Re: CFFA Run 4: Accepting pre-orders

[scott@alfter.diespammersdie.us (Scott Alfter)]

In article <44286e23$0$21294$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au>,
Mark McDougall  <msmcdoug@no.spam.iinet> wrote:
>The CFFA board, from what I can deduce, almost 'bit-bashes' the IDE port 
>with a bit of help from a CPLD. Hence the ROM is completely different to 
>that on, say, a Disk ][ interface card.
>
>My question is, why does PRODOS work and not DOS 3.3? Aren't there standard 
>'entry points' in the disk ROMs that allow different cards to work with the 
>various DOSes? Or does PRODOS have to be bootstrapped and patched (or an 
>extra driver used) to work with the CFFA?

Storage controllers (other than 5.25" floppy controllers) that have
SmartPort firmware on them are visible to ProDOS and GS/OS.  Whether you're
using a 3.5" floppy controller, one of the SCSI cards that used to be
available, or the CFFA, they all show up as one or more block devices. 
Sometimes an add-on driver can deliver extra performance (as is the case
with the Apple DMA and RamFAST SCSI cards), but you'll get some level of
functionality just by installing the card.

DOS 3.3 predates SmartPort by a long shot, so it only works with 5.25"
floppies out-of-the-box.  There were hacks to get it to work with 3.5"
floppies, but it's such a brain-dead OS (non-hierarchical filesystem!) that
it's not worth trying to use it on a hard drive.

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