modern Applicard?

[Alex Freed <alex_news@mirrow.com>]

Great thanks to Glenn and Steven for the tech info on the Applicard.

It appears to be a very straightforward design and quite easy to
reproduce with modern elements at a very low parts count:
z80 CPU
z80 CTC
128K x 8 static RAM
PROM
CPLD to take care of all the glue logic

Maybe an extra chip or two for clock generation, etc. It can run
at 10 MHz. The CPU is available in 20 MHz version, but not the CTC.
Could be worked around, but will need more logic.

It would also be easy to extend it a bit. An obvious new feature
would be a CF or MMC memory card interface. Would be very easy to
write a program for the z80 that would parse the FAT filesystem on
a flash memory card and present the image byte by byte to a ProDOS
device driver. Much like my PseudoDisk does, but using z80 instead
of the AVR uC at zero extra hardware except for a card connector.

The big question is does the world need it?
I'll definitely add this functionality to my FPGApple, but does anyone
care about a board for a real Apple 2/2e?

-Alex.