Re: Drivers for SVA Apple Disk Controller

[mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon)]

Frank Townsend wrote:

>I can certainly check if it has an on-board ROM.
>
>Now, how do I do that> :)

There are two ways to proceed:  physical inspection or software inspection.

To check physically, look for a large IC (probably 24-pin) located "near" the
section of the board which has the contact fingers that plug into the slot.
If it is an EPROM, it will have a small quartz window, usually covered by
a piece of tape with some version ID, copyright, etc.

To check in software, get into the Apple II monitor in your favorite way
(CALL -151 is traditional from Applesoft).  Note which slot your card
is in--say, 5 for example.  Then type C500L.  The screen should fill
with 20 lines of 1) gobbledegook with lots of "A0"s mixed in on the
left hand column, or 2) valid assembly code.  If the latter, then the
code resides in the "slot ROM" of slot 5 (in this example).  If you get
garbage assembly code with lots of "A0"s in it, then there is no slot
ROM, and the monitor is disassembling "vapor" left on the bus by
the video refresh, which typically contains a lot of blanks (ASCII $A0).

-michael

 Email:  mjmahon@aol.com
 Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/