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CompactFlash / IDE Interface for Apple II

Posted by timothy on from the not-for-everyone dept.

jutpm writes: "This page describes a project to create an IDE / CompactFlash Interface card for 8 bit Apple II series of computers. The card is ProDOS 8 compatible and supports up to 64 Meg (two ProDOS 32Meg drives). I am very impressed with the work this guys work. Definitely a case of old technology meeting new."

9 of 203 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I love my Commodore 64! by mikolas · · Score: 3, Informative

    Have you ever checked out the IDE64 project or the CMD product portfolio? I'd love to have those for my C64, but I'll save the money for a G4 turboboard for my Amiga 3000. :-) Retro is cool!

  2. Re:what is the real life application to this? by Yakko · · Score: 2, Informative
    my question is , is there an easy way to access the filesystem other than on an apple?

    It's off the top of my head, but I believe that AppleII::ProDOS can do this from Perl... it'd be a fun project for me some weekend, as my perl-fu needs work.

    Not exactly easy, since you do have to write an app, but there're tools out there.

    --

    --
    Me spell chucker work grate. Need grandma chicken.
  3. Re:Finally! by jerrytcow · · Score: 2, Informative

    would an Apple IIe have the horsepower to decode mp3's in realtime

    Even Macs with a 68K CPU aren't fast enough (all PPC Macs can though), so if your question is for real, then no, the 1.8 MHz MOS 6502 won't cut it.

  4. Apple ][ MP3 system by dstone · · Score: 3, Informative

    I don't believe there's a flavour of Apple ][ that can decode MP3 streams real-time in software. However, an Apple ][ should be able to easily run a GUI (and now IDE filesystem), and just send the resulting raw MP3 bitstream to to an inexpensive outboard decoder chip. (Some buffering for constant data rate may also be required).

    FWIW, if anyone wants to take the leap, the standard homebrew decoder chips used today seem to be one of these...
    Micronas MAS3509F Compressed-Audio Decoder
    SGS Thompson STA013 MP3 Decoder
    The Micronas chip is newer and doesn't require an external DAC.

  5. Re:Finally! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Wrong. There is a port of mpg123 for 68k mac. However, you need at least a 68040LC to use it.

  6. Re:Bring on the nostalgia! by aussersterne · · Score: 3, Informative
    Hand-operated paper punch. Just pull up the inside edges on each side of the ring, *punch* *punch*, and then one on the side where the WP notch was, *punch* and it's done.

    --
    STOP . AMERICA . NOW
  7. Re:Finally! by NoMoreNicksLeft · · Score: 2, Informative

    Amigas never shipped with an 060 either. Those were after market boards.

    And to reply to the parent post, while an Apple IIe could never decode mp3's, I see no reason why someone couldn't design a real sound card for the thing, with enough co-processor power to do that also. It wouldn't be impossible, even to intercept the "bell" device in system memory, and play a nicer fm tone, giving it backwards compatibility.

    Oh, and as for the questions regarding compact flash, he chose that undoubtedly, because CF is actually the same as IDE electrically. Only the mechanical interface is different. If you were to make a converter cable, windows or linux would even recognize it as a valid /dev/hdx device.

  8. CF to PIC interface by pacc · · Score: 2, Informative

    A CF to PIC interface was described in Circuit Cellar a while ago. A word of caution if you plan something like this is that the 8-bit ATA mode might or might not be supported on newer CF cards. (What! I NEEDED 256 MB)

    I found the link att Jeff Frohwein's

  9. Re:Don't forget the 8GB of the IDE64 :) by Dahan · · Score: 3, Informative
    It's about time Apples caught up to the Commodore 64 ;).

    An IDE card has been available for the Apple II for a few years now... see the Turbo IDE from SHH Systeme. Dated October '94...

    Then there's GNO (GNO's Not Orca), a preemptively multitasking Unix-like environment. Was fun to play MODs while IRCing and such :)