From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

Ernest <leucoplast@seanet.NOSPAM.com> wrote in message news:1I4Sa.81664$OZ2.15121@rwcrnsc54...

Now THIS is coool!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2743105161&category=4610

From the advertisement:

It is the ONLY 8 slot chassis ever made for the Apple II, and the ONLY

chassis where ALL the cards in the

chassis are acticve simultaneously, NOT just the 1 card at a time switch a

slot design.

This doesn't sound like a "feature" to me. IIRC Apple cards get a slot
select signal that tells them they are needed. With all 8 cards on at the
same time it would be like a cocktail party with everyone talking at once because the Apple II bus doesn't have a bus control/negotiation protocol.

Any thoughts?

- Mike


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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

Michael Pender wrote:

This doesn't sound like a "feature" to me. IIRC Apple cards get a slot select signal that tells them they are needed. With all 8 cards on at the same time it would be like a cocktail party with everyone talking at once because the Apple II bus doesn't have a bus control/negotiation protocol.

Any thoughts?

- Mike

exactly my impression. The way I would design it would be, the ROM on
the apple card probably "maps" each slot on the expansion unit to active
when softswitched. Kind of like mapping memory areas on memory cards to memory addresses in the address space.

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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2


"jim symolon" <jsymolon01@SPAMattbiBAIT.com> wrote in message news:3VwSa.92212$wk6.25083@rwcrnsc52.ops.asp.att.net...

Michael Pender wrote:

This doesn't sound like a "feature" to me. IIRC Apple cards get a slot select signal that tells them they are needed. With all 8 cards on at

the

same time it would be like a cocktail party with everyone talking at

once

because the Apple II bus doesn't have a bus control/negotiation

protocol.

exactly my impression. The way I would design it would be, the ROM on
the apple card probably "maps" each slot on the expansion unit to active
when softswitched. Kind of like mapping memory areas on memory cards to memory addresses in the address space.

Judging from the placement of the cable on the interface card,
that would be replacing one of the 74LS138's which would expand
the slot capability. As you may not be aware the Apple II is capable
of defining the eight slots as 0-7 and then again as 8-15. If the box
contains firmware to feed the Apple II, there is no reason why all
8 of the slots in the box can't be defined from slot 7. If I'm wrong
please correct me, but I believe I am reading all these manuals in
the correct way. The slots can be used through locations C000-
C7FF and C800-CFFF.

Bill @ GarberStreet Enterprises };-)
Web Site - http://garberstreet.netfirms.com
Email - willy46pa@comcast.net



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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2



Michael Pender wrote:

Ernest <leucoplast@seanet.NOSPAM.com> wrote in message news:1I4Sa.81664$OZ2.15121@rwcrnsc54...

Now THIS is coool!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2743105161&category=4610

From the advertisement:

It is the ONLY 8 slot chassis ever made for the Apple II, and the ONLY

chassis where ALL the cards in the

chassis are acticve simultaneously, NOT just the 1 card at a time switch a

slot design.

This doesn't sound like a "feature" to me.

Well, keeping in mind that "bugs" are only undocumented "features"....
;-)

Roy

IIRC Apple cards get a slot

select signal that tells them they are needed. With all 8 cards on at the same time it would be like a cocktail party with everyone talking at once because the Apple II bus doesn't have a bus control/negotiation protocol.

Any thoughts?

- Mike

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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

"Bill Garber" <willy46pa@comcast.net> writes:

Judging from the placement of the cable on the interface card,
that would be replacing one of the 74LS138's which would expand
the slot capability. As you may not be aware the Apple II is capable
of defining the eight slots as 0-7 and then again as 8-15. If the box contains firmware to feed the Apple II, there is no reason why all
8 of the slots in the box can't be defined from slot 7. If I'm wrong
please correct me, but I believe I am reading all these manuals in
the correct way. The slots can be used through locations C000-
C7FF and C800-CFFF.

If you're talking about mapping the Cn00 space for the extra slots in
the range C800-CFFF, that could cause problems. Apple defined the
C800-CFFF space to be shared between all the cards (except slot 0).
The protocol is that any access to Cn00 of a particular card (i.e., n in the range of 1 to 7) will enable that card to use the C800-CFFF space. An
access to CFFF is supposed to disable the C800-CFFF space on all cards.
Not all cards use the C800-CFFF space, but most of the fancier cards do.

Also, the firmware on normal cards "expects" to be in the Cn00 space
where n is in the range of 1 to 7. It's likely that many cards wouldn't
work properly for n in the range of 8 to F.

The low-memory slot globals (hidden in the unused part of the page 1 text screen between 0400 and 07FF) also only have room for eight globals for
each of seven cards. (The other eight globals are used by DOS.)

If I were building an expansion chassis, I'd design it such that under
software control each card in the expansion chassis could be mapped
under software control to replace one (selectable) card/slot in the
computer. I'd provide both user utility software to control the mapping,
as well as subroutines and technical documentation to allow it to be
done from user-written or third-party software.

But I have no idea what Mountain Hardware/Mountain Computer actually
did. I always wanted on of those but couldn't justify the price.
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