From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

Answering Rob Jones' question, "A Solid-State Drive for the ][+" (see
question somewhere on this Board), I got thinking about a way of
bank-switching 48K blocks on the Apple 2 plus.

My idea is to make banks of memory that would duplicate the main
memory and switch it as necessary. Since the board could reside in
slot 0, I would need to write a short ML subroutine that would poke
the bank number into a slot specific address for slot 0. Logic would
then intercept the address for main memory and redirect it to the
selected 48K bank. This short program would need to be stored in a
small ROM on the Ram Card.

Looking closely at a 16K Microsoft RamCard that I have, I notice that
it has no Prom. Exactly, how does the Apple know when to switch
between the ROMs and the 12K+4K on the board?

I can handle the hardware portion fairly easily, but I would need some
help from advanced programmers to write the ML subroutine.

Thank-You
Robert.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

"Robert C." wrote:

Answering Rob Jones' question, "A Solid-State Drive for the ][+" (see question somewhere on this Board), I got thinking about a way of bank-switching 48K blocks on the Apple 2 plus.

If you do that then you will end up with yet another incompatible-with-everything-else memory expansion.
If you are doing this for fun, then go for it. However,
if you are just trying to make a RAM drive for the II+
then you are better off with a Slinky or a Saturn card.

The Saturn card does bank-switching with the 16KB
lanugage card area. The 128KB card gives you eight
16KB banks. This method appeared to be the new
memory expansion standard for the Apple II until the
Apple IIe came out with its new bank-switched memory
scheme.

The Slinky card holds a megabyte of memory, but it can
only be used for data storage. It is impossible to
run code in the Slinky memory.

One of the early Apple II memory expansion schemes was the
Cramapple modification. It replaced the 16KB RAM chips
with 64KB RAM chips and selected the bank using the game
port annunciators.

************************************************************
--
Paul R. Santa-Maria
Monroe, Michigan USA
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

"Paul R. Santa-Maria" <paulrsm@buckeye-express.com> wrote in message news:<4160D4C9.A2D862F8@buckeye-express.com>...

"Robert C." wrote:

Answering Rob Jones' question, "A Solid-State Drive for the ][+" (see question somewhere on this Board), I got thinking about a way of bank-switching 48K blocks on the Apple 2 plus.

If you do that then you will end up with yet another incompatible-with-everything-else memory expansion.

One of the early Apple II memory expansion schemes was the
Cramapple modification. It replaced the 16KB RAM chips
with 64KB RAM chips and selected the bank using the game
port annunciators.

************************************************************

I read up on the Cramapple modification and you're right: to add more
memory with no software to go with it is useless. As it is put in this
website (http://linux.monroeccc.edu/~paulrsm/dg/dg11.htm),

"Since lots of 256K expansion boards and lots of Cramapple
modifications are being sold and there is absolutely NO
commercial software, where does that leave us? It leaves us
with a lot of unusable RAM, that's where it leaves us!"

OK, Scrap that project.

Now, if someone could direct me towards a method of adding a better
storage device, such as a Hard Drive, for the Apple ][+, I would
appriciate it.

Robert.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

Robert C. wrote:

Now, if someone could direct me towards a method of adding a better
storage device, such as a Hard Drive, for the Apple ][+, I would
appriciate it.

Lots of choices there. An Apple Rev C SCSI card works with a II+.
So will a Hi-Speed SCSI card if you turn DMA off. The CFFA card now
works with a II+. The RamFactor can use a battery backup and be
partitioned into multiple volumes for DOS3.3, CPM, Pascal or ProDOS.
The Sider and Vulcan drives can be formatted and partitioned for most
Apple II formats. There's also lots of cards that'll work as a RAMdisk.


Wayne
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

"Robert C." wrote:

"Paul R. Santa-Maria" <paulrsm@buckeye-express.com> wrote:

One of the early Apple II memory expansion schemes was the
Cramapple modification. It replaced the 16KB RAM chips

I read up on the Cramapple modification and you're right: to add more
memory with no software to go with it is useless. As it is put in this website (http://linux.monroeccc.edu/~paulrsm/dg/dg11.htm),

Hmmm. You are looking at my web site to confirm something
I told you. I am telling the truth, but still...

Now, if someone could direct me towards a method of adding a better
storage device, such as a Hard Drive, for the Apple ][+, I would
appriciate it.

Do you want to buy something or build something?

If you want to build a hard drive controller, then I
recommend an IDE interface. You can find schematics at http://s.guillard.free.fr/Apple2IDE/Apple2IDE.htm

--
Paul R. Santa-Maria
Monroe, Michigan USA
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

"Paul R. Santa-Maria" <paulrsm@buckeye-express.com> wrote in message news:<41622F0E.90C8E7FE@buckeye-express.com>...

"Robert C." wrote:

"Paul R. Santa-Maria" <paulrsm@buckeye-express.com> wrote:

One of the early Apple II memory expansion schemes was the
Cramapple modification. It replaced the 16KB RAM chips

I read up on the Cramapple modification and you're right: to add more memory with no software to go with it is useless. As it is put in this website (http://linux.monroeccc.edu/~paulrsm/dg/dg11.htm),

Hmmm. You are looking at my web site to confirm something
I told you. I am telling the truth, but still...

I had no idea it was your website. I plugged 'Cramapple' into 'Google'
and it returned your site as the only hit.

Now, if someone could direct me towards a method of adding a better
storage device, such as a Hard Drive, for the Apple ][+, I would
appriciate it.

Do you want to buy something or build something?

I enjoy tinkering with electronics, so I would prefer to build it
myself.

If you want to build a hard drive controller, then I
recommend an IDE interface. You can find schematics at http://s.guillard.free.fr/Apple2IDE/Apple2IDE.htm

I have seen his website. 7 chips to run an IDE / ATA HD on an Apple:
easy enough! I just have a hard time understanding his logic board
without the use of some sort of ROM to load the disk routines. Unless
ATA will load the routines from the disk upon booting. Maybe one of
you guys would lead me in the right direction.
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