Re: Apple II Disk Drive Question

[heuser.marcus@freenet.de]

Paul Schlyter wrote:
> In article <Pine.LNX.4.62.0603120227190.3126@static-141-149-129-16.buff.east.verizon.net>,
> > On Sat, 11 Mar 2006, Jack Tseng wrote:
> >
> >> Is it faster than Commodore 1541 or Atari XF551???
> >
> > ANYTHING is faster than a 1541. (I'm quite sure the disk ][ is)
>
> Including Cassette Tape ???   <g>

The standard 1541 is much(!) slower than the Commodore tape drive with
turbo load software.
You actually have to use a turbo load software for the 1541 to be
faster ;-)
Commodore made several compromises and mistakes in the disk software
(compatibility to the VIC-20, no less!) and because of the
programmability of the driver you could install a fast load software.

I don't know the Atari XF551 but the older drives like the 810 or 1050
were no speed demons either. At least the were faster than a 1541
without turbo load.
9600 baud (around 2 KB) because the daisy chainable serial port is
essentially an interface for tape drives, modems (1200 or 2400 baud
were standard at the time) or printers.

Atari limited the expandability of the early models (400 and 800)
because of FCC regulations - or their fear of problems with it. Big
mistake, if you ask me.

There were, however, modifications for the Atari drives to enhance the
speed ("US-Doubler" or "Happy 1050" for example) by a factor of 2 or 4
(IIRC). You had to use a modified DOS or special "Warp Speed Software",
too.

bye
Marcus