Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!ukma!rutgers!ucsd!ucbvax!DMZRZU71.BITNET!KAPFFER From: KAPFFER@DMZRZU71.BITNET (Matthias Kapffer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Re: Need help finding ERTH 4 460K drive... Message-ID: <8808041237.aa19033@SMOKE.BRL.MIL> Date: 4 Aug 88 17:51:16 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 28 X-Unparsable-Date: Thu, 4. August 1988 17:57 MEST Daniel, sorry for the late reply - I already tried two times to reach you (as an answer to your first plea) on the direct way without success so here it comes again. I'm not sure if my information will help you but there is a manufacturer in West Germany called Erphi which stands for "r"-"phi" ( <- the greek letter ); it is pronounced nearly the same as ERH-4 (in German). They produce a disk controller for 80 track/double sided drives (for example TEAC FD55F, if my memory serves me right); the resulting format uses 16 256-byte sectors per track yielding 640K on a disk. Since such a controller/drive combination is caplable of reading & writing Apple 5.25" 140K disks (with auto density detection in software) I'm sure they use Apple standart sector layout and GCR (group code recording). Patch software for DOS 3.3, Apple Pascal and Microsoft CP/M is also supplied (and I think there is a newer version of the controller with ProDOS support and an autopatch feature). I know these facts because a friend of mine has this piece of hardware. Please write me if you need more information. Matthias Kapffer PS: About the 460K vs 640K game: 64 is pronounced in german as four-and-sixty (if I translate it back); may this be the source for a misunderstanding ? (I don't know *any* drive using a 460K format !)