thewasp

I have to finish this project this summer, approx. Jun-July. Look forward for additional news.

Job for SIO protocol compatibility is perfect for CPUs. Support of large FSM is not a good idea in case, where kind of functional development is just needed. I didn't want to use any foreign IP cores, so I've designed my own CPU, optimized to use as small amount of logical resources as possible. It still fits within the same smallest XC3S FPGA unit, together with rest of functional blocks (FDC/UART and so on). Additional SIO functionality should be added quickly.

Pity

Hi! New pictures of an example, cased version are available under artofscience.pl. Now it is looks like typical FDD for A8 :].

Hey, Tezz! Stop trying to release and release. Release it! or... Maybe we should make something crazy, like... an official release of MM on a 3.5" floppy? That game was always missing in A8 world.

Very good news: According to the suggestion of one atarian, I decided to use the 5.25 USB case for PCs, combined with 3.5"->5.25 frame. Thus, the case of relative cheap and elegant housing is solved (there is another, important benefit - the Power Supply for 5/12VDC is included). I'll put some photos this week. Look forward for further information. Regards!

Just wait until the mark-ii design is done. I'll prepare more than one "mobo", for sure.

FDC should support dual drive operation very well, only abilities of onboard switching regulator are limited. With external power supply - no problem.

Excellent idea, but how to get one?

Since the power circuit is based on DC/DC converters, it uses a single DC source (6-24VDC) and guarantees a power for onboard logic and a 3.5" FDD.

David_p: It is a SIO device, and works like a typical, native (serial) device. Signals needed for transmission (RX, TX, COMMAND) are routed out to the goldpin header. CharlieChaplin: It is possible to connect a 5.25 drive. The main aim was to keep the controller compatible to IBM standard, so there is absolutely no problem to write down the image from the PC with FDC drive connected (I use a cheap USB floppy drive. Works fine). As a matter of fact, this is the best way to shift a prepared ATR image (at least for me). Long time ago it was a pity to be unable to use a single floppy for data transfer between two different system (i mean MSDOS and Atari DOS)

First I was trying to give it a form of "FDD" daughterboard, but it wasn't a good idea (different floppies have the IDC header in different place). It is not designed for particular case, but ... I'll be working on the final "mark II" design. I'll purchase more PCBs (that one on the foto is a homemade prototype). The case of the housing is open. Any suggestions? Also, I think that website for that project is a good idea. Will try to start it ASAP p.

Hi! 1) The SD slot was put "just in case" on the PCB design stage. I thought, that it would be nice to combine two interesting features (SD+floppy combo - yumm! BTW. there is a 512KB serial flash also...). Right now it is useless, but it is possible, that final controller will give full support. 2) :D - I found it on our e-bay-like pages ("allegro") . Once I saw it, i wanted to have it, and.. well. Here it is. regards Peter

Hash! Listen to that hum! Do you recognize it? Well. for sure - it's an old 8bit Atari, driving the floppy drive... The sound is so familiar! Spirit of the beautiful floppy drive head's sound, stepping over the tracks.... Yes! it lives again! But... wait a minute! Something is different, something is new... Is that "yet another", microcontroller based SIO-2-spiritkiller device? Absolutely not! It's the new, hardware floppy drive for A8, with a small difference: It was designed for "modern" ( ) 3.5" drives. For your consideration: www.artofscience.pl My homage to the old Atari days. Based totaly on my own IP-cores. What say you?