This would not only have the advantage of re-usable code, but also simplified data transfer from one media to another and provided a standardized user interface for mass storage operations. With the 9845, HP wanted to create a system where most mass storage routines could be implemented independently from the underlaying hardware and media. For example a standard format for tape drives was created, the so-called SIF (Standard Interchange Format), which was not really portable to other types of media. Before the 9845, HP experimented with mass storage concepts which were more or less media-centric. When designing the 9845, HP developed a new concept they called the "unified mass storage model". Also see the HP-IB Tutorial for more information on the HP-IB. And it can be used to prepare images for the HPDrive program, an HP-IB mass storage emulator.Īlso see another program, the HPDrive utilitiy for emulating vintage hard drives on a PC in the HPDrive Project section. For vintage HP drives it supports all the AMIGO and the CS/80 or SS/80 command sets. It works both with 9845 and LIF file systems, handles hard disk drives as well as tape drives and supports access to non-standard floppies in standard PC floppy disk drives. It can initiate diagnostics on the HP-IB bus, on drives connected via HP-IB bus or on vintage floppy media. It can also restore original media from these images. It can dump sector-by-sector images from HP-IB drives or floppy disks in order to archive the original media content. It can convert files from one file to another, including the conversion of data and program files, so that they get readable and editable on a PC. It is able to list the contents of file systems and to extract files from drives connected via HP-IB, files included in binary images and files from old non-standard HP floppy disks. The HPDir program is much like a swiss pocket knife for vintage HP drives, media and data.
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