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[Vintage Computer Festival]

On Sat, 24 Sep 2005, Chuck Guzis wrote:

> Portable Smith Corona word processors used a 2.8" drive that worked the
> heads via a follower than ran in a spiral groove molded into a plastic
> disk that was driven by the spindle motor through a clutch. Basically,
> pulsing the clutch caused the head to move in a continuous spiral
> pattern from the beginning of the diskette to the end. Sort of a
> windshield-wiper auto-completion mechanism. You could read or write the
> entire diskette (about 60K (MFM), if memory serves), but nothing less
> than that. A gutless wonder if there ever was one. It was actually pretty
> robust.

Apple Disk ][ drives used a similar mechanism.

-- 

Sellam Ismail                                        Vintage Computer Festival
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