charles@c3pe.UUCP (Charles Green) (04/16/89)
Has anyone succeeded in attaching an 80-track, double-sided, 5-1/4" floppy drive to their Atari 8-bit computer? Doesn't the ICD box which sits on the parallel bus do this for the XLs? Is there any way to use, say, a 1050 with one of the popular plug-in enhancements to accomplish this feat?? I'm well aware this would probably involve downloading code to the enhancement itself. Thanks for any replies; I'll be glad to summarize to the net. -- Subject: Returned mail: Unable to deliver mail ----- Transcript of session follows ----- 554 :-)... Unbalanced ')' ----- Unsent message follows -----
ajy2208%ritcv@cs.rit.edu (04/18/89)
ICD's Multi-IO board that attaches to the parallel bus on the XL and XE computers does NOT allow floppy drives to be connected. Just Modems, Hard Drives, and Printers.. :) However, the ATR8000 allows just about any type of floppy drive to be connected (even 3.5" drives I imagine). While most (all?) DOSs will work with the ATR, only a few DOSs (like SpartaDOS and MYDos) will allow you to format disks in a format different than what you'd normally see. My roommate had one, and he had 2 DD/DS and 2 DD/SD IBM drives hooked up to it. The ATR8000 also has a centronics printer interface and a serial interface (for the modem). AND it has CP/M capability (oooooooooooooooo). I may be wrong (disclaimer!) but I don't think there are any 1050 enhancements that allow you to connect external drives.. There was a drive that allowed you to connect more drives, but the name escapes me (TRAK? Percom? Rana? Naww, definitely not Rana, those drives were a piece of junk!).. -- = Albert Yarusso = Rochester Institute of Technology ||| = = Bitnet: ajy2208@ritvax.bitnet = Computer Science (Don't use a Sun too ||| = = Usenet: ajy2208.ritcv.rit.edu = long -- you might get a Sunburn). / | \ = = "Any smoothly functioning technology will have the appearance of magic"-ACC =
ajy2208%ritcv@cs.rit.edu (04/21/89)
Nick, The MIO does have a 50 pin SASI/SCSI interface.. I am not aware of any SASI/SCSI controllers that would use this interface, but as you said, they probably do exist.. I'll check on the quote.. :) I remember coming across it somewhere and I typed it from memory...thanks! -- = Albert Yarusso = Rochester Institute of Technology ||| = = Bitnet: ajy2208@ritvax.bitnet = Computer Science (Don't use a Sun too ||| = = Usenet: ajy2208.ritcv.rit.edu = long -- you might get a Sunburn). / | \ = = "Any smoothly functioning technology will have the appearance of magic"-ACC =
clf3678@ultb.UUCP (C.L. Freemesser) (04/22/89)
In article <484@holin.ATT.COM> oaa@holin.ATT.COM (Owen Alexander) writes: >In article <1059@cs.rit.edu>, ajy2208%ritcv@cs.rit.edu writes: > >In ZMAG #151 or #152, there is a announcement by a company CSS that they >will have later this year a interface, the Black Box, that will provide >via the parallel buss of the XL/XE, connection to SASI/SCSI devices, >Centronics printer, and RS232 for ~$169. This is like the MIO without >the memory although I think it can have a printer buffer. They also >said that they will have a addition to the interface to allow it to >access standard floppy drives at up to 10 times faster than regular >Atari drives while maintaining compatibility. This is something I would >like to see. If you're very interested in the last feature, perhaps you >could contact them to get more details. It just so happens that CSS is local (Rochester New York), and I know the folks over there. The Black Box is being designed by Robert Puff, author of the Disk Communicator, SuperArc,SuperDeArc, and a host of other software and hardware products. I even got a quick peek at the blueprints for it last time I was over at Bob's house. I can say without hesitation that this product will be FANTASTIC! Bob is a wizard at 8-bit products (you should see his system). I'll get some more info about the box from Bob. =cf=