Re: Disk Images, IIe card, &c.

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article Randy Shackelford <shack@onyx.southwind.net> writes...

>Douglas Taylor <enochamr@sgci.com.spamstopper> wrote:
> 
>: Thanks for the info.  I was a bit vague with question #1, so I'll
>: rephrase:
> 
>: I plan to make a ProDOS partition on my LC's hard drive, and I'll use
>: that for storage.  Is there a way to get the IIe card to recognise DOS
>: 3.3 or ProDOS disk images?  How does one move files from the images to
>: the ProDOS partition?
> 
>The IIe card is a real //e; calling it an emulator is a misnomer. If you 
>connect up a 5.25, it works exactly like a 5.25 equipped //e. So you handle
>image files as well as any other files the same as on a more typical //e.

    Well the IIe card is (mostly) a hardware based IIe, but there 
is some software emulation going on which causes some speed hits 
and incompatibilities. First off there is no ROM firmware on the
card, it has to load an image of the "CF-ROM" off the Macintosh's 
hardrive. Next, there is no hardware video support--it all has to
be emulated using QuickDraw on the Mac side (even at 2 MHz, text
scrolling is going to be slower than a real Apple IIe). I recall
some copy protected software not liking the IIe card either.

    The Apple IIgs also has to emulate the Apple IIe, but this is 
all done through hardware  (65C816, Mega II, VGC, Slow RAM bank, 
etc). Ditto for the Apple III for emulating a stock Apple II Plus,
except like the IIe card, it too has to load an image of the ROM
firmware from software.

    Still I agree, it is more or less a real Apple IIe. You can
boot off a *real* Apple 5.25 drive, not too mention use any DB9
Apple II joysticks (try that with any software emulator). :)

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca