deramp5113
Veteran Member
When MITS introduced their Minidisk system, they clearly had plans for its use on both the 8800 and the 680. See:
https://deramp.com/downloads/mfe_ar...88-MDS - 680-MDS Minidisk System/88-MDS-1.jpg
One approach appears to be a single board hard sector controller for the 680 that would connect to the same 26 pin interface on the drive cabinet as used with the 8800. Here is a photo of that board:
https://deramp.com/downloads/mfe_ar... Floppy Disk Controller/MITS_680KBG front.jpg
The second approach appears to be using the 680 UIO board as a simple parallel interface to an external controller, most likely housed in the Minidisk drive cabinet. If you look at the UIO schematics and read the theory of operation, you’ll find a non-advertised, unlatched, bi-directional port that includes address lines for accessing “Drive 0” and “Drive 1” along with three incoming interrupt request lines.
Hoping this might ring a bell with someone out there - anyone have any additional information on this topic?
Mike
https://deramp.com/downloads/mfe_ar...88-MDS - 680-MDS Minidisk System/88-MDS-1.jpg
One approach appears to be a single board hard sector controller for the 680 that would connect to the same 26 pin interface on the drive cabinet as used with the 8800. Here is a photo of that board:
https://deramp.com/downloads/mfe_ar... Floppy Disk Controller/MITS_680KBG front.jpg
The second approach appears to be using the 680 UIO board as a simple parallel interface to an external controller, most likely housed in the Minidisk drive cabinet. If you look at the UIO schematics and read the theory of operation, you’ll find a non-advertised, unlatched, bi-directional port that includes address lines for accessing “Drive 0” and “Drive 1” along with three incoming interrupt request lines.
Hoping this might ring a bell with someone out there - anyone have any additional information on this topic?
Mike