Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!rochester!rit!ultb!clf3678
From: clf3678@ultb.UUCP (C.L. Freemesser)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: 80-track floppy drives on Atari?
Summary: Black Box info
Keywords: controller 96tpi DSDD enhancement
Message-ID: <725@ultb.UUCP>
Date: 22 Apr 89 02:56:10 GMT
References: <6729@c3pe.UUCP> <1059@cs.rit.edu> <484@holin.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: clf3678@ultb.UUCP (C.L. Freemesser (709ITP))
Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology, Information Systems
Lines: 25

In article <484@holin.ATT.COM> oaa@holin.ATT.COM (Owen Alexander) writes:
>In article <1059@cs.rit.edu>, ajy2208%ritcv@cs.rit.edu writes:
>
>In ZMAG #151 or #152, there is a announcement by a company CSS that they
>will have later this year a interface, the Black Box, that will provide
>via the parallel buss of the XL/XE, connection to SASI/SCSI devices,
>Centronics printer, and RS232 for ~$169.  This is like the MIO without
>the memory although I think it can have a printer buffer.  They also
>said that they will have a addition to the interface to allow it to
>access standard floppy drives at up to 10 times faster than regular
>Atari drives while maintaining compatibility.  This is something I would
>like to see.  If you're very interested in the last feature, perhaps you
>could contact them to get more details.

It just so happens that CSS is local (Rochester New York), and I know
the folks over there.  The Black Box is being designed by Robert Puff,
author of the Disk Communicator, SuperArc,SuperDeArc, and a host of
other software and hardware products.  I even got a quick peek at the
blueprints for it last time I was over at Bob's house.

I can say without hesitation that this product will be FANTASTIC!  Bob
is a wizard at 8-bit products (you should see his system).  I'll get
some more info about the box from Bob.

=cf=