Re: CFFA V2.0

[Linards Ticmanis <ticmanis@gmx.de>]

Sean Fahey wrote:

> Couldn't he use a Transwarp as a workaround? Or are saying the ROM card 
> and Language card are using conflicting address space?

The language card isn't really workable anywhere except in slot 0, 
because pretty much all software expects to find it there. As long as it 
is in there you have to plug the ROM card somewhere else. This means 
that software thar wishes to soft-switch the ROM card won't be able to 
do so because it will also look in slot 0.

Of course you can simply flip the switch of the ROM card to the "up" 
position, then it will work in any slot. But still not in concert with 
the language card: If the ROM card starts with the switch in "up" 
position it will try to drive the bus whenever there's a memory access 
above $D000. The language card, while active, will try to do the same, 
resulting in a bus conflict.

The problem really boils down to this: The language card can disable 
mainboard ROM since that is a standard slot function in the Apple. Thus 
there is no conflict betweent the language card RAM and the mainboard 
ROM - either one or the other is visible at any one time. But it can't 
disable ROM on another card.

If you put your ROM card into some other slot than 0, software *could* 
use it in concert with the language card, by making sure to always 
switch off the ROM card before switching on the language card and vice 
versa. The problem: existing software, including ProDOS, doesn't 
actually do this. It would have to be patched to be able to run on such 
a setup.

--
Linards Ticmanis