Re: How do I add firmware to a card?

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

Tristan Mumford wrote:

> You mean provide some compatibility modes to allow the less tricky software
> (Ie not copy protected games etc) to function etc, but do other things by
> direct hardware access, or have some nice utility routines in the ROM too,
> to make creating custom software easier.
> Ie things like BUS enumeration, initialisation, resetting, reading/writing
> addresses of the buffer etc. etc. So the programmer never has to touch bare
> metal.

I was referring to implementing the SmartPort protocol, just as SCSI,
IDE and 'slinky' RAM cards do, which would enable a USB mass storage
device to function as a ProDOS/Pascal compatible storage device.

Smartport provides a very simplistic block interface that the major
Apple II OS's recognise (and is also boot compatible on the enhanced
IIe and IIgs)

Providing exotic things like Disk II emulation sounds good in
principle, but there's the problem of how to initiate image selection,
and even more difficult, swapping images during program operation.

My 'ideal' USB interface would allow one to use USB 'keys' and hard
disks as mass storage devices just as the CFFA allows a compact flash
card to be used as such. As an extension, I would expect to be able to
use a USB<->Card Reader adapter to utilise compact flash or other
memory card technology.

Using the approach I outlined, this should be fairly easy to achieve.

As an extension, or 'nice to have', it'd be nice if the firmware, and
indeed the uC itself could be programmed from the Apple II. This would
make it trivial to issue updates to the card to allow for more devices,
and by association provide a blueprint design that others could use to
create whatever esoteric hardware interface for the Apple II they
desired, as all the tricky Apple issues would be taken care of, and all
they'd have to be concerned with was programming the uC and interfacing
(via it's spare I/O channels) to whatever it is they dream up.

So, that's what I'd build, given enough spare time. Hope the ideas are
useful, and good luck with it!

Matt