Latest (most modern) motherboard with Floppy controller? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: sequoia
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 29, 2020, 10:23:41 pm
content: What would be the latest (last) motherboard that still had floppy controller (FDC) that supportstwo drives?I came across some AMD Athlon era motherboards and they all seemed to still have FDC, but itwas crippled (presumably by BIOS?) and only supported one floppy drive...Looking to put together PC for reading/writing floppies (360k and 1.2M drives)....

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 29, 2020, 10:30:34 pm
content: I would simply buy USB floppy drives.It's also possible to buy PCI floppy controller, however latest motherboards usually do not have it, and especially two.EDIT: I guess you want to use 5.25" drive.

author: Rasz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 29, 2020, 10:37:36 pm
content: Go to recycle center, pick up any $20 box, done.

author: digsys
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 29, 2020, 10:54:45 pm
content: I don't know if it is the "latest", but I keep a box of ASUS M2NPV-VMs in stock for my XP3s, which need to be "hardware correct". They have FDD, IDEs, original Kbd/Mouse plus enough "newer" features to be a perfect fit for me. Also keep all sorts of USB > FDD > USB etc converters for repairs to very expensive OLD manufacturing machinery.

author: sequoia
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 29, 2020, 11:38:19 pm
content: USB adapters only work with 3.5" drives (excluding 2.88Mb ones)... and PCI Floppy controllers seem "unobtainium" now days...Old motherboards seem really only viable option today for reading and writing old 5.25" floppies. I am trying to find"relatively" modern motherboard, so it can do other stuff as well. It would seem Intel motherboards abandoned floppy controllersaround 2006, while AMD motherboard had them until early 2011 or so...It would seem AM3/AM3+ socket motherboards might have been last ones with FDC (?). But seems like most of these had 'crippled' FDC that only supported one floppy drive... I was hoping to find some references if there were any that had fully working FDC...

author: digsys
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 30, 2020, 12:04:31 am
content: I do have (somewhere) and used to use 5.25 FDDs on those M/Boards (with an adapter), and IIRC run them at 360 / 720 and 1.44 plus other "custom" formats. I also have 8" drives and adapters (somewhere). It was a few years ago that I needed to run them, but I'm near 100% sure it was on those M/Boards.

author: ve7xen
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 30, 2020, 12:23:07 am
content: Even modern chipsets still include the LPC bus, so there shouldn't be any technical limitation to including a full feature FDC on that bus, I don't think. PCI(e) ones likely require an ISA bridge and maybe that stuff is starting to become unobtanium today.AM3 and LGA1156 boards with onboard FDC are out there for sure. ASrock has a bunch of models, for one company doing it. I'm not sure if they are limited in supporting 2 drives etc.

author: m k
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 30, 2020, 05:37:57 pm
content: How HC it can be?3.5" USB "can" accept 5.25" 360k drive but 1.2M drive is 360rpm when others are 300rpm.

author: sequoia
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 30, 2020, 08:04:17 pm
content: Quote from: m k on December 30, 2020, 05:37:57 pmHave you actually got it working? USB to Floppy adapters that I've come across seem to be based on PCBs from USB floppy drive units, and only worked with a 3.5" 1.44MB drives...Hardware should be fine for 5.25" drives, but problem seem to be that the firmware loaded on these only supports 1.44MB drives...

author: m k
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 30, 2020, 08:29:29 pm
content: No, strictly theoretical stuff.OT,seems that ve7xen's avatar is not compatible with current Malwarebytes.Or at least it is left off and Malwarebytes is whining.

author: m k
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2020, 12:33:56 pm
content: At least introduction is promising.https://www.kryoflux.com/

author: Rasz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2021, 02:37:39 am
content: Quote from: m k on December 31, 2020, 12:33:56 pmread their tos if you want a laugh, its a cancer product, and there are open source alternatives

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2021, 07:05:16 am
content: Quote from: Rasz on January 01, 2021, 02:37:39 amWhere ?

author: Rasz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2021, 08:21:56 am
content: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/307756-greaseweazle-new-diy-open-source-alternative-to-kryoflux-and-scp/

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2021, 08:42:02 am
content: Quote from: Rasz on January 01, 2021, 08:21:56 amThanks, as I still own few of NOS 5.25 and 3.5 TEAC drives from the 90s.

author: m k
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2021, 06:16:21 pm
content: What is actually needed, floppy to floppy transfer or something less?Super Card Pro seems to be a good solution anyways.(didn't check its TOS)https://www.cbmstuff.com/proddetail.php?prod=SCPCan a new floppy be a memory stick through an emulator?That would take that giving up any day old 360k drive out of the picture.BTW, here bigger floppies were limpies and the small one was a cracker.

author: Rasz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 02, 2021, 08:12:23 am
content: SCP is commercial, closed source and expensive.http://cowlark.com/fluxengine/is another open source and cheap as chips solution.