I'm looking for a softcard or clone for my Apple IIe. I want to do some CP/M and Pascal. Send me a message if you have one to sell. I'm looking to use it, not collect it :)
Thanks!
Anonymous
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Here is a new card that emulates the Appli-Card. https://www.ebay.com/itm/283422572226?hash=item41fd4d3ec2:g:crsAAOSwGMdcS8~q
Unfortunately, these things are still pretty expensive. I did a talk at KansasFest a few years ago and the cards are even higher now than they were then. I haven't seen any go for less than $100 lately except for the clones which have been going for around $60 or so..
Thanks - I found that one and another that emulates the softcard. I'm not sure which would be better for me. I'd appreciate any "softcard vs applicard" discussion. I understand that the softcard uses the Apple memory and hardware (locking out the 6502) and the Applicard is standalone? Do both run the same CP/M and have access to the display, discs, etc?
I will update this post over the weekend when I have more time, but here is a site that has some good Z80 info.
http://apple2.guidero.us/doku.php/mg_notes/cpm/cpm_combos
THanks,
Jay
Hopefully the web site helped, but I can give a little bit more detail here.
The SCB mode cards like the Applicard, The Starcard (which is really an Applicard bundled with Wordstar and some other "Star" application), and DRI's card have thier own RAM memory and function independantly of the 6502 processor and use software calls (today's equivilent of APIs ) to access the hardware in the Apple II. Since they are single board computers and have thier own clock on board (maybe), they can run faster than the softcards because they don't nessacarily need to be in sync with the APple's bus. The SoftCard mode does take over the Apple II and halts the operation of the 6502 and this card has direct access to the Apple II's bus and hardware pluged into it.
In general, the "softcards" can run other vendor's CP/M operating system and applications. With the SBC mode, that is not always true and you need to run the vendor specific CP/M. There are a bunch of programming languages for CP/M like C, Pascal (Including Turbo Pascal),
Here is a presentation I did at KansasFest 2018 that has some good info in it. Others may have more to add to this, but I hope this helps.
One warning, some people have said there is a design flaw in the PCPI Applicard that can sometimes blow out the MMU chip in a //e.
If memory serves me Ian Kim's clone fixes that and is safe to use in a //e.
Thanks Jay (and others) for the informative replies. The powerpoint is very helpful. I'm hoping that the GGLABS clones come back in stock as that might be the way to go for me.
Thanks again,
dave
Sure thing Dave.