New Forum for CFFA3000

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New Forum for CFFA3000

Postby rich » Wed Nov 04, 2009 11:19 pm

Hi Apple II Fans:

I created this area of the forum for anybody who wants to comment on the CFFA3000 project.
Advances on the project are coming faster lately and it is getting more and more exciting.
The first vestiges of floppy support are working so that I can copy .nib files onto a CF card and
boot and run the image. "Writes" are not working currently but are the very next thing to
be attacked.

I still am shooting for mid 2010 as the ship date, and there has been a great deal of interest in
this project, with over 150 people sending me an email expressing interest.
I hope that the CFFA3000 will turn out to be the best storage solution for the Apple II - bar none.
The CFFA3000 is an attempt to integrate the CFFA (CF storage card) and a dual floppy
disk emulator into one card. Floppy disk image files can be located on a USB flash drive
or on the CF card or both. The CF card can be formatted FAT16 or ProDOS/HFS. I envision
that users will keep their image files on the USB flash drive and keep their CF cards formatted
with ProDOS. The card will allow in-field updates of both the firmware and the CPLD logic.
No more sending cards through the mail just to update the firmware.

The CFFA3000 will consume one or two slots depending on which features are enabled.
The card can be just a floppy controller or just a CF interface or it can be both. In that latter case,
it will consume one real slot and one virtual slot - which virtual slot is controlled by the user.
DMA support for the card is planned but I am not ready to make a guarantee at this time.

On a side note I decided to use Verilog on this project because folks where I work use it and I have been
able to lean on some smart people there. I find Verilog to be very familar because of its obvious C roots.
The logic development has gone much smoother than I would have thought and much smoother than
previous CFFA project.

When I first started on this project there were only a couple people offering a virtual floppy controller
for the Apple II, e.g. the SVD. But since then a whole variety of projects have appear on the scene.
Some very cool projects to be sure. I think there is still a niche for the CFFA3000.
Dave Lyons has been taking a bigger role in this project which can only mean it will be a better product
in the end.

If you have any thoughts or questions, please feel free to post them here.

-Rich
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Re: New Forum for CFFA3000

Postby Char27 » Wed Nov 11, 2009 8:51 am

I was looking at the Apple2 iDisk at http://sites.google.com/site/idiskapple2/home the other day and wondered if you could comment on how this might compare. One cool feature of that product is the ability to switch which image is current by means of a physical switch. How are you planning the switching of media while running? HD volumes do not change at run time but with floppy images, it becomes more important.

While you may already have a solution, I was envisioning that one way to do it would be something similar to how the old Wildcard accelerator worked (and many other cards for that matter)... Press a button at the end of a wire to trigger an interrupt and a menu comes up allowing you to interact with the hardware while the running app is suspended.

I had a Wildcard way back and it basically allowed you to take what was in memory and write it out to a floppy disk. An early version of hibernate. Great for games that did not have a save feature :)
image http://www.apple2info.net/hardware/wild ... rdplus.htm
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Re: New Forum for CFFA3000

Postby rich » Sat Nov 14, 2009 3:36 pm

Char27,

Yes, the desired method to let users select different floppies is just as you have described.
We have not tested this idea yet and there may be caveats, but I believe we can get something working
much like the old Wildcard used. The key is DMA, and that logic has not be written yet.

-Rich
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CFFA3000 and Beyond...

Postby gsmcporet » Sun Jan 10, 2010 3:48 pm

Happy New Year Evereyone!

Rich,
I've been following the news about the new card up on A2 Central and Applefritter. Folks are excited about what is happening in the Apple II world right now with the new hardware that you and a few other guys are making.
I for one cannot wait for you to finish. lol

I've seen a few of the Version 2 CFFA Cards up on ebay here lately. I know you were selling a couple and someone else is selling thiers too.

I hope that you and the boys are still considering a CFFA Card with connection to the IIc. That would be great. :)

Let me know when everything is set and I will be sure to order at least two.

Steven (gsmcporet)
Applefritter (gsmcten)
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