Re: APPLE ][ Clone-Project?

[david@uow.edu.au (David Wilson)]

"Andrew Trotman" <andrew@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov> writes:

>> > is there a project out there in the endless net space, to build a 100%
>> > compatible apple II clone with modern chips?

>I paid $5.00 for a stack of 30 Apple //e motherboards on ebay.  They don't
>boot without the keyboard attached, so I bought a keyboard for $5.00 too.

They would with appropriate pull up or pull down resistors on the joystick
port (with no keyboard attached the Open & Closed Apple keys default to
the depressed operation which puts the motherboard into self test mode).

>This seems like the currently cheapest wasy to solve this problem at the
>moment.  They are all original components and when I finally blow one up
>I'll fix it from bits on the other motherboards.

>There are some obvious projects to make this "more modern":
>    Replace the Apple keyboard with a PC keyboard.

This could be done with an small PCB with a PIC microcontroller. This
would actually be easier on a ][+ than a //e - on the ][+ it would plug
into the 16pin keyboard socket while on a //e it would plug into the
socket occupied by the 40pin keyboard controller.

>    Replace the Disk ][ with IDE controller / zip-drive.

This card has already been built.

>    Replace the 80 Col card with a polygon rendering card.

Tricky.

>There are some "problems" with a 100% modern compatible:
>    Where are you going to get a "modern" 1978 style floppy disk drive?

Any 5.25" drive would do me - I have no attraction to full height floppy
drives. My 1st //e (clone) had 1/2 height drives.

>    What OS are you going to run? Will DOS 3.3 run on a 50Gb hard drive?

It works on my 200MB SCSI hard drive (not all at once of course).

>    100% compatible with what?  ][ ][plus //e //c or IIgs?

All but the //gs would be possible - the //gs added a lot of proprietry
hardware like the Ensonic sound chip that would be difficult to emulate.

>    There are no "modern" versions of some of the original chips!!

Create them from FPGA chips.

>    The custom chips no longer exist so a clone may be physicaly large.

Not necessarily - FPGA chips would shrink a lot of the 74LSxxx board area.
--
David Wilson  School of IT & CS, Uni of Wollongong, Australia