🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <8598.27c1b662@decus.com.au>, 
stewart_andy@decus.com.au writes:

> Next Question: Can the RX33 drive format RX50s and/or RX33 diskettes?

The DRIVE can, but the controllers (RQDXn) and software DO NOT.   There
may be a way to coerce an RQDXn to format an RX50-format diskette, but
I have never heard anyone claim it could be done, and several claim that
it cannot.

An RX33 drive is the same as a generic AT-style High Density drive.  It
is supported by both the RQDX3 and several third-party controllers and
can read/write/format both double- and high- density diskettes.
The RQDX3/RX33 combination supports formatting of RX33 (only) diskettes, 
as long as you have firmware ROMs 339E5 and 340E5 (~April 1989).   The
previous version was 243E5/244E5.

If you need the 339/340 ROMs, DEC will charge you $$$ to upgrade your
controller.   However, the ROMs are ordinary 27128A EPROMs (the E5
designation) and there are no known hardware changes to the board.

You can use that drive (RX33) with a third-party controller to format RX50s.
I used an Andromeda ESDC (ESDI & floppy) controller just a few weeks ago
to format a stack of Double Density floppies in RX50 mode.   They work
just fine on a real DEC RX50.

---  Alan E. Frisbie                    Frisbie@Flying-Disk.Com  (Preferred)
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