Re: New firmware for PseudoDisk / some problems

["Alex Freed" <alexf@mirrow.com>]

"David Empson" <dempson@actrix.gen.nz> wrote in message
1hpa9lw.1cq1hqgxzilwN%dempson@actrix.gen.nz">news:1hpa9lw.1cq1hqgxzilwN%dempson@actrix.gen.nz...
>
> Do you mean auto starting with your card as the "disk controller" in the
> highest slot (Ctrl-Apple-Reset on a //e or later)?
yes
>
> Perhaps you are trying to call something which is not initialized after
> a cold boot.

For the record it appears that the "cout" at $FDED is not initialized,
but the pure Apple 40 col screen routines work fine. Including "cout1" at
$FDF0


> I might at least be able to contribute to the project on the
> software/firmware side of things - I've developed firmware for Apple II

If you develop improved firmware, I'll give you a free card.
The only thing is that the bulk of the code is written for the AVR uC rather
than 6502.


> I would like to see a detailed technical overview of the card (out of
> academic curiosity if nothing else). One point which interests me: is
> your CPLD/FPGA hooked up to all the Apple II bus signals, in particular
> does it have enough logic to potentially support the IOSTROBE signal and
> allow the use of the $C800-$CFFF region (including decoding an access to
> $CFFF so it can release a latch)? If so, there is the potential of
> adding a Smartport driver to the card firmware, which would give it more
> flexibility than a ProDOS block driver.

The CPLD has enough logic to handle all that but not all the signals needed
are wired on the current board. In particular only 9 address lines are
connected
to the PROM. A few wires will be needed.

-Alex.