RLL controller

[rwwetmore at watmath.UUCP]

In article <1083 at ethos.UUCP>:

> I just read about the RLL (Run Length Limited) controlers in the
> Febuary issue of Computer Shoper.  It seems almost too good to be
> true.  Has anyone tried these controlers that could report on their
> performance/compatibility?

  I have known of them for some time, but never seemed to get any detailed
information on them. Since there seem to be a number of users on the net
with them, perhaps this is a good time and place to ask the following:

1)  What (if any) specific hardware upgrades are required to use RLL
    controllers besides the controller itself and compatible disk? Are
    there any modifications to the disk to enable it to run with an RLL
    (as opposed to normal) controller?

2)  Corollary: how does a standard ROM expecting 17 sectors/track manage
    to deal with the RLL sectoring?

3)  Are there special software programs supplied with the disk for
    formatting, disk partitionning and setup, or device drivers?

4)  What OS do you use? Has anyone used RLL disks with MicroPort Unix?
    Xenix? Are there any problems with interaction or incompatibility
    with the OS itself, or distributed programs?

5)  Has anyone used RLL with the 86Mb Toshiba drives? any other drives
    >32Mb capacity?

  I will be happy to summarize any mail sent directly to me to the net.

Ross W. Wetmore                 | rwwetmore at water.NetNorth
University of Waterloo          | rwwetmore at math.waterloo.edu
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1       | {clyde, ihnp4, ubc-vision, utcsri}
(519) 885-1211 ext 3491         |   !watmath!rwwetmore