Xref: utzoo comp.misc:12169 misc.wanted:14636 Newsgroups: comp.misc,misc.wanted Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!ox.com!math.fu-berlin.de!dww From: dww@math.fu-berlin.de (Debora Weber-Wulff) Subject: Re: Sirius 1 pc...help please. Message-ID: Sender: news@math.fu-berlin.de (Math Department) Organization: Free University of Berlin, Germany References: <1991Apr18.181630.7646@cs.nott.ac.uk> Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1991 10:34:19 GMT Lines: 28 cczdvh@clan.nott.ac.uk (David Valentine-Hagart) writes: > >1. What is the disk format/size... a DS/DD 48tpi floppy formatted ok > on this machine but could not be read on a modern 360K MS-DOS drive > (oh woe). > Ah yes, the old Sirius! Well, in those days, computer companies thought it was kind of cool to devise their own floppy formats so that you had to buy more of their systems in order to pass software on (Apple, for example). The bright folks down in the Sirius lab came up with a brilliant way to stuff more information on a floppy by *changing the speed* of the disk drive as the head moves! The disk spinned faster when trying to access the outer tracks than it did when accessing the inner ones (or was it the other way around?). When loading a long file that was in an interesting layout on the floppy, it often sounded like the floppy was preparing for takeoff! My hacker friends, proud of their program to read 100 different formats, never really got past reading Sirius directories - too much hassle. So good luck on finding any Sirius software! I have a program in German for doing a doctor's bills, but that probably won't help much! -- Debora Weber-Wulff snail: FU Berlin, ZI Fachdidaktiken, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, W-1000 Berlin 33 email: weberwu@inf.fu-berlin.de, dww@math.fu-berlin.de