Re: Apple IIe to IBM PC interface

[nparker@cie-2.uoregon.edu (Neil Parker)]

In article <5nscvc$koq$2@triglav.iwaynet.net> dklugh@iwaynet.net writes:
>On 1997-06-04 emgregor@wwa.com said:
>   >Does anyone know if a interface exists ( software or hardware ) to
>   >connect a Apple IIe to a IBM PC?
>   >I am considering writing some software for the Apple and the PC that
>   >would allow the PC to become a SLAVE drive to the Apple ( the apples
>   >more usefull ) through the serial port.  It is getting harder and
>   >harder for me to find DSDD floppies.
>
>Can't you use quad density disks in a double density drive?
>After all,it's still MFM...

Not in the Apple II world, it isn't.  Apple II drives don't use MFM--they
use a scheme called GCR ("Group Code Recording").

But the encoding scheme (MFM vs. GCR) is irrelevant here...high-density
5.25-inch disks use a different surface coating material, which requires a
stronger current to magnetize.  Old single-density and double-density disk
drives (including all normal Apple II drives) can't produce the high write
current necessary to write to a high-density disk, so high-density disks
are useless in an Apple II drive.

               - Neil Parker
-- 
Neil Parker, nparker@{cie-2,cie}.uoregon.edu, http://cie-2.uoregon.edu/~nparker
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