Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2001 21:52:49 -0500 (CDT) From: Mark Hittinger <bugs@freebsd.netcom.com> To: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: re: Strange request: Reading RX-50 (aka DEC Rainbow 100) disks Message-ID: <200106100252.VAA23587@freebsd.netcom.com>
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> Has anybody done this before? Any pointers? I'm very familiar with the RX50 on the Rainbow. I wrote the "copy protected disk copier" for it in that bygone era. ARRRRR!! The Rainbow ran several operating systems, CPM, CPM/86, MSDOS 2, and MSDOS 3. The Rainbow had both a z80 cpu and an 8088 cpu with the lowest 2k ram shared between the z80 and the 8088. The z80 controlled the floppy drive via a WD 1793 chip. I'd actually recommend trying to use kermit to get the data out via the serial port first :-) There is a rainbow kermit out there. I remember being able to transfer files between the Rainbow and the IBM PC using a lower density single sided format - like 40 tracks. This was in MSDOS world only and not CPM. I'd bet there are utilities on simtel20 that would read a CPM format floppy in 40 track format. I formatted them on the IBM PC in low density mode and then wrote data to them on the Rainbow. There is also a version of DECNET for the Rainbow that works via the serial port. If you can find someone with a PDP-11 or a MicroVAX unix system somewhere you might be able to just dd them. I still have my Rainbow and I have to use an air blower to get rid of dust in order to get the floppies to even read at all anymore. My apple ][ floppies still read solid with no air blower. Good Luck! Mark Hittinger Earthlink bugs@freebsd.netcom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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