Re: Help identifying a card

[Ethereal <no@spam.com>]

"Craig Hulett" <First.Last@attbi.com> wrote in
news:bv107k$m67sn$1@ID-69649.news.uni-berlin.de: 

> Recently picked up a IIGS from eBay in a fit of nostalgia and I need
> some help identifying a card that I found inside it. It is "full
> sized" and the only writing on it says "VTECH" & "CPS 1986" on the
> front and "REV.C" on the back. It seems to be some sort of drive
> controller as it has two cables going from connectors labelled "Drive
> 1" and "Drive 2" to matching 19 pin connectors on the back of the
> IIGS.  The system included some sort of generic 3.5" drive that I'm
> *guessing* was hooked up to it, but trying to ask the older couple I
> bought it from only got me "we don't really know". 
> 
> Found something googling around called a CPS Universal Disk
> Controller, but the picture on the website didn't really match what I
> have.  So, any help out there?

http://www.deja.com/usenet (UseNet search engine) is your friend.

Quoting Supertimer from 10/18/1999:

"The Laser 128EX/2 has a UDC built in.  The disk port on the
128EX/2 (and 128EX, for that matter) is a UDC port.

The UDC card was meant to confer upon the Apple IIe the
capabilities of a Laser.  Those capabilities are 1) daisychain
several 5.25" and 3.5" drives of the IIGS/Mac variety
(instead of UniDisk 3.5, which is rarer and less fast) to
the disk port.  2) Support of Macintosh 400k and 800k
disk drives without eject buttons.  3) Support of Laser
brand 3.5 drives (basically Mac compatible drives)
and 5.25 drives (basically same as A2 5.25" drives).

In fact, in the later version of the UDC, support for the
UniDisk 3.5 was taken out so you NEEDED a IIGS or
Mac style 3.5" drive!

Trivia: Laser brand 3.5 drives work on Macs and Lasers
but do NOT work on the IIGS.  As mentioned earlier,
they are equivalent to the "eject buttonless" Mac 800k
drive.  Except the Laser has a manual eject button too
(manual like a PC, not electronic like a IIGS)."