Re: CFFA Card memory cards on sale at Sears

["Glenn Jones" <apple2stuff@rogers.com>]

"Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote in message
20041109232458.14275.00000305@mb-m13.aol.com">news:20041109232458.14275.00000305@mb-m13.aol.com...
> Paul R. Santa-Maria wrote:
>
> >brad wrote:
> >> (still want a usb card to work on a gs....just a simple little card i
could
> >> plug a usb card into...if one of you guys could just whip one of those
out
> >
> >My understanding is that USB is processor-intensive.
> >If so, an Apple IIgs USB card may be impossible.
>
> This would certainly be the case for a "direct" implementation,
> but, for all practical purposes, there are no such implementations.
>
> All current USB interfaces have on-chip microcontrollers to handle
> configuration and bus transactions, together with SRAM FIFOs.
> This is quite similar to modern Ethernet implementations.
>
> And it has the effect of putting about 20 times as much processing
> power in the inerface chip as there is in the Apple II itself!

http://microusb.org/ is a site where they are working on a USB interface for
the Atari and Commodore 64. Based on the cypress SL811HS (8 bit CPU
interface).

>
> Dog...tail...wag.  ;-)

Actually if it wasn't for the embedded market there might be even less
hardware developement for old 6502 platforms then there currently is and
that is as we all know minimal at best ...


>
> Of course, the real issue is the difficulty of writing an Apple II
> driver to control something connected to the USB interface.

They have working HID drivers for a USB keyboard, Steering Wheel and Joypad.
Another part of the problem is patching software to use the new drivers....


Personally I like working with newer embedded technology on the Apple II
because it gives me some comfort to learn new things while applying them in
an familiar setting. If someting useful comes of it then so much the better
....

Cheers

Glenn