Hi,
I would be interested in helping develop a version of the SD interface for use with the Sinclair QL Home Computer.
The best bet would be to support the QXL.WIN format which is what QL emulators on the PC use as a hard disk - the format for QXL.WIN appears at:
http://qdosmsq.dunbar-it.co.uk/doku.php ... sq:fs:qlwa
Would this be a possibility? How easy would it be to ensure that this format could be supported?
Sinclair QL Version
Re: Sinclair QL Version
this is maybe possible, but *.WIN format is a hard disk file image and not a floppy disk image. is it suitable for floppy disk image ?rwap wrote:Hi,
I would be interested in helping develop a version of the SD interface for use with the Sinclair QL Home Computer.
The best bet would be to support the QXL.WIN format which is what QL emulators on the PC use as a hard disk - the format for QXL.WIN appears at:
http://qdosmsq.dunbar-it.co.uk/doku.php ... sq:fs:qlwa
Would this be a possibility? How easy would it be to ensure that this format could be supported?
The qxl.win format can be used for floppy - the QL makes does not distinguish between the way its devices read/write from floppy disks or hard drives - the drivers are almost identical.
The QL does not currently have an easy way of storing floppy disk images - the qxl.win file is probably most suitable as it can be read by most QL emulators.
The QL does not currently have an easy way of storing floppy disk images - the qxl.win file is probably most suitable as it can be read by most QL emulators.
rwap wrote:The qxl.win format can be used for floppy - the QL makes does not distinguish between the way its devices read/write from floppy disks or hard drives - the drivers are almost identical.
The QL does not currently have an easy way of storing floppy disk images - the qxl.win file is probably most suitable as it can be read by most QL emulators.
ok i will have a look.
did you have some links to floppy image and QL schematic ?
I have uploaded a sample QXL.win file to:Jeff wrote:rwap wrote:The qxl.win format can be used for floppy - the QL makes does not distinguish between the way its devices read/write from floppy disks or hard drives - the drivers are almost identical.
The QL does not currently have an easy way of storing floppy disk images - the qxl.win file is probably most suitable as it can be read by most QL emulators.
ok i will have a look.
did you have some links to floppy image and QL schematic ?
http://www.rwapsoftware.co.uk/floppy/qxl.win
The QL itself has no floppy disk drivers built in and relies on external expansion interfaces which have standard floppy disk connectors and WD1770 or WD1772 controller chips - what schematics do you require and in what format?
The QL's own schematics appear as part of the QL Technical manual - ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sincl ... Manual.pdf
Yes but there are a problem : i didn't found any informations about the Sinclair QL floppy format (MFM/FM ? number of track , number of side, sector per track, sector size, bitrate...)rwap wrote:Glad to see that the sales have gone quite well - just wondering if there was any chance of resurrecting the idea of a Sinclair QL version ?
Don't forget that the Floppy Emulator replace only the mechnical part of the Sinclair QL floppy disk drive, and not all the floppy controller.
From memory, the QL floppy disk format is based on the Atari ST format, although I have emailed the user group for clarification.
The QL attempts to read the number of tracks from the disk itself - if it detects more than 50 tracks, it assumes 80 tracks, although this can be overidden to provide access to 37 tracks or 75 tracks (to cut down the amount of time taken to copy disks).
It should be MFM, 80 tracks, double sided, 512 bytes per sector, 9 sectors per track (0.5 * 9 * 80 *2) gives us 720K per disk
The QL attempts to read the number of tracks from the disk itself - if it detects more than 50 tracks, it assumes 80 tracks, although this can be overidden to provide access to 37 tracks or 75 tracks (to cut down the amount of time taken to copy disks).
It should be MFM, 80 tracks, double sided, 512 bytes per sector, 9 sectors per track (0.5 * 9 * 80 *2) gives us 720K per disk
Last edited by rwap on Sat May 08, 2010 2:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Answer from the QL-users group:
All QL formats have 80 tracks per disc, DD is 9 sectors per track AND
SIDE (=18 sectors/track), HD is 18 sectors per track and side (=36
sectors/track) and ED is finally 18 sectors per track and side.
At a typical 300 RPM a DD floppy had a bitrate of about 250kBit/s, HD
and ED double and quadruple that.
All QL formats have 80 tracks per disc, DD is 9 sectors per track AND
SIDE (=18 sectors/track), HD is 18 sectors per track and side (=36
sectors/track) and ED is finally 18 sectors per track and side.
At a typical 300 RPM a DD floppy had a bitrate of about 250kBit/s, HD
and ED double and quadruple that.
So it's an IBM PC floppy format. Did you have the emulator to make some try ?rwap wrote:Answer from the QL-users group:
All QL formats have 80 tracks per disc, DD is 9 sectors per track AND
SIDE (=18 sectors/track), HD is 18 sectors per track and side (=36
sectors/track) and ED is finally 18 sectors per track and side.
At a typical 300 RPM a DD floppy had a bitrate of about 250kBit/s, HD
and ED double and quadruple that.
Hi Jeff,
No - I don't have one of the emulators as yet - as for IBM PC format - how come the QL cannot natively read PC disks if that is the case, or is that the software layer, rather than the physical layer?
The other issue is the need to be able to use a QXL.WIN file (see above) as the disk image, as this would be better for modern users...
No - I don't have one of the emulators as yet - as for IBM PC format - how come the QL cannot natively read PC disks if that is the case, or is that the software layer, rather than the physical layer?
The other issue is the need to be able to use a QXL.WIN file (see above) as the disk image, as this would be better for modern users...
Can you try to dump a Sinclair QL Floppy disk with this software :rwap wrote:Hi Jeff,
No - I don't have one of the emulators as yet - as for IBM PC format - how come the QL cannot natively read PC disks if that is the case, or is that the software layer, rather than the physical layer?
The other issue is the need to be able to use a QXL.WIN file (see above) as the disk image, as this would be better for modern users...
http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/img20385/imd117.zip (under msdos)
and send me the files images (*.IMD and QXL.WIN if possible).
OK I have managed - although the software does not work with a USB disk - I used Teledisk also by the same author and then converted the output to IMD.
The QL.imd file (a short game hopefully) and the qxl.win file can be found at:
http://www.rwapsoftware.co.uk/downloads/QL.zip
Although I am not certain that it has worked, as the resulting IMD file is only 8K - the programs on the disk occupy 45K
The QL.imd file (a short game hopefully) and the qxl.win file can be found at:
http://www.rwapsoftware.co.uk/downloads/QL.zip
Although I am not certain that it has worked, as the resulting IMD file is only 8K - the programs on the disk occupy 45K
I see IMD and Teledisk both use compression, so that may explain the 8K - I have also made a raw binary image of the disk (although cannot get IMD to convert this for some reason) - raw image appears at:
http://www.rwapsoftware.co.uk/downloads/qlraw.zip
http://www.rwapsoftware.co.uk/downloads/qlraw.zip