Adorable Atari 810 Diskdrive Runs 8GB MicroSD Cards

Riding an overwhelming wave of nostalgia, Posterous user “Rossum” decided to shift his computing experience backa bout 30 years by reliving the glory days of Atari computers. But instead of the massive traditional Atari 810 5 1/4 inch floppy disk drive, Rossum designed and built a miniature version that uses 8gb micro SD cards. Unlike the disk drives of the old days, his little drive can emulate up to eight independent Atari drives.

Using the fabrication service Shapeways and some model paint, Rossum was able to get that retro look with modern convenience.  He writes:

The original 810 managed 90k per disk and had a volume of about 30,000 cm3. Assuming a 8Gig card the new version can store about 90,000 disks and at 5 cm3 only takes up 0.000167 times as much space. So it is a lot bigger and a lot smaller. Progress eh?

The next logical step is for someone to take the Rasberry Pi, marry it to an Apple emulator, and cram it all into a custom miniature Apple ][. This just has to happen.

(via Rossum)