Re: Obscure Apple II Hardware

[peterm@tlp.apana.org.au (Peter Maloney)]

James Reid (jcreid@netcom.com) wrote:
: I recently picked up two unusual pieces of Apple II hardware and would 
: like any info anyone could provide.
: The first is a hard disk accessory made by Rana Systems.  It consists of 
: a card that plugs in the Apple that connects to an external chassis.  The 
: chassis has a power supply, circuit board, and a Shugart hard drive.  I'd 
: be real surprised if it was more than 20 megs or so.  The circuit board 
: looks like it takes signals from the Apple card and converts them to an 
: MFM/RLL style drive.  Am I close?  The power supply is missing, 
: unfortunately, but it doesn't look like it would be hard to find 
: something that would work.  Is there any special software required to 
: operate the system or is it all firmware based?  There is an EPROM on the 
: Apple card.
: The second piece is a box called ISAAC.  This looks like it was a very 
: expensive interface to connect the Apple to the "real world".  There are 
: a bunch of A/D and D/A ports.  Inside the unit, there are slots identical 
: to those inside an Apple II.  I have no software or documentation for the 
: unit.  Anyone out there familiar with this thing?  It was manufactured by 
: Cybernetic Computer System in Mass.
: If you can help, please send e-mail to:
: jcreid@netcom.com
: jcreid@ccgate.hac.com
The Rana Elite was covered somewhere in Vol 1 of Open Apple, assuming my 
memory is running error-free. I saw an article on Issac in the Apple Blue 
book. If you can't find either of these I'll chance the cobwebs in my 
library. 

*<8o)X
Regds,
 Peter M.