Disk on a Chip ??

General "chat", not necessarily MTX related
Post Reply
lezanderson
Posts: 186
Joined: 14 Aug 2012 15:31

Disk on a Chip ??

Post by lezanderson »

The MD2800-D08-X DiskOnChip ( Emulates a Floppy Disk) ??

Hi.

Does anyone know much about this MD2800-D08-X DiskOnChip . An IC (available in DIP32) that I'm assuming is some form of Silicon Disk that Emulates an FDC+Floppy Drive ?

Datasheet :

http://www.qscomp.cz/Pdf/doc_2000.pdf
https://www.usbid.com/assets/datasheets ... ystems.pdf

May be possible to use this to make a small PCB/Circuit that could replace SDX module&Floppy Drive or maybe not ?

Best Regards
Lez
Martin A
Posts: 799
Joined: 09 Nov 2013 21:03

Re: Disk on a Chip ??

Post by Martin A »

A quick look at the data sheet, it looks like this is a memory mapped device. It doesn't look like any sort of floppy replacement.
lezanderson
Posts: 186
Joined: 14 Aug 2012 15:31

Re: Disk on a Chip ??

Post by lezanderson »

I think it's supposed to replace the actual physical Floppy disk itself ? It would be connected to an FDC (floppy disc controller, uPD765 etc) via glue logic. So the system would just think it's a large floppy disc. This would have advantages in reliability, larger capacity and faster ? :?
stephen_usher
Posts: 325
Joined: 27 Nov 2016 19:58

Re: Disk on a Chip ??

Post by stephen_usher »

It won't be much faster as the data transfer rate is fixed by the controller. The only speed-up would be due to the lack of with latency seeking track to track. The controller reads a whole track at a time (or waits a specific period for the sector to come around before starting to read). The drive itself does nothing to the data and is a dumb device.
User avatar
1024MAK
Posts: 757
Joined: 24 Dec 2012 03:01
Location: Looking forward to summer, in Somerset, UK

Re: Disk on a Chip ??

Post by 1024MAK »

All floppy disk systems that I have seen transfer data as a serial data stream via a single data line.

I think the devices in the first post are more like something that could be fitted to an embedded system to save having a small hard drive. The idea being that the BIOS (in ROM) could "boot" the system from such a chip, and then run a small application on the embedded system.

Mark
:!: Standby alert :!:
“There are four lights!”
Step up to red alert. Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb :!:
Looking forward to summer in Somerset later in the year :D

Not as many MTXs as Dave! :lol:
Post Reply