On 11/28/22 09:27, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote: > I'm guessing this is a formatted Pertec interface. My CDC Keystone > drives have that, and I hacked up one of my CNC control cards to make a > read-only interface that communicates at modest speed over the PC > parallel port. (These choices were not optimal, but reused > infrastructure I already knew well.)
Yes, the interface to the formatter. Although, I suspect that with the current crop of MCUs, interface to the "naked" drive isn't beyond the pale--it's just that there was a considerable amount of variation in that by various vendors. My board has ICs mostly for interface. The real work is done by the MCU. I figure that a 64GB microSD should be good for at least 1,000 reels of 9 track tape. > MANY years ago, I got a surplus 800 BPI 9-track key to tape system and > hacked into it to put 9-track tape on my Z-80 CP/M system. That was a > fascinating project. I still do that with an HP7970 equipped with the double-stack (7 and 9 track) RO heads. The naked interface goes directly to an MCU. Works well enough. I prefer naked or Pertec interface drives to SCSI because of the better control and information afforded by a more direct interface. --Chuck
