Alex Freed wrote:
Great thanks to Glenn and Steven for the tech info on the Applicard.
(snip)
The big question is does the world need it? I'll definitely add this functionality to my FPGApple, but does anyone care about a board for a real Apple 2/2e?
I would love to see the CardZ180 revisited. There are Z180 CPUs available at high clock rates and the built-in MMU makes things much more interesting. In particular, a variation of Borland's Turbo Modula-2 exists that can use the additional memory for program storage. There's also the fact that the CardZ180 operating system will drop right in, offering a number of advantages over stock CP/M.
One of the most useful, IMHO, was the fact that the host side of the BIOS executed as a normal ProDOS SYSTEM program. Applications running on the 64180/Z180 could make system calls to access the ProDOS file system directly. I never got around to writing a full filesystem translation module, but it would be possible in theory to have CP/M "mount" ProDOS in such a manner.
Unfortunately I was never able to get the schematic nor PAL maps for the version we produced. Rod sent me a bunch of diagrams, but they pertained to a newer design he was working on (plus a SCSI daughter board and a video board that never saw the light of day). I do have a bare CardZ180 PCB somewhere, so it should be possible to trace it out with some work. When I get a round tuit, I'm going to go through my working boards to see if any of the PALs have the security fuses intact.
Steve