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Re: Test: the cycle




On Wed, 15 Feb 2012, Michael J. Mahon wrote:

I can see the utility in the ZipChip one-shot throttle mode. But also I am personally slightly disturbed by the unnecessary debugging it caused me, so a mixture of this and IIgs' disk-on mode would've been better. ;-)

I agree, but for backward compatibility, the 50ms trigger approach
was a fine approach--just not perfect.  Now if the "fast/slow" switch
of the IIgs were a simple softswitch, I'd be even happier.

But isn't it simpler than ZipChip's lock/unlock sequence required for on/off change?

The IIgs manual recommends TSB/TRB instructions for manipulating the bits, so you have the one-instruction approach. Except it does not work on NMOS 6502.

Yes, that makes sense.  RWTS uses an "interactive" method which
is served well by the Zip Chip approach, but a simple long-delay
loop would fail.


Yes. Locksmith is smart and simple enough to just do a delay.

But the RWTS approach detects that the motor is still on and
doesn't wait at all--even smarter.  ;-)

That was my small attempt at humor. :-)

Actually, RWTS mostly does read/write sectors. Did it use the same approach for spin-on before formatting? Can't remember without looking at the code.

In Locksmith's defense, it does a whole track write ("Fast Backup"). I'd have done it exactly the same way - simple delay.