Re: ProDOS / Autostart ROM ID bytes

["mdj" <mdj.mdj@gmail.com>]

David Empson wrote:

> > The last release remaps devices beyond 2 on any slot to the remaining
> > free slot/drive positions.
>
> ... but it only does this for devices which support the SmartPort
> firmware interface, and doesn't make use of any spare drive 2 unit
> numbers where drive 1 is mapped to a real device. For example, a
> "slinky" RAM card in slot 4 would use S4,D1, but nothing will be
> allocated to S4,D2.

I should've mentioned that. Only one driver can be attached to ProDOS
per slot, so yes second drives on devices that use only one go to
waste.

> All of Apple's late model intelligent multi-drive controllers support
> SmartPort, so they can take advantage of this feature: Liron card,
> Superdrive card, IIc and IIgs slot 5 firmware, original SCSI card
> (limited to 7 drives or partitions), high-speed SCSI card.
>
> Standard slot RAM cards also commonly support SmartPort. I know that
> Apple's card does, but it only has a single logical volume. Not sure
> about the AE RAMFactor or PC Transporter.

The RAMFactor does, as it is more or less 100% compatible with Apple's
card, but supports partitions as well.

> Third party support for SmartPort is more spotty. For example, the
> RamFast SCSI card doesn't support it, but has its own method of patching
> multi-unit support into ProDOS's device table.

I think most of the third party cards supported only the ProDOS block
device interface, plus their own hacks...

> I don't recall other third-party cards with Smartport support, but I'm
> sure there are some. Anyone else?

The universal disk controller card is the only one that comes to mind.

Matt