The Commodore 1571 has a internal power supply, one diskette station with two read / write heads and a motherboard. On the motherboard you will find RAM and ROM memory, a MOS 6522 VIA, a MOS 6526 CIA and a MOS 6502 processor. The Commodore 1571 disk drive is a smart device, reading and writing works independent of the connected computer.
The 1571 diskdrive is quicker than a 1541 in combination with a Commodore 128 (burst mode). The 1571 can read and write data in two formats: GCR (Commodore) and MFM (PC).