Add Zilog MCZ documentation.

This commit is contained in:
David Given
2019-03-09 14:04:15 +01:00
parent 1dbd125c24
commit fc1a83e6b1
3 changed files with 62 additions and 10 deletions

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@@ -61,12 +61,20 @@ Which?
The current support state is as follows.
Dinosaurs (🦖) have yet to be observed in real life --- I've written the
decoder based on Kryoflux (or other) dumps I've found. I don't (yet) have
real, physical disks in my hand to test the capture process.
Unicorns (🦄) are completely real --- this means that I've read actual,
physical disks with these formats and so know they work.
### Old disk formats
| Format | Read? | Write? | Notes |
|:-----------------------------------------|:-----:|:------:|-------|
| IBM PC compatible | 🦄 | | and compatibles (like the Atari ST) |
| [Acorn ADFS](doc/disk-acornadfs.md) | 🦄 | | single- and double- sided |
| [Acorn DFS](doc/disk-acorndfs.md) | 🦄 | | |
| [AES Superplus / No Problem](doc/disk-aeslanier.md) | 🦖 | | hard sectors! and _very_ experimental |
| [Ampro Little Board](doc/disk-ampro.md) | 🦖 | | |
| [Apple II DOS 3.3](doc/disk-apple2.md) | 🦖 | | doesn't do logical sector remapping |
| [Amiga](doc/disk-amiga.md) | 🦄 | | |
@@ -75,17 +83,23 @@ The current support state is as follows.
| [Brother 240kB](doc/disk-brother.md) | 🦄 | 🦄 | |
| [Macintosh 800kB](doc/disk-macintosh.md) | 🦖 | | and probably the 400kB too |
| [TRS-80](doc/disk-trs80.md) | 🦖 | | a minor variation of the IBM scheme |
| [Victor 9000](doc/disk-victor9k.md) | 🦖 | | experimental, probably buggy |
{: .datatable }
Dinosaurs (🦖) have yet to be observed in real life --- I've written the
decoder based on Kryoflux (or other) dumps I've found. I don't (yet) have
real, physical disks in my hand to test the capture process.
### Even older disk formats
Unicorns (🦄) are completely real --- this means that I've read actual,
physical disks with these formats and so know they work.
These formats are for particularly old, weird architectures, even by the
standards of floppy disks. They've largely been implemented from single flux
files with no access to physical hardware. Typically the reads were pretty
bad and I've had to make a number of guesses as to how things work. They do,
at least, check the CRC so what data's there is probably good.
Notes:
| Format | Read? | Write? | Notes |
|:-----------------------------------------|:-----:|:------:|-------|
| [AES Superplus / No Problem](doc/disk-aeslanier.md) | 🦖 | | hard sectors! |
| [Victor 9000](doc/disk-victor9k.md) | 🦖 | | 8-inch |
| [Zilog MCZ](doc/disk-zilogmcz.md) | 🦖 | | 8-inch _and_ hard sectors |
{: .datatable }
### Notes
- IBM PC disks are the lowest-common-denominator standard. A number of other
systems use this format in disguise (the Atari ST, late-era Apple
@@ -105,8 +119,8 @@ Notes:
is hard.
If you have samples of weird disks, and want to send them to me --- either
FluxEngine or Kryoflux dumps, or (even better) actually physically --- I can
identify them and add support.
FluxEngine, Kryoflux or Catweasel dumps, or (even better) actually physically
--- I can identify them and add support.
Please note that at this point I am *not interested in copy protected disks*.
It's not out of principle. It's just they'll drive me insane. FluxEngine will

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@@ -1,3 +1,41 @@
Disk: Zilog MCZ
===============
The Zilog MCZ is an extremely early Z80 development system, produced by
Zilog, which came out in 1976. It used twin 8-inch hard sectored floppy
drives; here's one at the <a
href="http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/12157/Zilog-Z-80-Microcomputer-System/">Centre
for Computing History</a>:
<div style="text-align: center">
<a href="http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/12157/Zilog-Z-80-Microcomputer-System/">
<img src="zilogmcz.jpg" style="max-width: 60%" alt="A Zilog MCZ at the Centre For Computing History"></a>
</div>
The MCZ ran Zilog's own operating system, Z80-RIO, and used 77 track
single-sided disks, with 32 sectors (each marked by an index hole), with 132
bytes per sector --- 128 bytes of user payload plus two two-byte metadata
words used to construct linked lists of sectors for storing files. These
stored 320kB each.
FluxEngine has experimental read support for these disks, based on a single
Catweasel flux file I've been able to obtain, which only contained 70 tracks.
I haven't been able to try this for real. If anyone has any of these disks,
an 8-inch drive, a FluxEngine and the appropriate adapter, please [get in
touch](https://github.com/davidgiven/fluxengine/issues/new)...
Reading discs
-------------
Just do:
```
.obj/fe-readzilogmcz
```
You should end up with an `victor9k.img` which is 774656 bytes long.
if you want the double-sided variety, use `-s :s=0-1`.
Useful references
-----------------

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