Re: Basic II/e questions

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article LMNC01A@prodigy.com (Anthony Venticinque) writes...
>
>My daughter and her cousin just picked up a pair of Apple II/e computers.
> I have a few questions about setting them up.  They have a super serial
>card, a 5.25 disk controller card and a SSM par printer card and an 80-
>col/64K exp card.
>
>Can I install the drives and controller from an earlier II in this
>computer?

   Definitely. There is no difference between Apple-brand 5.25 interfaces,
other than the connector at the end of the card. The original one uses
a dual pair of IDC-20 male pins on the card itself, while the new revision
had a ribbon cable leading off it and ending with a female DB19 connector.
If your drive doesn't match the card, an adapter can be made too.

>How can I install a Mac 3.5disk drive?

   This requires a 3.5 controller card, there were three separate boards
created for this task. To connect up modern Macintosh drives, such as the
platinum colored Apple 3.5 or Apple SuperDrive, you need an "Apple II 3.5
Controller Card" (aka SuperDrive card).

>Would it support either a 400K or 800K drive?

   Any 400K drives or beige colored 800K drives (the Mac 512e/Plus
external) require the "Universal Disk Controller" from Central Point
Software. It will also work with the Apple 3.5 and SuperDrive, but the
latter will only function in 800K emulation (the above card is require to
take advantage of 1.44MB). The UDC card also works with 5.25 drives.

   There is one more controller, commonly known as "Liron" (the official
name slips me at the moment) which will allow you to connect a UniDisk 3.5
(800K). This is not a Macintosh compatible drive, it is an "intelligent"
device, where as the others are "dumb" devices. For this reason it will be
notiably slower than other 3.5 drives (the SuperDrive card can also control
these type of drives too, though it would be silly to waste it on such).
Note that none of the above controller cards are available anymore, and
that the first two are quite rare.

>Would the Mac and Apple II/e read each other's disks.

   Yes, the Apple II uses the same encoding scheme to format 400K/800K
(GCR) and 1.44MB (MFM) floppies disks, and is thus compatible. The Apple II
will be using ProDOS, which can be read using either The Apple File Exchange
program, or transparently, under System 7.5.x with the PC-Exchange extension
installed. On the IIe side, programs such as HFSLink or A2FX will allow you
to read (but not write) HFS Mac disks.

>How can I connect it to a Mac Localtalk network?

   Not without a special board. This would require what is known as
the "Apple II Workstation Card" and only works in an Enhanced IIe.
It gives an Apple IIe the ability to connect to an AppleTalk network.
This is no longer available and again, rather rare, although recently
someone was selling a batch of these on comp.sys.apple2.marketplace.

>What O/S version should I shop for?

   The current OS used by the 8-bit Apple II is called 'ProDOS 8'.
Version 2.0.3 is the latest available, but requires an Enhanced IIe
(up to version 1.9 can be used on non-Enhanced machines). It is
available for free, on Apple's FTP site:

ftp://ftp.apple.com/dts/aii/sys.soft/8bit.system.4.0.2

>Can a SCSI card coexist with two floppy controller cards?

   No reason why it should not. Generally the SCSI card plugs into
slot 7 and the floppy controllers below that, in slots 5 or 6. The
computer will scan the slots backwards (looking first in slot 7,
then slot 6, then 5 and so on...) so if the SCSI device is in a
higher slot, it will become the boot device. No problem there, but
you may want the floppies to boot first, in which case you would
rearrange the cards. Ideally, you would put the SCSI controller in
slot 7, the 5.25 in slot 6 and the 3.5 in slot 5.

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca