English Amiga Board - View Single Post - Remeber how slow the C64 5 inch floppy was?

Fred the Fop · 16 March 2005, 06:31

We remember using this clunker. Blame a Tramiel, any Tramiel.

Philip C. Tsao writes:

"The Commodore 64's 5.25" floppy drive was (in)famous for being possibly the slowest floppy drive ever sold to the public. This was partly because Jack Tramiel (then President of Commodore) opted for a kludged software-timed serial I/O bus instead of the proven reliable IEEE-488. As a result, while the cost of the CPU and keyboard was kept down, the cost of the disk drive itself skyrocketted because it needed its OWN CPU and I/O hardware to interface with the kludged I/O bus!

Programmers quickly figured out how exploit the disk-drive's CPU. It turned out that this CPU could control the speed of the stepper motor which positioned the read/write head. When the head moved slowly, the stepper motor emitted a low frequency noise. When the head moved quickly, a high frequency noise was heard. It wasn't long before programmers took advantage of the stepper motor to generate "drive music"! Since the drive and computer CPUs could operate independently and simultaneously, stereo effects could be achieved in combination with the built-in SID (audio) chip."

16 March 2005, 06:31	#1
Fred the Fop flaming faggot Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Versailles Age: 55 Posts: 2,808	Remeber how slow the C64 5 inch floppy was? We remember using this clunker. Blame a Tramiel, any Tramiel. Philip C. Tsao writes: "The Commodore 64's 5.25" floppy drive was (in)famous for being possibly the slowest floppy drive ever sold to the public. This was partly because Jack Tramiel (then President of Commodore) opted for a kludged software-timed serial I/O bus instead of the proven reliable IEEE-488. As a result, while the cost of the CPU and keyboard was kept down, the cost of the disk drive itself skyrocketted because it needed its OWN CPU and I/O hardware to interface with the kludged I/O bus! Programmers quickly figured out how exploit the disk-drive's CPU. It turned out that this CPU could control the speed of the stepper motor which positioned the read/write head. When the head moved slowly, the stepper motor emitted a low frequency noise. When the head moved quickly, a high frequency noise was heard. It wasn't long before programmers took advantage of the stepper motor to generate "drive music"! Since the drive and computer CPUs could operate independently and simultaneously, stereo effects could be achieved in combination with the built-in SID (audio) chip."