> The other project is a low-volume device that reads floppy discs at the 
> flux
> transition level. It's basically meant to allow 'odd format' discs to be 
> read,
> analysed and (where required) copied. There are a lot of 'vintage' 
> computers
> out there and not a lot of copies of install discs and the like. Problem 
> being
> that PC floppy controllers can't generally copy these discs. So the 
> obvious
> solution is a box that can read and write discs at the lowest level 
> possible.
> This is the 'big thing' that I REALLY don't want to screw up. The HDL code 
> is
> all done, I just need to build up a prototype, write the software and 
> squash
> the inevitable bugs.

Original floppy controllers could dump the complete track to memory, headers 
and all. Effectively it was a reverse operation of formatting a disk, except 
it needed enough memory to hold a whole track, rather than just a sector. I 
do not know if the current floppy controllers can do this, but I would 
attempt it with a floppy controller from the PC\AT or 386 era that can do HD 
mode. 

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