  And there's this Intel 82077 floppy
controller with no one to talk to execpt the 5V power supply.  Poor thing.

One problem I have encountered is that the drive the NeXT uses, the Sony
MPX-111N, is not available from distributors or Sony itself.  The "X"
apparently means "experimental".  If I could buy one, I would and bring the
case to the shop and cut a hole on the left where two expansion boards
might go.  Big empty space that I'll not be likely to use anyway.  (Right
now, my two full height slots are full, but if I could get a new faceplate,
etc., I would buy a half-height hard disk.)

I don't really believe the claims that the PLI drive will work *exactly*
like the internal drive.  One reason is that there is an ioctl request to
the floppy driver to execute arbitary 82077 commands directly (see the
man page fd(4)), and I would be skecptical that the external SCSI drive
would support this correctly, even if it is using an 82077.

>> Enough people have stated a desire for such an upgrade that I
>> believe an official NeXTian response (to comp.sys.next) is
>> warranted.

I'm raising both hands, hoping NeXT will count me twice.  How 'bout it
NeXT?

Mark Adler
madler@pooh.caltech.edu