Re: Commodore drives can be controlled on Apple II serial!

[mkelsey@spam.eecs.wsu.edu]

In article <1998032201344001.UAA25054@ladder03.news.aol.com>,
	supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer) writes:
> doug.cotton@cmdweb.com (Doug Cotton) wrote:
> 
> If a driver can be written, the CMD FD-2000 will doubtless be the high
> density disk drive for the Apple II.  It will be THE standard drive, taking
> into account the rareness and expense of the SuperDrive controller and
> SuperDrive and the BlueDisk.

I will agree the SuperDrive controller is getting more and more rare. 
I'm not sure how many Shreve Systems has left.  Getting a hold
of a SuperDrive is as easy as finding a Macintosh 1.44MB SuperDrive and
a IIgs 800k drive.  Replace the 800k mechanism with the SuperDrive and 
you've got yourself an Apple II SuperDrive, bear in mind, useless without
the SuperDrive controller.

Now, if a newer drive can be connected without the need for the controller,
and purely in software on a stock Apple II, I can visualize the CMD FD-2000
as becoming a reality and a feasible upgrade if not markedly overpriced,  
as was the case with the SuperDrive controller.

What would be even better is if a standard MFM PC floppy drive could be
connected through the same means, although I doubt a stock Apple II would
have enough horsepower to sustain the data rate.  Just how modular are
PC floppy drives?  I presume the FDD controllers handle all the ecc-
entricities and that MFM bare drives aren't as simple as ATAPI devices.

-- 
	-/\/\ichael-

replyto: mkelsey at eecs.wsu.edu