Looking for an 8 bit FDC...

[Jules Richardson]

OK, I'm wanting to build a board with an 8 bit CPU (probably Z80, 
possibly 6502) and a floppy controller IC on board with the intention of 
hanging it off my PC (via serial or parallel, undecided yet) and 
allowing me to read and write *most* formats from various 1980's 8 bit 
micros...

Intel's 8271 looks like a possibility at the moment, but I thought I'd 
poll the list for alternative ideas too. FM support is of course 
critical - MFM is less of an issue as the host PC can handle that.

I've never built any kind of computer from scratch, so it'll be a useful 
experience. I figure on putting just enough code in ROM to support 
downloading of actual firmware to the device over whatever the link is 
to the PC, as that should save a lot of headache!

Hopefully RAM requirements will be low enough that I can go the SRAM 
route and avoid messing around with DRAM refresh (although IIRC the Z80 
has much of the necessary stuff built in...)

cheers

Jules