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https://github.com/davidgiven/fluxengine.git
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47 lines
1.6 KiB
Markdown
47 lines
1.6 KiB
Markdown
Disk: Durango F85
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=================
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The Durango F85 was an early office computer based around a 5MHz 8085 processor,
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sold in 1977. It had an impressive 64kB of RAM, upgradable to 128kB, and ran
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its own multitasking operating system call DX-85M, as well as CP/M. It had an
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interesting electric-typewriter form factor, with a little monitor sitting on
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the side of it --- in operation you were facing the 14" printer.
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It was touted as being portable. Which it was, if you were strong; the story
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is that they had to do an extensive search to find someone capable of lifting
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it for the following photo...
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<div style="text-align: center">
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<img src="durangof85.jpg" style="max-width: 60%" alt="A Durango F85, held precariously">
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</div>
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...and even then, they had to airbrush out the tendons in her neck from the
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effort!
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It used 5.25 soft-sectored disks storing an impressive-for-those-days
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480kBish on a side, using a proprietary 4-in-5 GCR encoding. They used 77
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tracks, 12 sectors and 512 bytes per sector. Later models used double-sided
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disks; I don't have access to an image of one so don't know how they work
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(there's a suspicious looking spare byte in the sector header which could
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store the side). As always, if you have one, please [get in
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touch](https://github.com/davidgiven/fluxengine/issues/new).
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Reading discs
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-------------
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Just do:
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```
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fluxengine read f85
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```
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You should end up with an `f85.img` which is 472064 bytes long.
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Useful references
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-----------------
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There's amazingly little information about these things.
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* [Chuck Guzis' F85 page](http://www.sydex.com/durango/durango.html) with lots of pictures
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