IMSAI 8080

HxC Floppy emulator support for all others computers...
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MrSharp
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Joined: Tue Apr 08, 2014 10:02 pm

IMSAI 8080

Post by MrSharp »

Hello,

Would that device work with an IMSAI 8080 and a CCS floppy disk drive controller?
The controller supports 5.25" FDD and 8" FDD ( single/double density and/or single/double face ). I'm not really interested in 8" emulation. 5.25" formats are 180KB and 360KB.
Any chance it could work? (File system is CP/M 2.2)

Thanks

Jeff
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Re: IMSAI 8080

Post by Jeff »

MrSharp wrote:Hello,

Would that device work with an IMSAI 8080 and a CCS floppy disk drive controller?
The controller supports 5.25" FDD and 8" FDD ( single/double density and/or single/double face ). I'm not really interested in 8" emulation. 5.25" formats are 180KB and 360KB.
Any chance it could work? (File system is CP/M 2.2)

Thanks
Yes probably working.
Any details about the FDC of this machine ?

MrSharp
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Apr 08, 2014 10:02 pm

Re: IMSAI 8080

Post by MrSharp »

The disk controller is a Western Digital FD1793.
According to the documentation, it supports these formats:

5.25" single density/double density 128/256/512/1024 bytes/sector
8" single density/double density 128/256/512/1024 bytes/sector

The controller card is compatible with these 5.25 drives (not exclusively):

Shugart SA400 or SA50
MPI 51 or 52
MPI 91 or 92
Tandon TM 100

and these 8" drives:

Shugart SA800 / 850
Memorex 550 / 552
Qume Datatrak 8
Seimans FDD 100-8 / 200-8
Remex 2000 / 4000

jgrant911
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Joined: Tue May 18, 2021 9:02 pm
Location: New Westminster BC, Canada

Re: IMSAI 8080

Post by jgrant911 »

Jeff,

I was searching your site to see if the SD HxC Emulator would work for my system and came across this post from way back! I'm looking to answer the same question that MrSharp asked.

I am restoring a 1980's S-100 computer system equipped with a California Computer Systems (CCS) 2422 Floppy Controller. The controller has a connector for 5.25" drives (34 pin) and 8" drives (50 pin). There are 2 8" Shugart 800/801 drives equipped, but aging media is making these unreliable so I am looking at other options. I should also mention that I have a mix of Hard Sector and Soft Sector disks as the Shugart drives are switch selectable for either.

I am interested in the SD HxC Floppy Emulator and I am trying to confirm if it is compatible with the 2422 Controller and Hard/Soft Sector files. Drives that the 2422 is compatible with are:
Drive Compatibility
Drive Compatibility
2422 Drives 1.jpg (56.8 KiB) Viewed 2809 times
Since I intend to use the 5.25" drive connector, these are the drives I need to simulate. I believe the drive rotation is 360 RPM and the connector signals are as follows:
Controller 5.25" Drive Connector
Controller 5.25" Drive Connector
2422_34_Pin_1.jpg (59.37 KiB) Viewed 2809 times
Please let me know if the current version of the SD HxC is configurable for this purpose.

Regards,

Jim Grant
Last edited by jgrant911 on Wed May 19, 2021 12:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

Jeff
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Re: IMSAI 8080

Post by Jeff »

I have answered some hours ago by email. You don't have received it?

jgrant911
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Location: New Westminster BC, Canada

Re: CCS 2422

Post by jgrant911 »

Sorry, did not realize that Jeff and Jean-François DEL NERO were the same person!

I was also hoping that I could find a more direct confirmation of compatibility if I followed up on a previously asked question referring to the same floppy controller that I have. Please understand that I just started researching the floppy emulator solution yesterday and have zero previous knowledge of the HxC products. I'm just trying to be as certain as possible that the HxC Emulator will solve my problem before I order one.

Regards,

Jim Grant

Jeff
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Re: CCS 2422

Post by Jeff »

jgrant911 wrote:
Wed May 19, 2021 12:50 am
Sorry, did not realize that Jeff and Jean-François DEL NERO were the same person!

I was also hoping that I could find a more direct confirmation of compatibility if I followed up on a previously asked question referring to the same floppy controller that I have. Please understand that I just started researching the floppy emulator solution yesterday and have zero previous knowledge of the HxC products. I'm just trying to be as certain as possible that the HxC Emulator will solve my problem before I order one.

Regards,

Jim Grant
For the soft sectored disks, yes this should work.
For the hard sectored disks, no, and i recommend to have a look to "Pauline" :
https://sourceforge.net/p/hxcfloppyemu/ ... ine/trunk/

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