Re: crippled SWIM card?

[dempson@swell.actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

In article <jmk3.735631057@crux1.cit.cornell.edu> jmk3@crux3.cit.cornell.edu (Jay Krell) writes:
> If the PC Transporter can read 720K MS-DOS disks with the regular Apple 3.5
> Drive, why can't the "SWIM card" read such disks with this drive?

Because the PC Transporter doesn't have a normal SWIM.  I think it is
an IWM with extra features added on to handle MFM format and
PC-compatible disk drives.  It probably has hardware support to get
around the variable-speed rotation of the Apple 3.5 Drive, which is not
present in a normal SWIM chip.  The software in the PC Transporter may
also be doing some clever tricks.

Whatever it does, it is horrendously slow, and not 100% reliable.
Some people, including myself, cannot use a real PC to access 720k
3.5" disks that have been formatted in an Apple 3.5 Drive by a PC
Transporter.
-- 
David Empson                                                               
dempson@swell.actrix.gen.nz    <--- Note my new E-Mail address!            
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand