Re: 3.5" drive on //e

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

In article lesherjt@vuse.vanderbilt.edu (Tilghman Lesher) writes...
>
>What is the minimal hardware required to get a 3.5" drive (I'm
>assuming 800K) operational on a //e?

    The only requirement is an interface slot card. Below is a list 
of available options, and the type of 3.5 drives each supports. Note
that none of the controllers are still sold, so you'll have to search
for them second-hand. The same applies with external Apple 3.5 floppy
drives, though compatible clone brand can be used as well:

- Apple 3.5 Floppy Interface Card (aka "Liron" card) 

    Supports UniDisk 3.5 only. The snow-white color drive that is
an intelligent device (has it's own logic inside: 65C02, ROM, RAM)
and commonly found on the Apple IIc. [Handles 400K/800K GCR]

- Apple II 3.5 Disk Controller Card (aka SuperDrive card)

    Supports UniDisk 3.5 (IIe only), platinum Apple 3.5 and Apple 
SuperDrive.  This card can do the same function the above card 
provided, while also adding support for the two newer drives.
Requires Enhanced IIe or IIgs. This card is quite rare today.
[Handles 400K/800K GCR and 720K/1.44MB MFM]

- CPS/Laser Universal Disk Controller (aka UDC card)

    Supports older biege Macintosh 400K and 800K drives, also
platinum Apple 3.5 and Apple SuperDrive (in 800K mode only).
Also supports 5.25 drives. This combination may have varied
with different revisions. This is the only 400K controller
available for the Apple II. Card is also quite rare today.
[Handles 400K/800K GCR]

- Applied Engineering PC Transporter (aka PCT)

    While it is meant as co-processor for running IBM PC software,
it can be used to control 5.25 and 3.5 floppy drives in Apple mode. 
I'm not very familiar with it, but the platinum Apple 3.5 works 
(albeit slowly) as do real PC drives. 

- //SHH BlueDisk card 

    Supports IBM/PC 5.25 and 3.5 floppy mechanisms of most type,
though unless the drive already has one, it requires an external
enclosure and power-source (external PC floppy drives aren't
very common as most know). Still sold by company in Germany.
[Handles 360K/720K/1.44MB/2.88MB MFM - *no* GCR support]

There are also one or two older options, but they're rather ancient,
too rare and obscure to be worth mentioning. Someone else can list
these, my knowledge of them is too vage.

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca