[comp.sys.atari.8bit] Parallel Port

Ordania-DM@cup.portal.com (Charles K Hughes) (03/02/90)

  Get a copy of "Mapping the Atari" by Compute! Books.  Make sure it is the 
revised copy. (It says revised on the cover).

  It has a section that gives the pinouts for the Parallel bus.

  How to use it is a different matter.  If you have some electronics 
experience, it isn't too hard, if you don't then I would suggest giving Antic
(the Atari magazine, NOT the amiga, or fantasy mag) a call and asking them 
which issues they ran the PBI (parallel bus interface) articles in, and then 
ordering them.

  You could also just send mail to me with specific questions, I might not be
able to answer them, but I'll sure try.

Ordania-DM
Charles_K_Hughes
@cup.portal.com

smb@cs.purdue.EDU (Scott Ballew) (03/04/90)

In article <49700013@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> pm16579@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>
>
>
>   I don't think any 3rd party 
>  manufacturers have taken advantage of it, though. 
>
>                                                  Paulito Mendoza

I beg to differ!  Sitting behind my 800xl at home is ICD's MIO board.  This
nifty little gadget (which I believe is still sold and supported by ICD)
provides 256k (or 1Meg) of ram for use as BOOTABLE ramdrive(s),
printer buffers, etc. as well as a SCSI/SASI disk port, RS232C serial port
(looks just like R1: on the 850), Centronics parallel printer port (again,
just like on the 850) and  has a place for putting in ICD's 80 column board
(I don't have this :-( ).  Also, although the name escapes me, there
is another company that put out a hard disk system that ran from the
parallel port.

Scott Ballew
Purdue University Department of Computer Sciences

ain1496e@merrimack.edu (03/05/90)

In article <9903@medusa.cs.purdue.edu>, smb@cs.purdue.EDU (Scott Ballew) writes:
> In article <49700013@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> pm16579@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>>
>>
>>
>>   I don't think any 3rd party 
>>  manufacturers have taken advantage of it, though. 
>>
>>                                                  Paulito Mendoza
> 
> I beg to differ!  Sitting behind my 800xl at home is ICD's MIO board.  This
> nifty little gadget (which I believe is still sold and supported by ICD)
> provides 256k (or 1Meg) of ram for use as BOOTABLE ramdrive(s),
> printer buffers, etc. as well as a SCSI/SASI disk port, RS232C serial port
> (looks just like R1: on the 850), Centronics parallel printer port (again,
> just like on the 850) and  has a place for putting in ICD's 80 column board
> (I don't have this :-( ).  Also, although the name escapes me, there
> is another company that put out a hard disk system that ran from the
> parallel port.
> 
         The other company is Supra, I have a Supra Hard Disk Interface
attached to the port.  However Supra no longer supports its, they sold the
rights to the product to another company.  I dont know the name of it off hand.

Chris_F_Chiesa@cup.portal.com (03/12/90)

And there's yet another hard-disk-and-other-stuff interface that plugs 
into the parallel port: it's in Beta test in a few folks' hands in Rochester,
NY, and is produced by Computer Software Services (I believe that's the
name; the acronym is CSS) also in Rochester.

Call Bob Puff's "Computer World Jr." BBS at (716) 247-8355 for direct con-
tact and the numbers of the other nodes of the BBS...

Chris_F_Chiesa@cup.portal.com (03/12/90)

Forgot to mention the NAME of CSS' baby:  "The Black Box."

It handles a hard disk and several floppy drives, printer port, serial 
(i.e. modem) port, etc...  It's a kick to be able to use the modem and
disk channels at the SAME time (can't do THAT with the 850!)... not to 
mention having lots of built-in diagnostic and management software...