Re: MFM on RLL?

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Article #44041

#44041

From: Paul Caskey
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 1990 04:17

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On 13 Mar 90 21:28:01 GMT,
paravia@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Mark David Kakatsch) said:

Mark> Can an MFM drive be connected to an RLL controller? I can get a
Mark> 40Mbyte MFM drive for free, but I've got a '386 w/ an 65Mbyte
Mark> RLL. (Gateway). I know that MFM is pretty slow for a 386, but
Mark> since it would be free, I wouldn't mind...Thanks much.

Very simply, the answer is: "No, not reliably."  IOW, go for it. :-)
RLL is tough on drives.  If you have a drive that's made for MFM, but
it's really tough, it may handle RLL.  For instance, my roommate
recently got an old DEC Rainbow with a 10 meg MFM drive.  That
computer and the drive in it had been sitting in a snow bank for a
week before he bought it.  I have a feeling it could probably handle
RLL.

However, for the average PC drive, chances are that if it was built
tough enough to be an RLL, it *would* be an RLL.  Therefore I suspect
that forcing an MFM to do RLL is pretty risky.

--
/*********/
     Paul Caskey
     pcaskey@ariel.unm.edu
     Only lawyers represent anyone's ideas but their own.
                                                  /*********/

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From: sorc@carina.unm.edu (Paul Caskey)
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Subject: Re: MFM on RLL?
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Date: 14 Mar 90 04:17:25 GMT
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