Re: Pseudo-disk *almost* ready for the big time.

["William Garber" <willy46pa@garberstreet.com>]

"Alex Freed" <alexf@mirrow.com> wrote in message GLmdnc_B3pONT6DYnZ2dnUVZ_oWdnZ2d@comcast.com">news:GLmdnc_B3pONT6DYnZ2dnUVZ_oWdnZ2d@comcast.com...
:
: "Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote in message
: hcednedHRsMoXKDYnZ2dnUVZ_vudnZ2d@comcast.com">news:hcednedHRsMoXKDYnZ2dnUVZ_vudnZ2d@comcast.com...
:
: > First, it captures information that should allow the protected disk
: > to be run from other hardware simulating the Disk ][, like a version
: > of your card with quarter-tracking and rotation angle simulation.
: >
:
: Well, that's what I have all the free space in AVR's flash memory for. The
: AVR gets
: an interrupt every time a phase is switched. The current firmware only cares
: about
: EVEN phases switched ON. It can just as easily react to ODD phases for
: half-tracks and 2 adjacent phases being "on" for quarter-tracks. It's just
: that the .nib format doesn't have anything beyond full tracks, so I ignore
: the
: extra positioning.
:
: I currently don't simulate the rotation angle, but running at 16 MHz, the
: AVR can
: create events with a rather fine  granularity. So simulating 40 cycle sync
: bytes etc.
: is not a problem at all.
:
: Having said that, I'd rather have someone else adding to the open source
: firmware
: to support fancy copy protection. As I said before I prefer to stick to the
: hardware
: design.
:
: As a side note, if a physical floppy is connected to my FPGApple it becomes
: a
: perfect tool for investigating protection methods - I can see inside the
: computer
: as it is running at full speed. And save a log of all the interesting
: operations.


Hi Alex,

As this is an idea that I had quite some time ago,
I would be very interested in looking at one of your
prototypes, trying it out and possibly helping with
the actual production of the card. Loading and running
a direct image of a real disk was the plan, and you've
added the ProDOS feature as well. It's a great product.
Let's talk. Email me.

William Garber
Email Address - willy46pa@garberstreet.com
Alt. Email - willy46pa@comcast.net
Web address - http://www.garberstreet.com