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From: Harvey_Taylor@mindlink.bc.ca (Harvey Taylor)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: Amiga support High Density floppies ?
Message-ID: <6196@mindlink.bc.ca>
Date: 10 Jun 91 03:35:47 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Lines: 109

In <1991Jun7.221235.27924@osceola.cs.ucf.edu>, wampner@acme.ucf.edu
                                                (Eric Wampner) writes:
|
|In article <1991Jun7.005237.9755@sunaus.oz> dkelly@boffin.Aus.Sun.COM 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 ?
|>
|
|Well, I don't know about any amiga specific products, but the
|NeXT computer has a couple for it (PLI Super Floppy, CubeFloppy)
|They do 720,1.4 and 2.88.
|Of course they black and expensive.....

        See below

|Why does this matter? cause they are SCSI. They would probably
|work like a cartridge drive. You would have to write the
|software for the formatting type...


   I have written a SCSI Direct formatting & mode select utility to allow
 one to initialize the TEAC FD235-JS SCSI floppy. This is a 4M, 2M, 1M
 drive (Formatted capacities 2.88M, 1.44M, 720K). Then the FFS can deal
 with the device [haven't tried MSDOSFileSystem from CrossDOS yet].
    BTW. The major difficulty I had was getting documentation from TEAC;
 manual was out of print, pages missing etc.
    This is the mountlist I use.

/*
* SCSI Floppy under the Xetec driver 720K, 1.44M, 2.88M
 *       BlocksPerTrack = 36  (for 2.88M)
 *       BlocksPerTrack = 18  (for 1.44M)
 *       BlocksPerTrack = 9   (for  .72M)
 */

sd0:     Device = harddisk.device
         FileSystem = l:FastFileSystem
         Unit = 1
         Surfaces = 2
         LowCyl = 0
         HighCyl = 79
         Reserved = 2
         BlocksPerTrack = 9
         Buffers = 10
         BufMemType = 3
         Stacksize = 6000
         Priority = 10
         GlobVec = -1
         MaxTransfer = 0x0001FE00
         Mask = 0x00FFFFFE
         DosType = 0x444F5301
#

    SCSI floppy drives are available from several sources, but the only
 manufacturer I know is TEAC.

---
TEAC America Inc.
(213)727-7682
(213)726-0303

        FD-235HS-302    3.5" 1.44Mb SCSI floppy (using FC-1)
        FD-235JS-401    3.5" 2.88Mb SCSI floppy (using FC-1)
        FD-55GS-704     5.25" SCSI floppy (using FC-1)
        FD-235J-401     3.5" 2.88Mb floppy (without FC-1)
        FC-1            SCSI floppy controller only (not avail. seperately?)

---
Tulin Corp.
2156h O'Toole Ave.
San Jose  CA. 95131
(408)432-9025

        03/03/91 PriceList
        TLFD2N  (FD-235HS)      US$179
        TLFD4N  (FD-235JS)      US$219

---
Digital Instrumentation Tech.
        According to NextWorld, Jan/Feb/1991, Page 93
        CubeFloppy 2.9  @ US$520

---
PLI Peripheral Land Inc.
        According to NextWorld, Jan/Feb/1991, Page 93
        SuperFloppy2.8      @ US$499
        TurboFloppy1.4      [Direct price unknown]

---
MacWarehouse
        According to MacUser, April 1991, Page 187
        PLI TurboFloppy1.4  @ US$359
---

    This makes me really curious what is in the expensive packages.
 If anybody wants to get the format & mode_select utilities, I'll
 send them to c.s.a.sources.

    Misc Info: A2000B
               Xetec MiniFastTrak Driver Version 1.48
               TEAC FD-235-JS SCSI Floppy

    How much goo could a guru do, if a guru could do goo?
                                                  - Not the Hoodoo Gurus
    Harvey Taylor      Meta Media Productions
    uunet!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!Harvey_Taylor
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