Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site spuxll.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!hou3c!hocda!houxm!houxz!vax135!floyd!whuxle!spuxll!pjm From: pjm@spuxll.UUCP (PJ Maioriello) Newsgroups: net.micro.cbm Subject: MSD disk drive review Message-ID: <484@spuxll.UUCP> Date: Tue, 5-Jun-84 11:44:24 EDT Article-I.D.: spuxll.484 Posted: Tue Jun 5 11:44:24 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 6-Jun-84 06:52:57 EDT Organization: AT&T Information Systems, South Plainfield NJ Lines: 102 The purpose of this article is to present a preliminary review on the MSD disk drive. I have received some mail asking me to do so. I will attempt to hit most of the highlights, but I am sure I will miss something that someone is interested in. If this happpens send mail and I will attempt to follow up on it. The statements in this article will essentially be based on 3 sources; either heresay(magazine adds, rumors etc.), manufacturors claims (based on conversations with their technical support people), or my personal experience (hopefully, the latter will be the most reliable). To begin with, I have the SD-2 model. This is the dual drive unit (ala 4040). To say that I am pleased with it is an incredible understatement. To put it simply: ITS GREAT. I can copy an entire disk in less that 2 minutes, including the formatting time (I have timed this at an actualu 1 min and 57 seconds). Using the copy command to copy individual files from one disk to another has finally allowed me to group catagories of programs the way I want. The first week I had it I must have freed up about 10 disks. Now for the most important question compatibility; Most (better than 99%) commercial software will work just fine. Even disks "protected" by encoding them with errors will load OK. The supposed reason for why it is so compatible is that I have heard (catagory 1 above) that the president of MSD is the guy that designed the VIC 20 for Commodore. If so he probably knew a lot about the DOS. The people at MSD told me that they cleaned up a lot of the code that is in the 1541 which is where they got most of their internal performance improvements. Also, I have heard that the 1541 4040 drives are only read compatible. That is you should not try to write to a disk using one drive if that disk was formatted with another drive. When I questioned MSD on that one they agreed with that assesment and said that they had solved the problem by writing their sync marks half way between what the 1541 writes and what the 4040 writes, theyeby acheiving read and write compatibility with both. I dont know enough about drives to even venture a guess as to wether or not that is a reasonable explanation. I do know that I use my 1541 and the MSD interchangeably and couldn't even guess anymore who formatted what. I have had none of the problems using the MSD 1541 combination that have been atrributed to a 1541 4040 combination. The next wonderful thing about the MSD is that it comes with a built in serial interface AND a built in IEEE interface. I plan to upgrade to IEEE soon (everyone knows how slow the standard serial bus is) and the dual interface means that drive end of the cable is all taken care of. Mechanically the drive is vastly superior to the 1541. Please dont take that as a knock on the 1541 because I still use mine and it was and still is cheaper. It's just that the the extra cost of the MSD results in a better drive. For instance the housing is metal (makes it a little noisier, but not objectionally so), and the drive doesn't clank when formatting a disk or when doing error retries. There are also seperate LEDs for power, open channel, and drive operations. The disk seats more positivly and there is a latch to close not a door. There is also no spring to pop out the disk (or not pop out the disk when it breaks). There are slots where your fingers can grab the disk and take it out. The drive slots are also vertical and not horizontal as in some of the more expensive floppy drives I have seen. The SD2 even though it is a dual unit takes up less desk space than a 1541. The vertical drives help in that regard. There is also more RAM memory in the MSD. Some of the advertising even hints at being able to reprogram it to read other disk formats. It works with Commodore CPM (I have tried this). The SD2 properly uses drive unit 0 as the CPM drive A and unit 1 corresponds to CPM drive B. Beats geeting the NOW INSERT DISK B message every time you change the logging disk. I will venture the personal opeinion here that a C64 equipped with an IEEE interfaced MSD SD2, CPM, and a compatible 80 column board would be comparable to other native CPM machines such as KAYPRO. And when you are done with all that real computer CPM stuff, you can always unplug it all, load up your favorite game and have some real fun. If there is anything specific that anyone would like to ask it might be a good idea to post it so as to generate some traffic related to alternative hardware for CBM machines. Given the initally cheap price to get started, I find it rather interesting to consider the possibilities for giving something like the 64 more power and greater capabilities using after market "add ons". Paul Maioriello AT&T ISL spuxll!pjm