Re: Oddball Woz/Jobs Question

[shack@onyx.southwind.net (Randy Shackelford)]

Ron Evry (revry@clark.net) wrote:

: Isn't it true that every 3.5" floppy drive in every Apple Computer uses
: the Woz chip? Maybe this isn't the case, but I have heard that
: somewhere.

Sony built all Apple's floppy drives until they quit using auto inject
drives as a cost cutting measure. I assume "Woz chip" means either the
IWM or SWIM on the logic board.

: If this is true, then maybe Jobs' attempt at pulling away from the
: floppy disk drive in the iMac and other future Macs might be a way of
: getting at Woz (assuming that Woz has been making royalties on the
: chip).

: Is this a cracked idea or what?

I swear, I expect for someone in this group to claim that Jobs is the
antichrist any time now. Wozniak was long gone before the SWIM chip showed
up, and certainly before the new age floppy controller and the like debuted.

As to why there will be no floppy on the iMac, consider how much use the
floppy drive gets on a modern system. Consider how much savings there is
by taking so seldom used a component out. And consider how Apple says that
USB based floppy drives will be out when iMacs show up.

Now as for the (idiotic) decision to leave out SCSI, that's another matter
entirely.
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