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From: csanders@dopey..UUCP (Craig S. Anderson)
Newsgroups: net.micro.mac
Subject: Re: 800k drive formats (A proposal)
Message-ID: <12040@amdcad.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 19-Jun-86 15:22:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: amdcad.12040
Posted: Thu Jun 19 15:22:33 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Jun-86 07:30:46 EDT
References: <262@sivax.UUCP>
Sender: NEWS@amdcad.UUCP
Reply-To: csanders@dopey.UUCP (Craig S. Anderson)
Distribution: net
Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 33

In article <262@sivax.UUCP> phil@sivax.UUCP (Phil Hunt) writes:
>AS I see it, the 800k format (or double-sided format, if you prefer), is set
>up for optimum head switching,  ie the first x tracks are addressed by head 0
>then the next x tracks are addressed by head 1 and so on throughout the disk.
>
>This seems ok on the surface, but wy not do it a little different for the
>following reasons:
>
>Why not just allocat sectors 0-800 (approx) to the first side, the 801-1600
>to the second???   It would solve ALOT of current problems (some caused by
>user cheapness, but what the heck)
>
>
>*****What does everybody think???*****
>*****Would this disk format be better or could it be added to the current 
>*****driver as a format option??????
>
>
>Phil Hunt
>sivax!calma

As far as I know, sectors are allocated by cylinder.  Thus sector 0 is
on the top and sector 1 is on the bottom of the first cylinder, etc.
This is done to enhance speed, since one can eliminate alot of
head seeks (which take a great deal of time) by allocating file sectors
intelligently.  Theoretically, with two sides one could eliminate
up to half of head seeks or steps.  It would be a nice option to be
able to format disks your way, but this might confuse some users.
I think all software houses should have an option in their copy
protected software to move it to an HFS volume (either 800K or
a hard disk).

Craig Anderson