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Re: A few technical q's from an apple newbie



I'm not clear on what version of the II you are trying to implement. It
might be best to go for (at least start with) one of the II/II+ models,
with 48k RAM because all the logic was synthesized with pure TTL, and
you can get schematics from various sources (someone has the old 1978
"Redbook" reference manual scanned into a PDF).

The IIe and later models had some GAL and custom ASICs that were not
publicly documented; at best, people like Jim Sather reverse engineered
them. The softswitch behavior got more complicated with later models as
well. DOS 3.3 games like Lode Runner usually can run in a 48K original
II just fine.

I don't have a reference manual handy, but I believe the INTCxROM
softswitch is used to control whether $c100..$cfff was mapped ROMS on
expansion slots or the expanded ROM space in a IIe that contained, as I
recall, diagnostic routines, 80 column firmware support, and maybe some
other miscellaneous code. Yet another way, along with its built-in
language card & 64k expansion support, readable soft-switches, VBLANK
connections, etc., that a IIe is more complicated than a II/II+. About
the only thing simpler in a IIe is the lack of memory config jumpers.