ScuzzBlog: Diaries January 2021
Entry 1st January 2021: Post 1: Commodore 1570/1571 Floppy Drive.
Commodore 1570/1571 Floppy Drive.
One of those days where in my accessing another computer I
managed to disturb half a dozen other pieces of kit. One item
was the Commodore 1570 floppy drive.
The 1570 was an odd little beast, given its release to provide
an alternative to the 1571. Both units were designed for the C128
computer but due to shortages of the double sided drive mechanisms
the 1570 being single sided was sold as a bit of a stop gap. Both
the 1570 and 1571 can read GCR and MFM formats. The unit has a
faster transfer rate than the 1541 given that its built-in DOS has
a data burst mode. Sadly the unit isn't capable of serving the
C64 with faster speeds that are achievable on the C128.
The 1570 uses a MOS 6502 CPU and a WD1770/WD1772, the IO controllers
are 2xMOS Technology 6522 and 1x MOS Technology 6526.
The super sleek and super fast Commodore 1571 has the double sided
drive mechanism and can use double-sided, double-density (DS/DD)
disks. And whilst you would think that the unit could read both
sides of a disk created on a 1541, the disk sadly needs flipping
over to be read.
Released in the summer of 1985 for the C128 it boasts a true serial
shift register which was implemented by the hardware. This quite
substantially increased the drives speed. When hooked up to a C128
the drive defaults to double sided mode making it possible not only
to read its own 360kB disks but also single sided 170kB 1541 disks.
Amazingly if powered up in C64 mode the drive would switch to
single sided mode.
I do like the 1571 as it runs noticeably quieter than the 1541 and
being a large flat unit and cooler to the touch I am happy placing
objects on top of the drive. Choosing between the two I always use
the 1571 it just works way better, even on the C64.
The rear labels are printed blurred for some reason.
Commodore 1570/1571 Floppy Drive.
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