Re: Pseudo-disk *almost* ready for the big time.

["Polymorph" <polymorph69@hotmail.com>]

Alex Freed wrote:
> "Later Days Apples Pseudo-disk" proudly presented by (previously unheared
> of) Bronze Age Computing.
>
>
> A while ago I wrote about my experimental MMC/SD interface that could look
> to Apple 2 either as a ProDOS
> storage device or as a DISK ][.
>
> Took a while to iron out some glitches. Not sure all of them are gone, but I
> feel the device is stable enough to
> be presented to the world.
>
> See http://mirrow.com/FPGApple/pseudodisk.html for details. Yes, the page is
> rather primitive.
> I swear my Verilog is better than my HTML :)
>
> In a nutshell the board can act as a ProDOS disk or a DOS 3.3 disk. Or DOS
> 3.2 if you load such a nibble image.
> I didn't run too many tests, but all the .nib files I tried seem to work.
>
> Of course it works much faster in ProDOS mode. Takes about 2 seconds from
> cold start to a BASIC program loaded
> under ProDOS. By contrast the DOS 3.3 image takes 9 seconds to load DOS and
> Integer BASIC from a .nib image.
>
> It can be made a bit faster with some modifications to the firmware (Atmel
> AVR program written in "C").
>
> Of the 3 chips on the board (not counting the 3.3V regulator) all 3 are
> programmable: the CPLD, the 6502 driver and the
> AVR code.
>
> Last time a few people expressed interrest in the design. Now is the time to
> decide if pseudo-disk is to become a product.
> I made 6 prototype boards. I'm keeping 3 for my 3 Apples: (2+, 2e and GS).
> The other 3 are available.
> If they are claimed and there are at least a few more pre-orders I'll make a
> small "production" run. The 3 current boards do not have a solder mask, but
> they have extra prototyping space for mods.
> Imagine what they will be worth on ebay in 30 years :))
>
> The MSRP is $100 per board. Another $15 buys you (at cost) an SD card with a
> few pre-loaded images.
>
>
> --
> -Alex.

Hi Alex,

Sorry if this question has been answered already, but I was unable to
determine from this thread or your FAQ if your design supports multiple
ProDOS partitions? If it does, how many ProDOS partitions can you have
and is there software to select between partitions upon boot? I noted
that you had software for the nibble mode, but was wondering is the
same was available for ProDOS mode?

Further to this, could you please detail what partition schemes are
supported. For example, can you have a number of ProDOS partitions
before the nibble images - or are the two modes mutually exclusive?
Also, if this has been spelled out somewhere else, I apologise and ask
that you point me in the right direction...  ;-)

BTW, I just received a bit of cash for my b'day so it would seem that I
am now in the market for a flash card based storage device. I'm just
weighing up the pro's and con's of each before I decide which way I'm
gonna go. But I am definitely interested in your solution, as it would
be really neat to do away with floppies!

thanks,
-p