Project discussion forum opens...

[ncbill]

I don't think it matters if the card can read an existing partition map on a CF card.

But say a 256MB CF card will still be able to have Prodos and GS/OS partitions, right?
(4-32MB Prodos and the remainder GS/OS from you earlier post)

I think that's fine - it's just important to offer both to broaden the card's appeal.

(GS users using GS/OS drive current Apple II development - witness the recent Ethernet and TCP/IP stack for GS/OS only)

[WilliK]

Hi!

On 2002-02-25 22:42, LT307 wrote:
Was that on a SCSI card? Cause without a Smartport driver on the card, you might be limited to 2x32MB partitions per slot.

That was with a(n) SCSI card. ProDOS 2.0.3 assigned the extra partitions to slots with no card. That's how I was able to access all the partitions.

Willi

[LT307]

On 2002-02-26 03:01, dlyons wrote:
I'm not planning to read partition maps or do removable-device support in the GS/OS driver (but the source code will be available if someone wants to).

You're right, with no RAM on the CFFA card it would be very difficult to read & respect a partition map in firmware.

Hmm, I guess I'll have to learn 65816 ASM then :razz: . Doesn't sound like a hard task to deal with insert/eject notification (I believe the ATAPI standard has calls for it), but reading partition maps may be a challenge to code. Then again, I don't have any experience with Apple II programming. Who knows, maybe someone else who is experienced with driver programming will write support for it.

[rich]

Hmm, I guess I'll have to learn 65816 ASM then :razz: . Doesn't sound like a hard task to deal with insert/eject notification (I believe the ATAPI standard has calls for it)

True, but in this case it is not a software issue. My hardware design uses CF cards in their "True IDE" mode. In this mode the card can not operate in a "removable" sense. If the card is pulled out by the user, after it is reinserted the card socket must be power cycled to get the card back into the "True IDE" mode. Check out the SanDisk CF card manual: http://www.sandisk.com/download/Product ... /cf_r7.pdf section 4.7.1 for details.

[Sheppy]

Dave...

Sounds good so far.

The longer form of the device names is my preference, just because it's cool to have the manufacturer of the CF card in there. :smile:

I'd really like to be able to use the card with the slot not set to Your Card. Slots are at a premium for me nowadays.

Sheppy

[LT307]

On 2002-02-27 01:50, rich wrote:
True, but in this case it is not a software issue. My hardware design uses CF cards in their "True IDE" mode. In this mode the card can not operate in a "removable" sense. If the card is pulled out by the user, after it is reinserted the card socket must be power cycled to get the card back into the "True IDE" mode. Check out the SanDisk CF card manual: http://www.sandisk.com/download/Product ... /cf_r7.pdf section 4.7.1 for details.

Actually I was aiming at support for removable devices connected to the IDE connector, not the CF slot. Besides CF, I would like to use the card for hard drives and removables.

[slidertx72]

How will the CF card maintain the memory? I do not see a battery on the card?

[ncbill]

CF cards do not require battery power

>How will the CF card maintain the memory? I do not see a battery on the card?

[legojudge]

On 2002-02-24 04:17, dlyons wrote:

Q: Are your slots getting full? With a little extra work, I believe I could make the GS/OS driver support a CFFA card even when its slot is *not* set to Your Card in the control panel. It wouldn't be accessible from ProDOS 8, and you wouldn't be able to *boot* from the card,

dlyons;

Will your driver allow "booting" from the CF card or will enabeling the card to operate without the "Your Card" setting make this unavailable?

If I understand correctly, now that the card and driver is not "Your Card" setting dependent, it will not be "bootable".

Brian


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: legojudge on 2002-03-02 11:41 ]</font>

[Mark]

This is an amazing project. The ability to work even when the slot setting is not set to "Your Card" and work from slot 3 is incredible. You can put me down for a card too.

Mark.

[dlyons]

Sorry for the slow reply....

That's correct, if the CFFA's slot is not set to Your Card, then you won't be able to boot from it, and you won't be able to see it from ProDOS 8. -- But from GS/OS you'll see it.

[apple2pd]

Testing Rev B board, firmware version 1.2 and GS/OS driver, 3-14-02

System 1: Stock IIGS Rom3, Apple 1 Meg RAM (2meg RAM total). CF board with 192Meg Sandisk CF card.

Tested CF under system 5.0.4, 6.0, and 6.0.1
All system version worked with ProDOS and with GS/OS driver. ProDOS used 4 32 Meg partitions. GS/OS driver used 5 partitions.
System 6.0.1 with HFS.FST allowed 54.xMeg HFS 5th partition. Tested CF in slots 4 and 7 only. Worked fine in p8 also.

System 2: IIeGS Rom1, ZipGS 8/64, 4Meg RamGS, Superdrive controller, Apple Hi-speed SCSI controller, Appletalk active, logged into Appleshare 3.0.3 server. CF board in Slot 1 (Your card). System 6.0.1

CF card worked fine with and without GS/OS driver. Booting from SCSI (s6) or CF (s1).
Copied to/from Appleshare server and SCSI harddrive without problems. Worked fine in p8 also.

System 3: stock IIe, 1Meg Ramworks II, Grappler parallel, micromodem II, mousecard.
Tested in slots 5 and 7. Worked fine.

System 4: IIGS Rom3, ZipGS8/64, 4Meg QRamGS, Apple Hi-speed SCSI, Appletalk active logged into PPC 7100 personal filesharing. Worked fine in slot 4 and 5 booting 6.0.1 from SCSI or CF.

System 5: IIe system - loaded!
Slot 1: Apple parallel card - Apple DMP prntr
Slot 2: Apple SSC
Slot 3: Synetix SSD 288K (aks Flashcard)
Slot 4: CF board
Slot 5: UDC disk controller w2 Laser 3.5 drvs
Slot 6: Duodisk controller
Slot 7: Focus IDE harddrive (~30Meg)
Dead Vulcan HD powersupply.

No problems. copied files to/from IDE/CF.

Will test system 6 tommorrow. IIe's with Appletalk cards and Appleshare 3.0.3 server.

Everything is coming up Roses. I haven't tested slot 3 usage with GS/OS driver, no all
possible conflicts with p8 in using slot 5, but s5 has worked OK with p8 in the test I have done.

This is a MUST have board. Very nice. Very professional looking. I will definitely be buying 3 or 4 boards. Solid state Apple II computers. After software is loaded no mechanical drives are needed.

Hardware and firmware and GS/OS driver seem ready. Thanks Rich and David Lyons for the opportunity to test this board. I haven't tested with IDE drive but Dave has.

Current firmware handles 4 32Meg partitions.
GS/OS driver will handle 5th partition up to 1 Gig, and 6th partition up to 1Gig. Anything bigger than 2 Gig + 128Meg is unused.

--Steve (Steven Neslon, Iowa City, IA)

[apple2pd]

Sorry for typos in previous message, including my name - Nelson, not Neslon.

--Steve

[apple2pd]

Rich, suggestion for Rev C if there ever is one. Use the jumper block to select which partition is the "boot" partition. In testing the board it would be nice to set up one partition to boot GS/OS. Another partition to boot p8 Prodos on a IIe. I settled on always booting p8 and forcing a GS/OS boot from there (renamed ProDOS = GSOS and copied p8 to ProDOS). Then I can move between IIGS and IIe systems without changing anything. I think it would only involve the 1st 4 partitions so the 5th block is free for other uses. People could easily select which partition to boot from. Nice even for IDE drives.

--Steve (Steven Nelson, Iowa City, IA)


Or have you decided on a use for the selector block?

[rich]

On 2002-03-19 23:36, apple2pd wrote:
...
Or have you decided on a use for the selector block?

Steve,
The selector block will allow the user to select between one of 8 versions of firmware. I have really only thought of 2 versions or maybe 4 if you count debug versions of the first 2. So I currently have between 4 and 6 unused "versions" to put other firmware variations in. I will definately keep your suggestion in mind.

_________________
Thanks,
Rich

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: rich on 2002-03-20 15:02 ]</font>

[slidertx72]

Man it sound soooo close.

I want one, pleeeeeease

[apple2pd]

On 2002-03-20 15:00, rich wrote:

On 2002-03-19 23:36, apple2pd wrote:
...
Or have you decided on a use for the selector block?

Steve,
The selector block will allow the user to select between one of 8 versions of firmware. I have really only thought of 2 versions or maybe 4 if you count debug versions of the first 2. So I currently have between 4 and 6 unused "versions" to put other firmware variations in. I will definately keep your suggestion in mind.

_________________

Rich, I wasn't clear in my question. The firmware selection block is clear. (I'm using version 7 I gues because A12,A13,A14 are all jumpered.

My question concerns the JTAG port. What is it used for? In hindsight your response concerning selecting a firmware version might be a better solution. Different firmware versions would 'boot' from a different partitions. Elegant, flexible software solution. A fancy firmware could even ask for which partition to boot, but that detracts from a handsoff boot to p8 or ProDOS. I never did try the "8" key from GS/OS to go directly to p8 but that is a IIGS only solution, a IIe knows nothing about booting the GS/OS ProDOS stub.

Congrats on a good hardware design. Don't get eyestrain soldering the boards!

--Steve

[Scottt]

Is there a way to hook up an LED somehow to allow a person to see read and write activity?

Also, is it feasible to buy two cards for 2 different GS's (one at home & one at work) and then just carry the CF card back and forth between the two computers?

[rich]

Scott,

The only LED on the board is the card/drive access light. This will light up on each read or write access to either a CF card or an IDE drive. Is that what you are refering to?

About using two cards and carrying a CF card back and forth, I see no reason why you could not do that. I would recomend using the same version of firmware on both cards. That is, if you ever change one card's firmware, you should change the other's right away too.

[Scottt]

Yes, you've answered my questions. Thanks!

I was thinking it would be a lot more useful to put an LED on it attached with a pair of 2-foot wires (twisted together) so they can attach the LED to the top or side of their computer. (It's hard to see a read/write LED that is buried inside your computer case.)