5 Nov
2001
5 Nov
'01
9:19 a.m.
we are looking for someone with access to a working
8" DSDD floppy
disk drive, presumably running RT or RSX on the PDP system. This is
to retrieve some very interesting historic material regarding the
Internet. As some of you may know, the IMP's in the 1980s, or fuzzball
systems, were running PDPs.
You need more than just the drive - you need a compatible controller. While
most floppy systems were DEC-compatible in SSSD and SSDD modes (RX01 and RX02),
the DEC RX03 (DSDD) was never released and as a result there are literally
dozens of not-quite-compatible DSDD floppy systems. When the low-level
format agrees, you'll discover that the interleaving doesn't! (And there
are a lot more choices with regards to interleaving when you've got two
sides...)
If you can clue us in as to the make and model of the writing controller,
it'd help a lot.
The actual floppies to be read are in Delaware, anyone
close there
would be a big bonus.
I'm sure I've got a couple dozen not-quite-compatible DSDD systems here
in DC :-).
Tim.