Re: Apple UniDisk 3.5 vs. Apple 3.5

[shack@deimos.frii.com (Randy Shackelford)]

In article <pdueck-1901970157490001@dial1.pli.mb.ca>,
pdueck@pli.mb.ca <pdueck@pli.mb.ca> wrote:

>Can anybody tell me what colors the Apple UniDisk 3.5 and Apple 3.5 are? I
>think it's safe for me to say that the Apple 3.5 is the color
>platinum....is the UniDisk 3.5 beige?

OK I think it's time for the Canonical List o' External Floppies (tm):

1. beige, Apple logo not in color, notch at right end of disk slot so you 
   can jam the disk all the way in -> 400K external for Mac, incompatible 
   with IIs

2. beige, colored Apple logo, no eject button, no daisychain port on the
   back -> 800K Mac external, incompatible with IIs

3. white, eject button -> unidisk 3.5, compatible with 32K ROM //c and up,
   //e with "Apple 3.5 floppy disk controller card" AKA the LIRON card,
   //e with "Apple II 3.5 disk controller card" AKA superdrive card, IIgs
   floppy port, IIgs with superdrive card, IIgs with LIRON card (1 MHz only)

4. grey, red in use light -> Apple 800K 3.5, compatible with Macs equipped
   with an external floppy port from the 512 Enhanced up, //c plus, IIgs
   floppy port, IIgs with superdrive card, //e with superdrive card

5. grey, amber in use light -> external FDHD, compatible with //c plus
   (800K only), IIgs floppy port (800K only) //e and IIgs with superdrive
   card (800K and 1.44 mb)

6. granite, HDI20 connector -> external floppy for Powerbook 100s and Duos,
   incompatible with IIs

I have every item listed up there aside from the Powerbook external floppy,
so I can provide part numbers for each if there's still some confusion.

>The UniDisk 3.5 model also has the IWM  where as the Apple 3.5 is a "dumb"
>drive.......right?

Unidisks have their own IWM, 6502, and memory inside the drive. Grey drives
only have a circuit board to handle daisychianing. Beige Mac drives have
nothing.

Isn't all of this FAQ material?
-- 
Randy Shackelford                                 
shack@frii.com