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Path: utzoo!hcrvax!hcrvx1!hugh
From: hugh@hcrvx1.UUCP (Hugh Redelmeier)
Newsgroups: net.micro.atari
Subject: 600xl disk simulation?
Message-ID: <1233@hcrvx1.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 19-Sep-85 11:01:20 EDT
Article-I.D.: hcrvx1.1233
Posted: Thu Sep 19 11:01:20 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 20-Sep-85 12:14:23 EDT
Organization: Human Computing Resources, Toronto
Lines: 25

I just bought a 600xl with 64K of RAM.  I did NOT buy a disk drive or
cassette drive: if I were to spend serious money, I would want to get
a serious machine.  But I can't resist hacking on the new toy.  I am
thinking that I might try to make one of my other computers simulate
a disk.

I understand that the disk port is really a 19.2K Baud serial line
at TTL levels (not RS232C levels).
- Is this true?
- What protocol is used to talk to the disk?
	- Is it asynch or synchronous?
	- What is the structure and meaning of the info transferred?
- What are the pinouts?  (By the way, what are the pinouts of
  the other connectors?)
- How much disk support is in the ROM?  On a DOS disk?
- What is the cassette interface: would it be easier to simulate?
- How does my 600xl differ from an 800xl?
- (Most important): what are good sources for this information
  (books, specific magazine articles, ...)?

The September BYTE article on upgrading to 256K RAM and the RAM-disk
software (posted by ihnet!bryan) contain some hints.

Hugh Redelmeier (416) 922-1937
{utzoo, ihnp4, decvax}!hcr!hugh