[sebhc] Disk formats and emulators

Dwight K. Elvey dwight.elvey at amd.com
Mon May 10 17:27:47 CDT 2004


>From: "Steven Parker" <sp11 at hotmail.com>
>
>Dwight sayis:
>>  I use complete disk images ( actually prefer them ). The
>>problem is that right now, my images don't match any of the
>>current formats used by the simulators.
>
>What simulator does disk simulation now?  It's a yet-to-be-implemented 
>feature of the one I have (Dave Wallace's).  However, I was thinking about 
>completing it, and I was going to make it work with binary images, perhaps 
>with additional formatting info (I'm not sure yet if that can be uniquely 
>implied by the file size).

Hi
 The main difference between mine and SVD is that SVD has a header
and the data is in an ascii format ( octal as I recall ). I have
no header and it is just the raw sectors piled into a file.
I also have nothing yet for 35 track, 96tpi or softsectored.
It only works with 40 track 10 hardsectored.
These are things that need enhancements but I'd need some hardware
local or remote to verify on. I have 2 H8 boxes and a H17 disk
drive setup but like all else, I'd need to power up and debug.
Spring cleaning has taken precedence.

>
>It's no big deal to convert between the various formats, but it would be 
>nice to have a "standard" one for archival storage.

 Yes, I agree. The SVD format looks reasonably good. The header contains
a lot of useful information. I expect to make efforts on this soon
but I think we can still start image transfers initially. Once
I get rolling, converting formats for final archieving is not
an issue.

>
>>It is used to copy disk images to and from
>>a H89 ( hasn't been tested on a H8 yet ),
>
>The main catch to portability is refraining from using z80 opcodes.  
>Otherwise, it would only be usable on H8's equipped with the HA-8-6 CPU 
>upgrade.  Ironically, I don't have one of those, despite the fact that I 
>designed the ROM for it (PAM-37).

 It is all written in 8080. I don't know if I even have a Z80
assembler handy ( of course the PC side is '86 code ). I actually
assemble the 8080 code on my IMSAI. I guess I could use a cross
assembler on the PC but this justifies having the IMSAI powered
on every now and then.
Dwight


>
>I'll let you know if that oil trick works!
>
>Cheers,
>
>- Steven
>
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