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1990-05-18
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22DISK Version 1.31 Release Notes
We've made some changes to 22DISK in release 1.31 that affect
22DISK's installation and configuration procedures.
One change that requires some explanation is the inclusion of a
step-rate specification when setting up the diskette configura-
tion. Almost all 5.25" diskette drives made since 1981 can move
their read/write heads from one track to the next in 6 mil-
liseconds or less. Some older 5.25" diskette drives, such as the
Shugart 450, and quite a number of 8" diskette drives, such as
the Shugart 801, require that a longer time between the pulses
used to signal a head movement be used. A step interval from 2
milliseconds to 28 milliseconds may be specified for each drive
during installation of 22DISK. Please note that, in almost all
cases involving modern 5.25" drives, this interval may be left at
the 6 millisecond default.
We lowered the minimum memory size requirement for the installa-
tion program 22DINST from 512K to 256K, so that 22DISK can be
used on "leaner" systems.
If you have any question regarding version 1.31 changes, please
feel free to contact us.
Using Cromemco CDOS Diskettes with 22DISK
We've found that while 22DISK generally will not be able to read
Cromemco CDOS diskettes formatted on a Cromemco computer, a dis-
kette that has first been formatted by the Cromemco, then for-
matted by 22DISK will work well on both 22DISK and the Cromemco.
In short, format your diskettes with the Cromemco, then with
22DISK, then copy the files you need to transfer with the
Cromemco.
Using 8" Drives with 22DISK
We've had quite a number of inquiries about operating 8" diskette
drives with 22DISK. While not all 8" drives have the same con-
nector pinout,, we'll consider the most common, that of the
Shugart 800-series here. This particular connection scheme is
known to include the following drive families:
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1. Siemens 100/200
2. Qume 840
3. Innovex 200/400
4. Memorex 550
Note that if you decide to construct an external 8" drive setup
yourself, you'll have to provide a power supply which furnishes
both +5 and +24 volts. In addition, some older drives also re-
quire a small -5 volt supply. The simplest way to construct a
cable which will connect the drive to a DC-37 male connector
which will plug into the external drive socket attached to the
mounting bracket of a suitable diskette adapter card is as fol-
lows:
1. Using a 50 conductor ribbon cable, crimp a 50 pin card
edge connector to one end.
2. Use the following chart to pair up the appropriate rib-
bon cable conductors with the DC 37 pins. Note that
the DC 37 numbers its pins from 1 to 19 on the first
row and from 20 through 37 on the second row, while the
ribbon cable is numbered consecutively from one side
(pin 1) to the other (pin 50). With a bit of care you
should be able to make use of a DC 37 ribbon cable con-
nector instead of the solder-cup variety:
DC 37 pin 1 - 5 No Connection DC 37 pin 13 Ribbon 38 (WDATA)
6 Ribbon 20 (INDEX) 14 " 40 (WGATE)
7 " 18 (HD LD) 15 " 42 (TK00)
8 " 28 (DS1) 16 " 44 (WPROT)
9 " 26 (DS0) 17 " 46 (RDATA)
10 No Connection 18 " 14 (HDSEL)
11 Ribbon 34 (DIR) 19 No Connection
12 " 36 (STEP) 20-37 Ribbon 1,3,5... (GND)
Set the drive select jumper on the drive for DS0 (the first
select). The drive will be addressable as physical unit 2; you
can select any drive letter you wish when configuring 22DISK.
Note that a diskette controller capable of high-density operation
must be used for 8" drives, such as the Western Digital WD
1002A-FOX, Sysgen Omnibridge or MicroSolutions CompatiCard.
This is clearly not a project for a beginner. The cable itself
takes some patience to construct, but usually can be built in
less than one hour. This arrangement is in use here at Sydex
with a Qume 842 drive with excellent results.
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22Disk Version 1.32 Release Notes
Some minor changes have been made to 22Disk for the 1.32 version.
Most deal with expanding the range of CP/M formats that 22Disk is
able to handle.
1. The format type prompt has been altered. In previous
versions, CMENU displayed the following prompt in
response to menu choice 1, "Select CP/M diskette type":
Enter 1-4 character CP/M diskette type or ? for
list -
The problem with this prompt was that nothing happened
until the ENTER key was pressed after pressing the "?"
key. This prompt has been changed to:
Enter 1-4 character CP/M diskette type or ENTER
alone for list -
Simply pressing the ENTER key will now bring up the
diskette type menu.
2. The EVEN-ODD keyword has been added. Certain diskette
formats, such as that of the Archive II system, put
even-numbered cylinders on one side of a diskette and
odd-numbered cylinders on the other. If the keyword
EVEN-ODD is specified in a definition, disk addresses
will be calculated for this format.
3. "Upside-down" diskette formats are now supported. The
Sharp MZ-80B uses a double-sided format in which side 2
is first addressed, then side 1. This is the reverse
of the "normal" ORDER SIDES form of addressing. If the
SIDE2 definition is specified before SIDE1, this
"upside down" form of addressing will be enabled.
4. Mixed density formatting - the SKIP keyword. If the
keyword SKIP is included in a format definition, CFMT
will not format "system" tracks. That is, the tracks
called out by the OFS parameter. A mixed-density for-
mat may be created by writing two definitions for a
diskette--the first for the system tracks, the second
for the data area.
5. Format name character set extension. Any of the fol-
lowing characters may be used to name a diskette for-
mat:
A through Z, a through z, @#$%^&-_
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