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CMD FD series



 
 
The CMD FD series is Creative Micro Designs
Creative Micro Designs

Creative Micro Designs is a computer technologies company which today sells IBM PC compatibles and related equipment, but which started out in 1987 selling self-designed firmware updates and computer hardware for the Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 8-bit home computer/personal computers....
 (CMD)'s range of third-party floppy disk
Floppy disk

A floppy disk is a data storage medium that is composed of a disk of thin, flexible magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangle plastic shell....
 drives for the Commodore
Commodore International

Commodore, the commonly used name for Commodore International, was a United States electronics company based in West Chester, Pennsylvania which was a vital player in the home computer/personal computer field in the 1980s....
 8-bit
8-bit

Eight-bit CPUs normally use an 8-bit data bus and a 16-bit address bus which means that their address space is limited to 64 KBs. This is not a "natural law", however, so there are exceptions....
 line of home computer
Home computer

A home computer was a class of personal computer entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as accessible personal computers, more capable than video game consoles....
s. Using 3½" floppy disks, they provided a significantly larger storage capacity than Commodore-produced drives; the FD-2000 offered 1600KB
Kilobyte

Kilobyte is a unit of Computer data storage equal to either 1,024 bytes or 1,000 bytes , depending on context.It is abbreviated in a number of ways: KB, kB, K and Kbyte....
 of storage using standard double-sided, high-density floppies, while the FD-4000 also allowed the use of 3200KB extended-density floppies. In contrast, the Commodore 1581
Commodore 1581

The Commodore 1581 is a 3? inch double sided double density floppy disk drive made by Commodore International primarily for its Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 home computer/personal computers....
 3½" drive only supported 800KB double-sided, double-density disks.

ddition to the higher storage capacity, the FD series also provides additional features not found on the Commodore 1581.






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The CMD FD series is Creative Micro Designs
Creative Micro Designs

Creative Micro Designs is a computer technologies company which today sells IBM PC compatibles and related equipment, but which started out in 1987 selling self-designed firmware updates and computer hardware for the Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 8-bit home computer/personal computers....
 (CMD)'s range of third-party floppy disk
Floppy disk

A floppy disk is a data storage medium that is composed of a disk of thin, flexible magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangle plastic shell....
 drives for the Commodore
Commodore International

Commodore, the commonly used name for Commodore International, was a United States electronics company based in West Chester, Pennsylvania which was a vital player in the home computer/personal computer field in the 1980s....
 8-bit
8-bit

Eight-bit CPUs normally use an 8-bit data bus and a 16-bit address bus which means that their address space is limited to 64 KBs. This is not a "natural law", however, so there are exceptions....
 line of home computer
Home computer

A home computer was a class of personal computer entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as accessible personal computers, more capable than video game consoles....
s. Using 3½" floppy disks, they provided a significantly larger storage capacity than Commodore-produced drives; the FD-2000 offered 1600KB
Kilobyte

Kilobyte is a unit of Computer data storage equal to either 1,024 bytes or 1,000 bytes , depending on context.It is abbreviated in a number of ways: KB, kB, K and Kbyte....
 of storage using standard double-sided, high-density floppies, while the FD-4000 also allowed the use of 3200KB extended-density floppies. In contrast, the Commodore 1581
Commodore 1581

The Commodore 1581 is a 3? inch double sided double density floppy disk drive made by Commodore International primarily for its Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 home computer/personal computers....
 3½" drive only supported 800KB double-sided, double-density disks.

Features

In addition to the higher storage capacity, the FD series also provides additional features not found on the Commodore 1581. A "SWAP" button on the front panel allows the drive number to be easily switched with that of another Commodore drive on the serial bus, without the need to enter any commands into the computer. It also provides a "1541 emulation mode", allowing partitions on a 3½" disk to simulate the behavior of a 5¼" Commodore 1541
Commodore 1541

The Commodore 1541 , made by Commodore International, was the best-known floppy disk drive for the Commodore 64 home computer. The 1541 was a single-sided 170 kilobyte drive for 5?" disks....
 floppy. The ability to use partitions and subdirectories was also expanded beyond the rudimentary form found in the 1581. A real-time clock was also available as an add-on feature; it could be used to time-stamp files and to automatically set the system clock in the GEOS
GEOS (8-bit operating system)

GEOS was an operating system from Berkeley Softworks . Originally designed for the Commodore 64 and released in 1986, it provided a graphical user interface for this popular 8-bit computer....
 operating system
Operating system

An operating system is an interface between hardware and applications; it is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the limited resources of the computer....
. The CMD FD series also included native JiffyDOS compatibility; while using the JiffyDOS system with a Commodore drive required replacing both the KERNAL
KERNAL

The KERNAL is Commodore International's name for the read-only memory-resident operating system core in its 8-bit home computers; from the original Commodore PET of 1977, via the extended, but strongly related, versions used in its successors; the Commodore VIC-20, Commodore 64, Plus/4, Commodore 16, and C128....
 and drive ROM
Read-only memory

Read-only memory is a class of computer storage media used in computers and other electronic devices. Because data stored in ROM cannot be modified , it is mainly used to distribute firmware ....
 chips, for full JiffyDOS use, only the computer's KERNAL ROM needed to be replaced when used in conjunction with an FD-2000 or FD-4000.