Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!mandrill!neoucom!wtm
From: wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.att
Subject: Re: Upgrading the Floppy Drive in a UNIX-PC
Summary: OK, I've started to assemble the background information.
Keywords: floppy 3b1 7300 Unix-PC
Message-ID: <968@neoucom.UUCP>
Date: 24 Jan 88 16:01:47 GMT
References: <696@mstar.UUCP> <3787@islenet.UUCP> <955@neoucom.UUCP> <3811@islenet.UUCP>
Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine
Lines: 29


The drive I bought was made by a company called Archive.  There are
PC and AT models, but I don't have the specific model numbers handy
here at home.  It looks virtually the same as the drive unit sold
by Irwin.

The Archive drive comes as a kit with virtually no information
other than high-level documenation.  They expect you to do all
interaction though a tape backup shell -- which really is OK for
IBM pcs.

I looked though a friend's owners manual for a Compaq '386 which
uses a tape drive from Irwin.  It seems that the various tape
operations are controlled by issuing commands to seek to a certain 
track on what the host thinks is a floppy disk.

Next week, I'll try to get a hold of some of the OEMs that make the
little tape drives and try to find out if there is some defacto [or
real] standard for the tape commands.  I will also try to get a
list of the commands.

I've never had to write a driver for a floppy disk on any sort of
machine, so this is all new to me.  I think it would also be
helpful if somebody could post what manufacture and type number the
floppy controller chip in the Unix PC is, so that we can obatin the
data sheets for it.  Did anyone out there part with the $$$ for the
tech manual?

--Bill