Re: FDHD Blues

[dempson@swell.actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

In article <1993Apr16.202236.42806@urz.unibas.ch> hochstrasse@urz.unibas.ch writes:
> 
> * If you put the controller into slot 5, as recommended, you can't
>   use the GS' RAM disk any more! I.e. you can create it and it's
>   taken away from your system's memory, but you can't access it!!
>   I wonder why Apple put this 'feature' into the new controller.
>   Perhaps because it's intended to work with //Es too.

It's not a feature of the SuperDrive card - the same applies if you
put ANY card in slot 5 and set slot 5 to "Your Card".  RAM5 can only
be accessed through the IIgs's built-in SmartPort firmware, which is
only available if slot 5 is set to "Internal".  ROM disks (e.g. OctoRAM
ESP) are also affected.

I would have thought that the SuperDrive card would be able to
recognise that it was running on a IIgs, and patch into the original
SmartPort in some way, so that all devices on both busses were
available.  Unfortunately, Apple neglected to provide this facility.

It would also be very useful if Apple released a native GS/OS driver
for /RAM5.  This wouldn't help with ProDOS-8, of course.

>   BTW, is anyone aware of a fix for that? (I mean besides the one
>   I mention below)

I used the same solution - putting the SuperDrive card in slot 6.
There is no way around this problem short of patching the code in the
card's ROM, and that would be a large amount of work.

> * Perhaps today, I'd rather buy a Floptical, because it can also
>   read 720K and 1.4M disks besides those big 21M babies.

... and doesn't occupy another slot (assuming you already have a SCSI
card).
-- 
David Empson                                                               
dempson@swell.actrix.gen.nz    <--- Note my new E-Mail address!            
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand