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BBC, Master Flash memory interface invented

By Chris Williams. Published: 17th Aug 2004, 23:25:27.

Kiss those 40 track drive monsters goodbye

Photo of the GoMMC kitWhilst taking a break from engineering hardware for the 32bit realm of Acorn hardware, John Kortink has now designed GoMMC: a Flash memory interface for BBC and Master Acorn computers.

John said in his announcement, sent out over the weekend: "[GoMMC] allows storage of any number of floppies (harddisks to follow) on an MMC (MultiMedia Card). Individual floppies can subsequently be selected (by name) and accessed just as before, via the usual (albeit slightly patched) filing systems. Up to 1 GB of storage is currently possible, and transfer speeds are in the region of 80 to 130 KB/sec."

The fact that an old school 40 track ADFS floppy can hold 160K puts the above speed into context. GoMMC works by plugging a custom designed interface into an available sideways ROM socket, and you can also order a GoMMC unit from John (whilst stocks last).

Links
GoMMC website

Discussion

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Very nice! But how about a cartridge (Master, Electron) which provides USB ports? USB devices with Mass Storage support could be great fun on the 8-bit platforms - like a Domesday filesystem reimplemented with hindsight and using established technology!

is a RISC OS Userguestx on 18/8/04 1:55PM [ Reply | Report ]

A cartridge is a bad idea because not all 8-bit Acorn computers have cartridge slots but all (can) have sideways ROM sockets. And why make another big ?disk? solution when there is already one. The next gadget that would be nice would be something to fill that space like a Ethernet card or a port of Contiki [link]~adam/contiki/ .

is a RISC OS Useregel on 18/8/04 3:12PM [ Reply | Report ]

1GIG storage in a beeb, cor the poor machine won't know whats hit it :-) So when is the XScale upgrade coming?

is a RISC OS UserFuzzy on 19/8/04 12:05PM [ Reply | Report ]

egel: "A cartridge is a bad idea because not all 8-bit Acorn computers have cartridge slots but all (can) have sideways ROM sockets."

It's true that all 8-bit Acorn computers can have sideways ROM sockets, although I imagine that various issues of the Electron don't have them without expansion, but the attraction with a cartridge is that you wouldn't have to mess around with fragile components. That said, people do seem to get off on opening up their machine and sticking ROMs in.

And as for a USB interface being a "disk solution", what about the possibilities for networking over USB with Ethernet adapters, as well as using USB printers and scanners?

is a RISC OS Userguestx on 19/8/04 5:15PM [ Reply | Report ]

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