[Coco] Exatron Stringy Floppy

[Dennis Bathory-Kitsz]

At 10:51 AM 1/31/04 +0100, dino at dds.nl wrote:
>Check this out (not sold by me):
>http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2784337916
>COOL! 8-0 I had no idea this existed!!

Where ya been? :)

I have several of these ... seem to have misplaced the 'wafers' (endless
loop micro-tapes), but somewhere I have a box of about 200.

Phil Hooper and I were the development team for the OSI version of the
stringy-floppy. We actually got the complete stringy-floppy OS finished for
it before Exatron canceled the project. I then adapted the operating system
(and clever error-checking) to use generic 8-track tapes for storage (yes,
really, it's in my TRS-80 Model I book).

These microdrives were amazingly durable little suckers, too ... the
original microdrives that Exatron bought and modified were used on buoys in
the ocean for data collection.

I don't think one was ever developed for the CoCo -- can't recall for sure
-- probably because regular floppies became affordable.

Dennis