Re: FYI: 9100A/FT - writes HD floppies

From: Andrew Welburn <andy_at_andysarcade.net>
Date: Tue Nov 13 2012 - 22:47:13 EST

The 9100FT is completely and entirely different to the 9100A... Completely different motherboard.. It's not just a different CPU and faster clock speed.

The biggest and fastest difference between the FT and the A I believe is the disk controller. I have seen the speed of the FT disk controller versus the one included with the A and they're are ridiculously different in speed and r/w access. The FT is actually useable, where the A really feels like you're using something from the 80's, the speed difference is by a factor of ten or more - its ridiculous.

I will document this when I get home in a few weeks time, I have photos already, but not side by side. I too thought if the 9100A might be 'upgradeable' to an FT, but you're talking about chalk and cheese.

Andrew Welburn (mobile)
www.andys-arcade.com

On 13 Nov 2012, at 19:50, John Robertson <jrr@flippers.com> wrote:

> Not exactly sure what I have! It certainly has a 68030 cpu and eight RAM slots (max 4mb) but the screen surround says 9100A, and nowhere on the unit does it say anything else...
>
> I'm suspecting it was an engineering sample machine...
>
> John :-#)#
>
> John's Jukes Ltd.
> 2343 Main St.
> Vancouver, BC
> www.flippers.com
>
> On 2012-11-13, at 17:40, Martin White <martin@guddler.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> That’s the problem - I’m confused as to what you mean by 9100A/FT. Is it an A, or an FT? I wasn’t aware there was a model that is both at the same time.
>>
>>
>>
>> This really is off the top of my head, and from personal experience but actually not masses:
>>
>>
>>
>> - Faster CPU (actually makes a huge difference)
>>
>> - Larger HDD - I think they may have standardised on SCSI by the FT too rather than MFM?
>>
>> - HD Floppy drive
>>
>>
>>
>> And now it seems, maybe 6.1 was an FT feature even though we’re findibg that it does indeed work on the A?
>>
>>
>>
>> There may be more but I’ve not used it in a while. It’s all listed somewhere in one of the documents - all of which are in the Flippers archives, (or possibly arcarc), as I’ve never had any printed materials that haven’t already been available on Flippers for download. I’m sure there’s a manual or maybe a sales leaflet that specifically goes into the new features of the “new” FT model.
>>
>>
>>
>> Martin.
>>
>>
>> From: John Robertson
>> Sent: ‎14‎ ‎November‎ ‎2012 ‎01‎:‎31
>> To: Technical Tools Mail List
>> Subject: Re: [Techtoolslist] FYI: 9100A/FT - writes HD floppies
>>
>>
>> Martin White wrote:
>>>
>>> John,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Are you specifically talking about the 9100A or 9100FT here?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> One of the upgrades of the 9100FT was the inclusion of the HD floppy drive so obviously we know it’s the case that the FT can read / write them...
>>
>> This is the 9100A/FT that I am using to test these drives. (68030 CPU).
>>
>> What other upgrades were added to the FT series?
>>
>> I was also wondering if the standard 9100A has the ability to R/W HD
>> floppies if running 6.1? Haven't tested that...
>>
>> John :-#)#
>>
>>>
>>> From: John Robertson
>>> Sent: ‎13‎ ‎November‎ ‎2012 ‎18‎:‎04
>>> To: techtoolslist@flippers.com
>>> Subject: [Techtoolslist] FYI: 9100A/FT - writes HD floppies
>>>
>>>
>>> Was playing with it yesterday, trying to figure out how to copy entire
>>> directories in one swoop and realized that it can indeed handle HD
>>> floppies (the ones with the extra hole on the left).
>>>
>>> I wish I could find a copy of the service manual!
>>>
>>> John :-#)#
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>>
>>
>>
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Received on Tue Nov 13 22:46:36 2012

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