Re: modern Applicard?

[Alex Freed <alex_news@mirrow.com>]

Steven Hirsch wrote:
> Sounds like I should blow the dust off of the software and drivers...

Good idea!

I looked at the disassembly of the bootstrap ROM and apart
from obvious things there are a lot of mystery routines. I ran it
on the FPGA model and sure enough  it sends 'Z' to the Apple side.
Waits for a long time ( 15 seconds or so ) for input from Apple
and then goes into an endless cycle sending a different byte several
times a second to the interface. It also reads the port $E0 that is
decoded to a chip select on the external connector that is not supposed
to be wire to anything. Maybe just a scope strobe for debugging?

I was able to dig up one good article about how it works on the software
side. A file called STARCPM.IMG from the A2.CPM.COLLECTIONS has a 
document STAR.DOC describing the software interface between Apple and 
the Applicard. I'll use that for testing.

Many other files in the A2.CPM.COLLECTIONS are compressed. The xZx 
extension implies the "crunch" method according to the CP/M FAQs, but no
decompress tool works on them. The magic number is 76 DF which is not
what the tools expect. Anybody knows how to deal with these files?

-Alex.