🚀 go-pugleaf

[line eater????????]

In <16.filbo@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us>, I wrote:
> [What is this "line-eater"?  A bug in some news >sender< or >reader?<]

(I still don't know -- I've never seen a missing first line, what's the deal?)

> Does a later version of the Supra software support 256-byte hard sectors?
> (It would probably have to do this by translating AmigaDOS' requests for
> single sectors into double physical sectors; I don't see any big difficulty
> in this except that someone would have to go to the trouble of implementing
> it).

Answer: no.  I called Supra tech support and spoke to Clark.  He said that
the current version of the Supra software doesn't support 256 byte/sector
drives.  He also said that "1.4 (or maybe 1.5)" would support them.  That
sure helps me a lot.  He thought it would be quite difficult to implement
-- I don't know WHY he thought so, it ought to be quite easy with the driver
and formatter sources at hand, but that the news from On High.  (In point of
fact, whether or not 1.4 supports 256 byte sectors is basically irrelevent
-- the Supra formatter STILL won't work on this drive unless the go to the
trouble of fixing it).

> Finally, if Supra can't do it, are there any other A1000 controllers that
> will support such a setup?  Transfer rate and other factors would be
> important, but getting it to work is primary!

I received two mail replies about this.  Significant parts are quoted below:

-> From: arthur walker <roadman@portia.stanford.edu>
->
-> Get a C-LTD controller.  Their 3.x software, which works with controllers
-> for all three amigas, supports 256 byte sectors.  At worst, if their low
-> level formatters don't work with the 4520 in 4520 mode, you can probably
-> get the older drivers/formatter to work with it in 4000 mode.  I don't
-> see how you can expect the supra software to work with it.  I doubt that
-> 4000 mode will hide the 256 byte sectors from the host, the host will have
-> to know the size of a sector.

(I don't see why I >shouldn't< expect the Supra software to work with it
-- C. Ltd. just adds evidence that it's possible, if that was ever in
question.  I wasn't expecting the Adaptec to hide anything, I was expecting
the Amiga driver software -- the formatter and vendor-specific
harddisk.device -- to do the hiding).
 
-> From: Dale Larson <dlarson@blake.acs.washington.edu>
->  
-> CLtd. controller software documentation claims that it supports 256 byte
-> sectors by simply setting one flag.
->  
-> I have not had the opportunity to use this feature.

I now ask: are there any other controllers that support this?  More
importantly, is there ANYONE out there who is actually using a C. Ltd. (or
any other) controller with a 256 byte/sec. hard-sectored drive?

AtDhVaAnNkCsE, >Bela<

Bela Lubkin     * *   filbo@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us   CIS: 73047,1112
     @        * *     ...ucbvax!ucscc!gorn!filbo    ^^^  REALLY slow [months]
R Pentomino     *     Filbo @ Pyrzqxgl (408) 476-4633 & XBBS (408) 476-4945