Tandy CoCO Amdisk !

[00WReX]

As a fan of the Tandy Color Computer series (CoCo 1,2,&3), I was looking through and early
edition of the HOT CoCo magazine (July 1983) and found an interesting advertisement...

It was for a dual 3" drive called an Amdisk of all things...


[attach=2]

(click to enlarge)

I have never seen or heard of one and would expect they would go for a small fortune if one
came up today.

Cheers,
Shane

[00WReX]

Looks like this company also made them available for a few computers of the time (US based).

The Amdek Amdisk-III

Amdek Amdisk I | Applefritter

http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue46/040_1_REVIEWS_AMDC_3-Inch_Disk_Drives_For_Atari.php

Cheers,
Shane

[Gryzor]

How interesting... Of course let's keep in mind that 3" drives/disks were not Amstrad's inventions, so they're bound to have come up for various systems...

[fgbrain]

Did you notice "624 kb per disk" is twice the size of the AMSDOS format ?
This must be an 80 track drive..?!

[Bryce]

I mentioned these drives a while back. There's some info and links here: Wanted: CF2 disk drive ASAP

Bryce.

[00WReX]

I mentioned these drives a while back. There's some info and links here: Wanted: CF2 disk drive ASAP

Bryce.

Bryce, That's almost identical info...I don't remember seeing your post (although it looks like I've copied it  ).
The Amdisk 3 for the CoCo actually looks neat with the dual drive setup.

Did you notice "624 kb per disk" is twice the size of the AMSDOS format ?
This must be an 80 track drive..?!

That size is for both disk's combined I'm assuming.

so 624kb divided by 4 disk sides = 156kb.

This is very close to what we get on the CPC with an IBM format.

IBM: 160k single-sided. 40 tracks of eight 512-byte sectors each. Sectors numbered &01 to &08. Provided for compatibility with CP/M-86 (and DR-DOS 1.0). Used by very few CPC purchasers, but Locomotive Software stated that this was invaluable for cross-assembly. The useable capacity is 158k.


Disc format - CPCWiki

Cheers,
Shane

[Bryce]

Yes, they certainly weren't 624K per disk. It was the usual advertisers twisting the facts to make it look as good as possible. I've only ever once seen one of these (back in the 90's) and it was connected to an Atari 800XL as far as I can remember.

Bryce.

[Gryzor]

Well, it wasn't really an advertising twist; it says "624K system" pointing at the entire unit, akeen to the "xxxKB/MB online storage" they also used.

[fgbrain]

No, it has double density 80track mode!! Read the review..

If you connect an 80-track, double-density, double-sided drive to the system using DOS/XL, you can get 736K.

[TFM]

Yes, as the Joyce hat 0.7 MB format on its 3" drives too.

[MacDeath]

HOT CoCo magazine

then have a hot Coco post :


I've read those "Coco" had quite a nice success in USA, is that true ? got some "modern" games on those ?

624 kb

bits or bytes ? that's why we used the octet in France.

[Bryce]

Thanks MacDeath, for making a perfectly innocent Retro forum NSFW!

Bryce.

[MacDeath]

I don't care, I can't consult this forum at work.


Promotion !!!




Promotions | Know Your Meme

[Gryzor]

Time I put an age restriction in the registration process...