Re: software for //e workstation card

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

In article dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson) writes...

>- SuperDrive.  This is the native drive for the Mac IIx and most later
>models until Apple started using cheaper mechanisms some time around
>1993.  They still call the more recent drive a "SuperDrive", but it is a
>different mechanism and is not able to be used on the Apple II.  It may
>still be possible to buy a real "SuperDrive" in an external case.

    Actually, no. The external SuperDrive was discontinued around the
same time the Apple II 3.5 Disk Controller Card was (I seem to recall
it being removed the the price list the same day actually). You have
to look for them used these days, although they're not that common.

    It is a simple matter to transplant an internal SuperDrive mechan-
ism into a standard Apple 3.5 (800K) case. The housing on the two are
identical, as are the daisy-chain circuit card inside and the DB19
cable connector leading off it. I purchased a used Macintosh SE/30
SuperDrive mechanism and installed it in one of my Apple 3.5 cases.

    The difference between the cases are mostly cosmetic. For example
some external SuperDrives have "FDHD" silk screened just next to the
Apple logo on the case (my guess are these are older ones). Also the
access LED glows amber/yellow rather than red. Some may have thicker
and longer plug tails, but this is true of later model Apple 3.5
drives (I know since I have one). Finally the sticker id underneath
the drive will have a different part number and name.

>- The "PC Transporter", which was made by Applied Engineering.  It is
>able to support the Apple 3.5 Drive, and some PC 3.5" and 5.25" drives
>given the right interface.  (The safest option is to use the special
>"TransDrive" drives that Applied Engineering also sold.)  The main
>problem with the PC Transporter's support for the Apple 3.5 Drive is
>that it is slow (compared to the IIgs or SuperDrive card).  You are also
>not able to boot from it, and have to run a patched version of ProDOS
>which downloads firmware into the card before being able to access the
>drive.

    Speaking of that option, is there a way to use it so only the
Apple 3.5 drive connected to the PC Transporter is seen by GS/OS?
I have an AMR 800K drive and TransDrive 5.25 connected to mine,
but as soon as I go into the Finder it continiously starts polling
the MFM 5.25 drive (to the point the system is not usable). I also
was unsuccesful at patching the ProDOS boot stub used by GS/OS,
and so had to load the firmware into memory by booting the PCT
startup disk and _then_ the GS/OS System Disk.

    I have also had trouble getting it to "see" the 768K Slinky
RAM Disk option it is supposed to emulate. Sometimes that appears
on the desktop, sometimes it does not. I suppose I could install
the real Slink board I purchased recently, but I rather let that
live in my Apple IIe with the 512K RamWorks (I don't believe the
two types of memory card be used together, but it doesn't hurt
having them both present so long as they don't conflict).

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca