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From: taab5@isuvax.iastate.edu (Marc Barrett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: Amiga support High Density floppies ?
Message-ID: <1991Jun7.074819.6646@news.iastate.edu>
Date: 7 Jun 91 07:48:19 GMT
References: <1991Jun7.005237.9755@sunaus.oz>
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In article <1991Jun7.005237.9755@sunaus.oz>, dkelly@boffin.Aus.Sun.COM (Dave Kelly) writes:
>Can anyone tell me what the status is regarding the Amiga (500/1000/2000/3000) supporting high density (i.e. 1.44Mb and/or above) 3.5-inch floppies ?
>
>Will (or can) they ever be supported as the "internal" DF0-type floppy unit ?
>Are there any external units available ?
>
>Thanks for any and all advice......

    This has been 'discussed' before.  The problem is that the Amiga's custom 
chips (in particular the Paula chip, which contains the microdisc controller)
cannot handle high-density drives.  So hooking up a high-denisity drive 
directly and using it is impossible.

   To use a high-density drive on an Amiga you have to modify either the
drive or the Amiga.  So far, both Commodore and a third-party have taken
the former approach, modifying high-density drives so that the motor
spins at a slower speed, allowing more data to be written to the drive 
at the same old data rate.  It is my oppinion that this is a stupid,
kludgy way to do things, but Commodore seems to be really into kludges
lately.  
 
>
>
>
>Dave Kelly                        Sun Microsystems Australia
>(dkelly@Aus.Sun.COM)              Level 1
>                                  Prudential Centre
>                                  495 Victoria Avenue
>                                  Chatswood NSW 2067
>                                  Australia
>                                  Phone: 61-2-413-2666
>                                  Fax:   61-2-413-4818

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