mdj wrote:
On Jul 31, 8:35 am, "Michael J. Mahon" <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:And, if I understand correctly, every II owner who wants an IDEfile will also need a ProFile controller card...Yes, and alas these cards are extremely rare.
Exactly!
Fortunately however, they're extremely easy to clone, being nothing more than a bidirectional parallel port with enough firmware to be recognised as a ProDOS Block Device. Heck, even cloning it might be more trouble that scratch designing a compatible card.
Which raises the question of why anyone would *want* to insert a ProFile interface between an Apple II and an IDE drive when there are already several direct IDE interfaces available. What was the "design maximum" size of a ProFile? (I'm only aware of 5MB and 10MB implementations.) Is the interface (and driver) capable of 32MB? Multiple partitions? And if you change the interface/driver to support larger drives, is it still a ProFile interface? ;-) The only use I can see is for someone who has a failing ProFile and wants to make a hardware substitution, leaving all else unchanged. -michael NadaNet file server for Apple II computers! Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/ "The wastebasket is our most important design tool--and it's seriously underused."