mystix@direct.ca@direct.ca writes:
>You the ability to use Apple drives would be more convienient than trying to
>produce images. But you're right on the issue of the SWIM chips. ROMs could be
>easily be pulled out of existing GS's, but the disk controller chips aren't socketed.

The //gs only used the IWM and they are socketed in //c and Mac 128/512/Plus/SE
motherboards.

If you want to read Apple // disks in your PC you can already do it. Just buy
a Catweasel board (see http://www.jschoenfeld.com/ecatweasel.htm or
http://members.tripod.com/~apd2/catweasl.htm):
 
 Catweasel is a universal floppy disk controller that uses unmodified PC
 diskdrives. The Catweasel can handle nearly any disk format, you just
 have to find a drive for them.  Normally, these drives are just 3.5
 inch and 5.25 inch drives. PC floppy drives used to be known as being
 able to work with PC formatted disks only, but now you can access any
 of the disk formats listed further below. We're updating the software
 regularly since 1996. Here's the list of the supported formats. This
 list applies to all versions of the Catweasel!
 
  * all PC-formats (180K up to 1440K)
  * Amiga DD and HD (also 5,25" formats)
  * Atari 9, 10 and 11 sektor disks
  * Macintosh 720K, 800K, 1440K (DD, GCR, HD)
  * Commodore 1541, 1571, 1581 (C64, C128 and 3,5" C-64 disks)
  * XTRA High density with 2380KByte per disk
  * Nintendo backup station 1600KB format
  * Atari 800XL (all MFM formats, FM under developement)
  * Apple IIe disks (Apple DOS 3.3 and up)
  * further 8-bit formats planned
 
 Sophisticated error correction algorithms enable you to read otherwise
 unreadable disks.  In other words, you have an excellent chance to read
 your formally unreadable floppy disks.
 
 You can connect up to two drives to the Catweasel, and the two drives
 can be any combination of 3.5" and 5.25". 

 Catweasel ISA version (PC, Alpha AXP, BeBox)
 The ISA version of the Catweasel is shipped with MS-DOS (TM) software.
 Writing to disks is only possible under Linux at the moment. The drivers
 are not designed to be easy-to-use. Instead, they are tools "for-freaks-only".
 You can read disk images from the formats listed above, and single files
 can be copied from Amiga, PC and C-64 disks.  Drivers for the Alpha AXP
 are only available under Linux, and BeBox support is under developement.
 The ISA Catweasel only needs I/O address space, it does not need any DMA
 or IRQ channel. This way, a maximum level of compatibility is given.
 Accessing the Catweasel drives with a drive letter is not possible. 
--
David Wilson  School of IT & CS, Uni of Wollongong, Australia