Vector Graphic 8 Inch Floppy
Disk Controller
When it became
generally available Vector started using the Western Digital FDC chip moving
away from the less common Micropolis hard sectored disks to the more common soft
sectored format(s). They skipped the single density 1771 generation and moved
directly to the double density chip. They chose the true data lines input
1793 chip signals to the more common
1791/1795
chips. With the 1793 of course the board could deal with many disk formats. It
was IBM 3740 compatible in single density mode (FM) and System 34 compatible in
double density mode (MFM).
The processor interface consists of an 8-bit
bi-directional bus for data, status, and control word transfers. The board
also contains one serial RS-232 I/O port that is available to the user. The
heart of the serial I/O port is the 8251 USART integrated circuit. On-board
circuitry allows the user to choose a serial transmission speed between 110 baud
and 9600 baud controlled by an on-board baud rate generator. Provisions are also
available for the speed to be controlled by an external clock. Jumper areas have
been provided to allow the user to choose whether the serial port will be
configured as DCE or DTE.
The manual for the board can be obtained
here.
Other Vector Graphic S-100 Boards
Dual FD-HD Controller
FlashWriter-II
Bitstreamer-II
48K-RAM
64K-RAM
8080-Board
8K-RAM
EPROM
FDC Micropolis-FDC
Z80-Board
SBC
This page was last modified
on
04/13/2014