Date   : Fri, 24 Nov 2006 13:43:09 +0000
From   : pete@... (Pete Turnbull)
Subject: BBC Disk Drive?

On 24/11/2006 10:05, Richard Gellman wrote:
>> On 23/11/2006 12:10, Richard Gellman wrote:
>>> The Amiga has an external floppy port

>> I think you're mis-remembering this or confusing it with the original
>> IBM PC floppy interface, which had a DC37 connector for an external
>> drive (or two), and is virtually the same as the FTAPE interface
>> sometimes found on multi-IO ISA cards for tape backup.
> 
> Sort of...
> 
> I remembered that the Amiga has an odd number of pins (by today's
> standards at least), but forgot that it was 23 rather than 37.
> 
> I thought I'd heard of a 37-pin FDD interface somewhere though... could
> well be the DC37 you mention.

Probably -- a few things used DC37 connectors for an external floppy. 
I'm not sure if they all used the same pinout, though.  However, given 
that the PC version was designed to use the signals in the same order as 
a normal ribbon cable header or edge connector, to simplify the 
connections, it's likely most or even all did.

> I seem to remember some of the old Amstrad PCs had unusual Centronics-type
> connectors for attaching an external FDD. Would this be related to/the
> same connector as DC37?

Very likely, but I can't actually remember.  If it was on an ISA 
expansion card, almost certainly, because many such early floppy 
controllers copied the IBM functionality.


-- 

Pete                                           Peter Turnbull
                                               Network Manager
                                               University of York