[Coco] Stand-alone DriveWire devices.

[Boisy G. Pitre]

> Though not _exactly_ what you're referring to...
>
> I'm continuing work on the "SVD" (Semi-Virtual
> Diskette).  This device is a PIC-based piece of
> hardware that connects to a "modern" PC on one end (via
> serial port) and to a vintage computer on the other end
> directly to the floppy cable.  In essence, the SVD
> looks like a floppy drive to the vintage computer.
>
Now that's a very novel approach.  You're effectively emulating a disk 
drive, though still requiring a disk controller on the CoCo.  Mark and 
I have discussed the possibility of doing a floppy controller for the 
CoCo that would utilize a PC floppy controller (possibly a '765) but 
with a PIC to emulate WD1773 commands.  This way, existing RS-DOS 
software would work.

The ideal situation would be to wean CoCo users from floppy drives 
completely, but there has to be some way of bringing data into a CoCo 
from the outside world.  Plus there are those games that are on copy 
protected diskettes that cannot be easily transferred to other media.

Boisy