Re: A Solid-State Drive for the ][+

["brad" <mrbrad@ll.net>]

not sure if it can be done exactly..but i have some kinda hardware setup
..like legit mnfg of a control manual and add on modules...i really need to
dig it up and see what the name of it or the company was...it is i think  16
modules (apple //'s) are networked thru this large control box via
cables....on each apple // there are two juice box sized ..i kid you not
..black boxes (shades of 2001 movie) and they are either an eprom
arrangement in the box with some kinda bubble memory or something like
that...the whole works is completely hardware written (eproms someplace
obviously) and it has a manual and instructions..not sure if you can through
like an old sider or scsi hd on this mess or not.....anyway....if anyone
knows more about this post it here...or i suppose i've posted on here about
it before i really need to find it and dig it out and see what it actually
was called...if you could toss a hd on the works too...it would (or might)
be a nice little way to network a bunch of apple //s together for use of a
web based bbs to get to some of the old apple // bbs pkgs for example...

anyway....such a beast exists..and i suspect they used the famed 'bubble
memory' stuff to do it....i think each little plastic box that replaced the
floppy was like 800k max...

maybe i can remember where i put the thing and actually read the
manual..duh...that prob would help my posting here

no time no time

brad
former sysop www.lost-gonzo.com still down


"Rob Jones" <robsgreenneon@startmail.ca> wrote in message
bc4b97a8.0410011839.4483998@posting.google.com">news:bc4b97a8.0410011839.4483998@posting.google.com...
> I was looking at my Apples, and thought to myself, "Would it be
> possible to use some form of permanent memory like an EEPROM or
> battery-backed RAM to build a solid-state drive for the Apple ][+"? I
> have seen the possibility of using IDE Hard Drives and CFFA cards to
> do this, so why not regular memory?
>
> The problem that arises is figuring out when and how DOS communicates
> a Read from or Write to disk. I started looking at the disk
> controller: I have an Elite controller which can drive up to 4 drives,
> and with a modification to DOS 3.3, will access up to 560K (DS/DD)
> disks (providing an Elite 3 drive is attached).
>
> So I started thinking, what signals are present at the 20-pin
> connector between the controller and the drive? I quickly went to the
> manuals and discovered that the controller uses 5 data signals between
> it and the drive: RD Data, WR Data, WR Req, /Enbl1, and /Enbl2. There
> are 4 signals, which I assume are the drive selects, labeled as o0,
> o1, o2, and o3 (driven by Q0 through Q3 of a 9334 chip). If I was to
> use this control, with some logic, I could select several banks of
> 560K, each representing one disk.
>
> The other possibility is to completely bypass the disk controller and
> have a ML subroutine issue the read or write command at the bus. This
> way I could use the Apple address lines to directly access the RAM. I
> would need to find a way to separate main RAM from this add-on RAM,
> but a latch to trap an 8-bit data word at a specific address location,
> would tell the RAM Disk where to look for the data, and then transfer
> it into the APPLE's memory.
>
> Can this be done?
>
> ~Rob J.