What Is Floppy Disk Controller (FDC)?

In an age when USB drives and cloud storage could eliminate the need for floppy disks, some of us still prefer to use them. We've got a soft spot for the little plastic rectangles that let us load data into our PCs and take them out again. Its purpose is to control the read and write data operations to/from one or more floppy disks. It also contains a particular program on its ROM (read-only memory) to check the quality of the read disks by conducting error control through Cyclic Redundancy Checking (CRC). The Floppy Disk Controller (FDC) is the chip that controls the reading and writing functionality of a floppy drive. It also contains data transmission but typically indirect memory access (DMA) mode. FDC is connected to the system bus of the CPU, typically uses interrupt 6, and appears as I/O ports to the computer. An x86 computer often uses an FDC chip with its IDE hard disk controller because it is connected to the same bus port--an Integrated Drive Electronics or Integrated Device Electronics port. That way, Can use a single IRQ for both devices, which speeds up data transfer speeds between them. On non-x86 PCs, a floppy disk controller sometimes includes its DMA capability so that no other hardware programming is necessary for smooth operation. The floppy disk controller uses the Central Processing Unit (CPU) to manage the activities between the computer and the disk drive. The data transfer is via a parallel interface, with head positioning data being passed along with each sector read or write operation. The Floppy Disk Controller may be a bit old school, but it still has its uses! Essentially a controller for the floppy disk drive, the Floppy Disk Controller allows you to store and retrieve information from disks the same way you used to back in the day. With added USB compatibility and a meager price tag, this device is a must-have for computing enthusiasts and collectors.