DiscFerret
DiscFerret is a combination of hardware and software that allows a standard desktop computer to read, analyse and decode the data on just about any floppy disc, and some MFM and RLL hard disc drives. This includes standard formats like PC DOS, but also more unusual formats like AmigaDOS and the Intel MDS M2FM format. Imaging is performed at the lowest possible level -- that of magnetic transitions, which allows everything which can be represented on-disc to be imaged.
The source code and CAD files for the DiscFerret design are completely open-sourced: the hardware is licensed under a semi-permissive licence, while the software is released under the GNU GPL (in the case of the microcode and firmware) or the Apache Public Licence (in the case of the API).
An IRC channel for support and development has been started. Please join at #discferret on irc.freenode.net.
News
2012-JAN-11 -- DiscFerret Microcode 0028 and C API v1.5 have been released and are on the Downloads page. These releases fix several critical microcode bugs -- users should update to these releases as soon as possible. --Philpem 21:50, 11 January 2012 (GMT)
2011-DEC-31 -- DiscFerret Microcode 0026 and C API v1.3 have been released and are on the Downloads page. Philpem 21:43, 31 December 2011 (GMT)
2011-DEC-23 -- DiscFerret development has now resumed after a "brief" hiatus. Microcode updates are on the Downloads page, and the source code is available from the usual place (http://hg.discferret.com/). --Philpem 02:44, 23 December 2011 (GMT)
2011-MAR-21 -- The DiscFerret now supports 8-inch disc drives. Support has been added to Microcode 0x0021; the source code for this is in the "microcode" repository. -- Philpem 01:22, 21 March 2011 (GMT)
