Commodore 1581
| Commodore 1581 | |
| Type: | Disk drive |
| Producer: | Commodore |
| Price: | ?US$ |
| Released: | 1987 |
| Discontinued: | 1990 |
| Processor: | |
| Memory: | |
| OS: | CBM-DOS 10 |
| Info: | |


The Commodore 1581 was developed as a replacement for the older 5.25" disk drives (1541, 1571). It utilizes a 3.5" disk, which when formatted provides 800k of storage (vs. 169984 bytes available on the 1541 and 349696 bytes for the 1571).
Other improvements include faster access times, the ability to make partitions, an external power supply (reduces heat buildup), etc.
The following specifications is from the 1581 service manual.
GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS
1. CHARACTERISTICS
* 3.5 inch, +800K storage * Increased buffers, fixed BAM locations * Expanded controller commands * Track cache buffer * Configurable auto boot file * User alterable physical/logical track and sector translation * Fully vectored jump table * Partition capabilities * Wild card enhancements * Standard, fast and burst serial capabilities * Expanded burst command set
2. HARDWARE SUMMARY
PROCESSOR: 6502A, WD1770
ROM: 32K
RAM: 8K
I/O: 8520A
3. SPECIFICATIONS
GROSS DATA ORGANIZATION:
o 3.5 Inch Disk
o Double-Sided
o 80 Cylinders/160 Tracks
PER TRACK ORGANIZATION:
Hex 4E written as a gap, with 10 sectors of data, with full gaps written for motor speed variation.
PER SECTOR ORGANIZATION:
MFM Encoding
12 Bytes of Hex 00
3 Bytes of Hex A1 (Data Hex A1, Clock Hex 0A)
1 Byte of Hex FE (ID Address Mark)
1 Byte (Track Number)
1 Byte (Side Number)
1 Byte (Sector Number)
1 Byte (Sector Length, 02 for 512 Byte Sectors)
2 Bytes CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check)
22 Bytes of Hex 22
12 Bytes of Hex 00
3 Bytes of Hex A1 (Data Hex A1, Clock Hex 0A)
1 Byte of Hex FB (Data Address Mark)
512 Bytes of Data
2 Bytes of CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check)
38 Bytes of Hex 4E
GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS (CONTINUED)
4. FORMAT ORGANIZATION
PHYSICAL:
Cylinders 0 thru 79
Sectors 1 thru 10 on Side 1
Sectors 1 thru 10 on Side 2
Sector Size 512 Bytes
LOGICAL:
Tracks 1 thru 80
Sectors 0 thru 39 (Using physical Sectors 1 ... 10 — Side 1 and 2)
Sector Size 256 Bytes
STORAGE:
Total Unformatted Capacity 1 Megabyte
Total Formatted Capacity 808,960 Bytes
Maximum Sequential File Size 802,640 Bytes
Maximum Relative File Size 182,880 Bytes
Records Per Diskette 65,535
Files Per Diskette 296*
Cylinders Per Diskette 80
Logical Sectors Per Cylinder 40
Physical Sectors Per Cylinder 20
Logical Bytes Per Sector 256
Physical Bytes Per Sector 512
Free Blocks Per Disk 3160
*More with Sub-Disk Partitioning
The following is a comparison between the Commodore 1541, 1571, and 1581 drives:
Blocks Available: 1541 - 664, 1571 - 1328, 1581 - 3160
Test Demo Disk[edit | edit source]
Side 1:
3 COPYRIGHT CBM 86 USR 50 HOW TO USE PRG (User manual) 18 BACKUP128-1581 PRG (1:1 copy program C128/D/DCR) 18 BACKUP 64-1581 PRG (1:1 copy program C64) 37 SECTOR EDITOR PRG (disk sector editor, also for Plus/4) 21 SHOW BAM PRG 6 CHANGE UNIT PRG (device number changing by software) 11 UNSCRATCH PRG (works only before VALIDATE!) 10 LOAD ADDRESS PRG 19 UNI-COPY PRG (copy program for two disk drives) 16 FILECOPY PRG (single file copy) 2 FILECOPY.BIN PRG 10 ZAPLOAD 64 PRG (disk menu with fastload for C64) 30 COMPRESS 128 PRG (compress for C128) 7 AUTO-RUN 64 PRG (autostart for C64) 10 AUTO-BOOT 128 PRG (Autostart for C128) 5 PIC DEMO 128 PRG (HiRes picture viewer for C128) 21 REL FILE EXAMPLE PRG (example for REL files) 26 BURST EXAMPL.BAS PRG (burst mode of 1581) 5 BURST SUBS.BIN PRG 84 BURST SUBS.SRC SEQ 126 BURST SUBS.LST SEQ 17 PARTITION AID PRG (desktop for partition and subdirectories) 2606 BLOCKS FREE
Tip: Most programs also work with VIC-1541/51/70/71 when using the C64/128.
Disk Image Format[edit | edit source]
Disks for the 1581 disk drive are represented by the D81 disk image format. These disk images are used to transmit entire disks for use with emulators and mass storage devices.
Links[edit | edit source]
| Wikipedia: Commodore_1581 |
