Cylinder V.S. Tracks

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Ben Hsu

Cylinder V.S. Tracks

Post by Ben Hsu »

What is the difference between cylinder and track
when talking about a floppy diskette?

And what is the difference than between cylinder
and tracks on a hard drive?

Ralf Brwon's old book on all interrupts did not include
INT 0x13 AH=0x03 with the information about
cylinder, all it had was about tracks ...

Any one know if it makes a difference if the old style
of INT 0x13 AH=0x03 is used?

Thanks
Chase

RE:Cylinder V.S. Tracks

Post by Chase »

>On 2001-03-17 20:34:27, Ben Hsu wrote:
>What is the difference between cylinder and track
>when talking about a floppy diskette?

A track is a circle of sectors on a single side of a platter.
A cylinder is all the tracks on all the platters that line up
above and below each other.

You use the cylinder value when doing reads.
Guest

RE:Cylinder V.S. Tracks

Post by Guest »

>A track is a circle of sectors on a single side of a platter.
>A cylinder is all the tracks on all the platters that line up
>above and below each other.

Are the tracks in the cylinder lined up up & down
or they like on one head ...
Is there any graphical explainations that is better
to understand this line up thing ...

Thanks
Chase

RE:Cylinder V.S. Tracks

Post by Chase »

>On 2001-03-18 22:55:51, Anonymous wrote:

>Is there any graphical explainations that is better
>to understand this line up thing ...

This might help,
http://www.jegsworks.com/Lessons/lesson6/lesson6-3.htm
Ben Hsu

RE:Cylinder V.S. Tracks

Post by Ben Hsu »

>This might help,
>http://www.jegsworks.com/Lessons/lesson6/lesson6-3.htm

So, cylinders are the contrentric tracks in its
cylinderical state. But how then the algorithm to
calculate between LBA & CHS works?

Cylinder = LBA / Heads_Per_Cylinder * Sect_Per_Track
&
LBA = (Cylinder * Heads_Per_Cylinder + Head) * Sect_Per_Track + Sector - 1

Anyone know the matematical proof of this thing?
And if on a flooy diskette, is the cylinder just track?
And how is this relating to INT 0x13 AH=0x02 or AH=0x03?
e.g. Reading from a disk
INT 0x13
AH=0x02
AL=Numbers of Sectors
ES:BX=>buffer
CH=Cylinder #
CL=Sector #
DH=Head #
DL=Drive #
Are these numbers in logical format (1~xx) or physical
format (0~xx)?

Thanks.
Chase

RE:Cylinder V.S. Tracks

Post by Chase »

>On 2001-03-19 10:52:12, Ben Hsu wrote:
>
>Cylinder = LBA / Heads_Per_Cylinder * Sect_Per_Track
>&
>LBA = (Cylinder * Heads_Per_Cylinder + Head) * Sect_Per_Track + Sector - 1
>
>Anyone know the matematical proof of this thing?
They look about right.

>And if on a flooy diskette, is the cylinder just track?
(if it's a ds floppy there are two tracks)
Since tracks are only numbered per side of a platter, track
and cylinder numbers always are the same on all drives.

>And how is this relating to INT 0x13 AH=0x02 or AH=0x03?
>e.g. Reading from a disk
>INT 0x13
>AH=0x02
>AL=Numbers of Sectors
>ES:BX=>buffer
>CH=Cylinder #
>CL=Sector #
>DH=Head #
>DL=Drive #
>Are these numbers in logical format (1~xx) or physical
>format (0~xx)?

Sector Numbering and sector counts start from 1, all
the rest start from 0.
Guest

RE:Cylinder V.S. Tracks

Post by Guest »

>Sector Numbering and sector counts start from 1, all
>the rest start from 0.

So you mean when using INT 0x13, all numbers such
as, head #, drive #, cylinder # all starts from
zero and sector # starts from 1?
Thanks ...
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