Re: Problems with //e cards

[nparker@cie-2.uoregon.edu (Neil Parker)]

In article <4r5k2a$96i@unlisys.unlisys.net> zabin@berlin.snafu.de (Hal
Zabin) writes:
>[...disk drive question omitted because I can't answer it...]
>There is also a Z80 Soft card in slot 5, althought the ProDos utitility to show 
>the cards says this slot is empty. I am not even sure what the card is for! 
>Does anyone know? If the utility says the slot is empty does it mean the card 
>is not recognized?

What you have there is coprocessor card for running CP/M, a popular 8080/Z80-
based operating system from the late '70s and early '80s.  The card won't
be very useful to you unless you have a CP/M boot disk (if you don't have
one, you might be able to buy one in comp.sys.apple2.marketplace...but be
sure to ask for a version that supports your brand of Z80 card).

The Softcard will work in slot 5, but it normally goes in slot 4.  Softcard
CP/M expects to find your third and fourth disk drives (if you have more
than two drives) in slot 5.

The apparently-empty slot is normal behavior for the Softcard.  Most
card-identification utilities work by examing the card's ROM, but the
Softcard has no ROM to examine, so the slot looks empty.

           - Neil Parker
-- 
Neil Parker, nparker@{cie-2,cie}.uoregon.edu, http://cie-2.uoregon.edu/~nparker

     "I was going to be a neo-deconstructivist but Mom wouldn't let me."
                                     -- Calvin and Hobbes, 7/13/1995