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The Rotronics Wafadrive is a magnetic tape storage peripheral launched in late 1984 for the ZX Spectrum home computer. Each tape is a continuous loop, unlike cassette tape. It was intended to compete with Sinclair's ZX Interface 1 and ZX Microdrive.

The Wafadrive comprises two continuous loop stringy floppy tape drives, an RS-232 interface and Centronics parallel port. The drives can run at two speeds: High speed (for seeking) and low speed (for reading/writing, which was significantly slower than that of Microdrives). The cartridges (or "wafers"), the same as those used in Entrepo stringy floppy devices for other microcomputers, are physically larger than Microdrive cartridges. They were available in three different capacities, nominally 16 kB, 64 kB or 128 kB. The larger sizes had the disadvantage of slower access, due to the longer length of tape.

The same drive mechanism, manufactured by BSR, and cartridges were used in at least the following similar devices:

• Quick Data Drive (QDD), designed to connect to the cassette port of Commodore 64 and VIC-20 home computers.
• A&J Micro Drive System 100, for TRS-80 Model 100 and it's clones (Kyotronic KC-85, NEC PC-8201 & PC-8300, Olivetti M10), connected via the RS-232 port.

References

1. "Racing to the tape". Sinclair User. December 1984. Archived from the original on 2001-03-03.

External links

• Rotronics Wafadrive User Manual
• meulie.net Rotronics Wafadrive User Manual
• Review of Waferdrive in Your Sinclair, Issue 5, May 1986

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• v
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v t e Sinclair computers, derivatives, and clones
Sinclair Research / Science of Cambridge	MK14 ZX80 ZX81 ZX Spectrum (ZX Spectrum+, ZX Spectrum 128) QL
Amstrad	ZX Spectrum +2 ZX Spectrum +3
Licenced systems	ZX Spectrum Vega ZX Spectrum Vega+
Timex Corporation	T/S 1000 T/S 1500 T/S 2068 (TC 2068) TC 2048 TC 3256
Cambridge Computer	Z88
Lists of clones	ZX80/81 clones ZX Spectrum clones QL clones
Compatible or related systems	ZX80 based: MicroAce, TK80, TK82, NE-Z80 ZX81 based: Apply 300, AS-1000, Lambda 8300, CP-200, CZ 1000, CZ 1500, CZ 1000 plus, CZ 1500 plus, NE-Z8000, Ringo R-470, TK82C, TK83, TK85 ZX Spectrum based: ATM, Pentagon, CZ 2000, CZ Spectrum, CZ Spectrum plus, Didaktik, Dubna 48K, Hobbit,Scorpion ZS-256, Sprinter, Kay 1024, Komputer 2086, TK90X, TK95, Robik, ZX Spectrum Next QL based: CST Thor, One Per Desk, Q40/Q60 Other: SAM Coupé, Jupiter Ace
Sinclair Research peripherals	ZX Printer ZX Interface 1 ZX Interface 2 ZX Microdrive
Timex peripherals	TS2040 Printer TS2050 Modem FDD Disk Drive FDD3000 Disk Drive
Other peripherals	Beta Disk Interface DISCiPLE MB02 Rotronics Wafadrive Multiface Kempston Currah SpecDrum RAM Music Machine Stack Light Rifle Magnum Light Phaser
People	Clive Sinclair John Pemberton Rick Dickinson Richard Altwasser Steve Vickers

• Computer hardware stubs
• Computer storage devices
• Home computer peripherals
• ZX Spectrum
• Tape-based computer storage