Those of you who are old enough will remember the Atari 400 and 800 systems, with their separate disk drive, the 810. This Rossum character has put together a working replica of the 810 that takes MicroSD cards – at about a hundredth the size.
Yes, it’s not a novelty card reader, it’s a working Atari disk drive. The enclosure was made using fabrication service Shapeways, though unfortunately it was necessary to emulate the hardware, as shrinking it wasn’t an option. So there’s a microcontroller that mounts the file system and checks for disk files, and then “mounts” them, sending the appropriate information to the Atari.
Add a little paint and the look is complete. Rossum will be putting the source, 3D model, and everything up on Github soon, so if you want to replicate it, it’s just a little elbow grease standing between you and a tiny drive.
For full story and how to visit: http://rossum.posterous.com/a-little-atari-810-disk-drive
