Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site hcrvx1.UUCP 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