Floppy format descriptions
--------------------------

Notes:

Extra Tracks:
	Many other variations upon these formats are possible.  In particular,
	many nominally 40-track or 80-track drives are capable of more tracks,
	usually 41 and 83 respectively.  Not all drives can seek to these
	unofficial extra tracks, and even on drives which can these extra
	tracks tend to be less reliable.  However, most of the formats listed
	below could be increased in capacity by using extra tracks.

Extra Sectors:
	The official formats used by MS-DOS and other operating systems are
	generally very conservative, and more sectors can nearly always be
	fit onto each track by reducing the size of the gap between tracks
	and/or the size of the leftover space at the end of the disk.

	If the gap sizes are too small, it is necessary to use a 2:1
	interleave to achieve acceptable performance.

Larger sectors:
	By using larger sectors, quite a bit of space is saved as the
	per-sector overhead in gaps and headers, permitting more data
	to fit on a disk than could possibly be achieved with normal
	512-byte sectors.  However, MS-DOS and other operating systems
	cannot normally read these formats.  Furthermore, when any portion
	of one of these larger sectors is read, the entire sector must be
	read.  When any portion of such a sector is written to, the entire
	sector must be read, and then written back with just the necessary
	portion modified.  Both of these circumstances can entail worse
	performance for small reads and (especially) small writes.

"2m" Formats:
	"2m" formats have a "standard" density on the first side of the first
	track, and a higher density on the rest of the disk.  And are intended
	only for MS-DOS file systems.  The MS-DOS boot sector indicates the
	number of sectors and tracks on the disk, and by this method 2m and
	mtools can determine the geometry of the *rest* of the disk.  To cover
	up for the missing sectors on the first track, 2m and mtools pretend
	that there is a duplicate FAT in the missing sectors, which it
	simulates by using the first (real) FAT.

	Linux is also capable of using non-2m formats with mixed sector sizes
	(without using a reduced density on the first track.  This is necessary
	for using non-MS-DOS formats, such as ext2fs, tar, Minix, or cpio.
	This can also be done for MS-DOS formats, but 2m can only read disks
	with the "standard" format on the first side of the first track.

"Xdf" formats:
	Just like "2m" formats, Xdf formats use mixed sector sizes.
	However, for Xdf disks, the logical order of the sectors on a
	given track, and their physical order is not the same. When
	reading a track, sectors reads alternate between both
	sides, instead of first one complete side and then the
	other. This technique allows to do much faster accesses: 550
	milliseconds per track instead of the 800 microseconds (or
	more) needed for 2m. If you have any questions, please mail me
	at Alain@linux.lu

80/90/160/180 KB 5.25":
	Original IBM PC, CP/M, Apple II, TRS-80, etc.  Single density, FM
	(not MFM), 40-track.  Some systems also used "hard" sectoring, with
	an index hole for each sector.  These are probably readable on
	standard FDCs if anyone cares to go to the effort.  160KB/180KB
	formats were double-sided.

320 KB 5.25":
	CP/M, Zenith Z-100, some forms of MS-DOS.  8-sector DD 40-track.

400 KB 5.25":
	AT&T 7300/3B1: cpio format, 10 sectors, DS, 40 tracks.

	PC: MS-DOS, 10 sectors, DS, 40 tracks; formatted by various
	utilities; readable by some versions of MS-DOS.

<720KB 3.5" formats:
-	Some dedicated word-processing systems use lower than normal
	capacity floppies (some may be 40-track either via "stretching"
	or by having odd drives; others may be single-sided or use fewer
	sectors per track, or use "single density" or FM).  IMHO these
	are not worth supporting in the kernel per se, but providing
	info on them for use via setfdprm is appreciated.

-	Atari ST 360 KB floppies: these are 9 sector 250KBps 80-track
	single-sided, using a slightly incompatible MS-DOS-like FAT.
	Very common distribution format for Atari ST software.

-	Mac 400 KB: single-sided 80-tracks, Mac MFS or HFS file system,
	Group Code Recording, zone bit recording, variable RPMs from 300
	to 600 in 5 zones, and auto-eject mechanism.  Almost theoretically
	impossible to read on "normal" drives without some form of hardware
	assistance.

720 KB 3.5":
-	PC: 9 sectors, DS, 80-track; very common.

-	Atari ST: same as Atari ST 360 KB except double-sided.

720 KB 5.25":
-	"Quad Density": 9 sectors, DS, 80-track; name is rather misleading,
	as it is double density 80 track.

800 KB:
-	PC: 10 sectors, DS, 80 tracks; readable by MS-DOS; formatted by
	many PC utilities; "almost standard".

-	Atari ST "Twister": 10 sectors, DS, 80-track; slightly incompatible
	MS-DOS-like FAT; sector skewing (originated by David Small).

-	Mac 800 KB: same as Mac 400KB except double-sided.

880 KB:
-	PC: 11 sectors, DS, 80 tracks, interleaved(?).  Formatted by various
	PD utilities such as fdformat.

-	Amiga: uses "single-sector" tracks the size of 11 sectors; DS; 80
	tracks.  Written by a custom chip rather than a standard FDC; it
	is very difficult to read using a standard FDC, though writing or
	formatting might be theoretically possible.

880 KB-960 KB:
	Atari ST: 11/12 sectors, DS, 80-track, interleaved(?); not very
	reliable, formatted by various PD utilities.

960 KB:
	2m and Linux; 12 sectors interleaved(?), DS, 250Kbps?, 80-track,
	1K sectors(?).

1001 KB:
	"Japanese" format: 300Kbps, 77 tracks, HD drives/disks.

1040 KB:
	2m and Linux only; 13 sectors, DS, 300Kbps, 80-track.

1120 KB:
	2m and Linux only; 14 sectors interleaved, DS, 300Kbps, 80-track.
	Can only be formatted under Linux; even under Linux difficult to
	format on ED drives.

1200 KB 5.25" HD:
	"AT": 360 rpm 500Kbps 80-track 15-sector MS-DOS.

1360 KB 5.25" HD:
	Highest "fdformat" noninterleaved 5.25" format.  360 rpm 500Kbps
	17-sector MS-DOS.

1440 KB 5.25" HD:
	Interleaved 18-sector 360 rpm 500Kbps; highest "fdformat" 5.25" format.
	18-sector MS-DOS.

	2m and Linux only: noninterleaved 1024-byte sector 18-sector-equivalent
	360 rpm 500Kbps; 18-sector MS-DOS.  A good substitute for 1.44MB 3.5"
	floppies.

1600 KB 5.25" HD:
	2m and Linux only: interleaved?  500Kbps 80-track; 1 8KB sector, 1
	2KB sector?

1760 KB 3.5" HD:
	2m and Linux only: 11 1KB sectors; 500Kbps, noninterleaved?

1840 KB 3.5" HD:
	2m and Linux only: 23-sector equivalent; 500Kbps, noninterleaved.

1920 KB 3.5" HD:
	2m and Linux only: 3 4KB sectors; 500Kbps, interleaved?

	2m and Linux only: 1 8KB sector, 1 4KB sector; 500Kbps, interleaved?

2880 KB 3.5" ED:
	"Extra Density" or "Extra High Density".   1Mbps, 36-sector, DS, 80-
	track.

3200 KB 3.5" ED:
	Non-interleaved, 80 track, 40-sector 1Mbps.  Highest capacity that
	MS-DOS can read directly(?)

3520 KB 3.5" ED:
	2m and Linux only: 1 16KB sector, 1 4KB sector, 1 2KB sector?
	Non-interleaved, 80 track 1Mbps.  Highest capacity that 2m can
	format.

3840 KB 3.5" ED:
	2m and Linux only: 1 16KB sector, 1 8KB sector (or is it 3 8KB
	sectors?).  Non-interleaved, 80 track 1Mbps.  Formatted only by
	Linux, but readable and writeable by 2m.
