[HN Gopher] FPGA-Based Disk Controller for the Apple II (2017)
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FPGA-Based Disk Controller for the Apple II (2017)
Author : jdblair
Score : 100 points
Date : 2024-06-17 13:40 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bigmessowires.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bigmessowires.com)
| js2 wrote:
| (2017). Perhaps this is a better link since the controller is in
| fact available commercially since that post:
|
| https://www.bigmessowires.com/yellowstone/
|
| Here's a link to all the blog posts discussing its development:
|
| https://www.bigmessowires.com/category/yellowstone/?order=as...
| unwind wrote:
| Thanks that was a useful clarification/update.
|
| Fun to see that the board did gain more chips compared to the
| image in the posted article, that it gained the ability for "in
| the field" firmware updates without JTAG hardware, and (most
| impressively, in a way) that it made it to market after all!
| retrogeek wrote:
| Agreed. Better to link to the current info, as the Yellowstone
| was commercially released a little more than two years ago.
|
| I own a Yellowstone (as well as two BMOW Floppy Emus), and it's
| a pretty impressive controller. It will operate essentially
| every type of floppy drive that was available for the Apple II,
| and even some models of Mac floppy drives including bare drive
| mechanisms if you connect them up properly. It supports as many
| as five drive mechanisms at one time, and can control "smart"
| drives and "dumb" drives at the same time. The only thing it
| won't do is handle HD 1.44M/1.6M media. It can use an HD drive
| mechanism, but will operate it as a basic 800K drive.
| snvzz wrote:
| Note this is Open Source Hardware proper[0].
|
| 0. https://www.bigmessowires.com/2019/01/28/yellowstone-goes-
| op...
| EvanAnderson wrote:
| Highly recommend BMoW projects / products.
|
| I've got a Yellowstone and a Floppy Emu. They are great. The
| Floppy Emu is particularly noteworthy because of the
| functionality Steve has added since its release (WOZ image
| support, for example).
| wiz21c wrote:
| Does the existence of this project imply that it's harder to find
| a drive controller than it is to find actual drives ?
| criddell wrote:
| I'd love to have a reason to pick up an 80's microcomputer. I had
| a TI-99/4A but could never afford the peripheral expansion box. I
| could now though, but what would I do with it?
|
| I had the TI but what I really wanted was an Atari 800 or Apple
| II. I really wish I could think of something to do with one of
| these. I've thought about getting one and writing some journaling
| software for it to give me a reason to sit down at the console
| every day or two, but then I remember how awful those old
| keyboards were and generally how unpleasant these machines were.
|
| Probably best to leave my nostalgia intact and stick to modern
| computers.
| rbanffy wrote:
| There will never be a good reason besides you wanting it.
| That's the best it'll ever be.
|
| A couple years back I promised I'd add Tektronix graphics to
| VTE (and, therefore, Gnome Terminal), and have, since, been
| looking for a VT230/240/330 to use as a reference
| implementation, but never found one. Not even a WYSE with
| graphics (their model numbering was a mess - I'm not sure I
| have have a list of the models I could use).
|
| If I ever get a real DEC VT, I'll even throw ReGIS in into the
| mix.
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(page generated 2024-06-18 23:01 UTC)