from: http://www.blkbox.com/~jdbaker/SmallSys/PCPImini-man.txt A Mini-manual for the PCPI AppliCard, v1.0 (aka MicroPro StarCard, aka Franklin ACE-80 CPU) A quick-reference to get you up and running if you have one of these cards and the system disks, but are missing the manual. John D. Baker, 18 October 1993 Before we begin: This document assumes that you are familiar with the operation of the Apple ][-series of computers and Apple's DOS v3.3. Familiarity with Apple ProDOS 8, ProDOS 16, and/or GS/OS may be sufficient to allow you to follow many of the instructions related to making backup copies of the PCPI AppliCard system disks and transferring files between CP/M disks and those of the other Apple operating systems. Furthermore, this document assumes that you are competent at installing accessory cards into the expansion slots of your Apple ][. If you are uncomfortable with opening your machine and handling any of the components inside, it may be wise to _get_ comfortable with doing just that. As an absolute last resort, find someone who can install an accessory card for you. This document also assumes that you have a working knowledge of CP/M. That is, you know how to run programs, copy files and are generally on friendly terms with the A> prompt. If you are new to CP/M, there are numerous books that can teach you everything you need to know (and more) for following the instructions in this document that relate to CP/M. Some noteworthy titles are: _The CP/M Handbook with MP/M_ by Rodnay Zaks, Sybex Books. _The Osborne CP/M Handbook_ by Thom Hogan, Osborne-McGraw-Hill. _The CP/M Primer_ by Steven Murtha and Mitchell Waite, Hayden Books. This should suffice for an introduction. Now on with the show! Description: The PCPI AppliCard (also known as the MicroPro StarCard or Franklin ACE-80 CPU) is a co-processor accessory card that fits in one of the standard expansion slots of an Apple ][, ][+, //e, or IIgs computer. An Apple ][ or ][+ MUST have AppleSoft in ROM for the system to operate although the AutoStart Monitor is _not_ required. The AppliCard contains a Zilog Z80 CPU running at a clock speed of either 4 or 6 MHz, 64K of DRAM, a bootstrap EPROM, logic and buffers to interface it with the Apple ][, and may optionally include a Z80 CTC (counter-timer chip). Depending on the revision level of the board there may also be two dual-row header (male) connectors on the board, one with 10 pins, the other with 50 pins. These connectors are for RAM expansion and serial I/O boards which 'piggy-back' onto the AppliCard. Count yourself VERY fortunate if you have (or can find) these add-on boards. If you've managed to obtain a complete AppliCard set-up, there will be an approximately 18" wire attached to a 16-pin chip socket on one end, the other end having a spring-loaded hook-type connector on it. This bit of hardware is the "single-wire SHIFT-key mod" and is used when installing the PCPI AppliCard into an Apple ][ or ][+ computer. Backing up your system/other distribution disks: Before doing anything else, make at least one copy (preferably two copies) of the disks that accompanied your AppliCard. This can be done with any DOS v3.3 or ProDOS utility that can make a verbatim disk copy (aka track copy, sector copy, etc.) such as Central Point Software's Copy II Plus, Locksmith, or even good old COPYA from the DOS v3.3 System Master Disk. Whichever method you use to copy the disk, be aware that at least one, probably more, and possibly _all_ of the 5.25" disks you received with your AppliCard are DOUBLE-SIDED. That is, the "back side" of the disk has data on it as well. To read the "flip side" of the disk, simply take the disk out of the drive, turn it over so that the 'bottom side' is up and reinstall it like that in your Disk ][-compatible disk drive. If you wish to make double-sided disks of your own, you will have to cut a 'write-enable' notch on the edge of the disk jacket exactly opposite the one that is already there. There are disk-notcher devices available for this, or you can notch most disks effectively with a hand-held single- hole paper punch. However you wish to proceed, just be certain that you copy all disk sides and label them accordingly. Please put the original disks away in a safe place and only use the copies. Hardware Installation: Please inspect the component (chip) side of your AppliCard. If your card is one of those which has the expansion connector headers on it, look at the long (50-pin) header and verify that there is a jumper (or shorting block) on the 13th (thirteenth) pair of pins (there should also be arrows printed on the circuit board pointing to these pins). If there is not a jumper on the 13th pair of pins of the 50-pin connector, you must find one and install it. The AppliCard may be damaged if you attempt to operate it without this jumper installed. If, on the other hand, you are lucky enough to have one of the RAM expansion boards for the AppliCard, the jumper just described should, of course be removed and your expansion board installed on the connectors. (Caveat: At this point, the author cannot offer any further instruction regarding inspection and preparation of the AppliCard with respect to any expansion boards as he's not been able to find any for his own AppliCard. Be careful.) Now that the jumper (or your expansion board) is installed on the AppliCard, you are ready to install it in one of your Apple's expansion slots. [Apple ][, and ][+ users: At this point, you should install the "Single- Wire SHIFT-key mod" if you do not already have this. The socket simply plugs into the game port socket as usual. The spring clip on the other end should hook onto the second pin from the right of the ][,][+ keyboard encoder board (as you peer into the case from over the keyboard). If you do not have the socket-wire-clip hardware, then you may make a suitable replacement by running a wire from pin 4 of the gameport (PB2) to the pin on the encoder described above. [If you do not have the encoder board, you will have to remove your left- hand SHIFT key and solder this end of the wire to the solder-pad that is just to the right of the left SHIFT key.] The AppliCard can be installed in any available slot in an Apple ][ computer. It should be noted, however, that the system software expects to find at least one Disk ][-style disk drive installed at Slot 6, Drive 1. If you have an 80-column text card in your Apple ][, it should be installed in Slot 3 so the system software will find it and use it. [Apple //e and IIgs users: The AppliCard may be installed in Slot 3 of a IIgs or //e (of course, 80-column display on the //e requires an 80-column card be installed in the AUX slot).] [Apple IIgs users: It turns out that the Applicard is just a trifle long to fit inside the Apple IIgs case. Seems you're on your own as to figuring out a way to make it fit. Some people have trimmed the IIgs case near the slot where they plan to install the AppliCard. [The AppliCard will work just fine at high speed in your IIgs. Furthermore, if you have installed the AppliCard in Slot 3 of your IIgs, you may leave the Control Panel set at 'Internal' for Slot 3. If you install the AppliCard in a slot other than Slot 3, you should, of course, set the Control Panel to 'Your Card' initially. If you wish, you may experiment with this setting to see what you can get away with....] NOTE: The AppliCard has a small 'peg' or 'tang' hanging down from it near the 'front' of the board (under the DRAM array). On some models of the Apple //e, (and perhaps on the IIgs as well) some components on the motherboard may interfere with this peg. Especially bothersome is the video ROM on the Extended-Keyboard model of the Apple //e (if you are installing the AppliCard in Slot 3). You may safely clip this 'peg' off of the AppliCard with a pair of wire cutters and file the rough edge off of the circuit board so long as you cut no higher than the component label 'C6' that is nearby. If you lack sufficient courage to perform this surgery, try to select a slot in your Apple ][ where there will be no such obstructions to the AppliCard's support peg. If you still really want to install it in an obstructed slot, find someone who will carefully remove the support peg. Once these precautions have been taken and you have selected which slot is to hold the AppliCard, use the usual care and install the card, making certain that it is well seated in its slot. At this point, the card is installed and you're ready to power-up your system. Starting the system for the first time: You should power-up your system the way you normally did before you installed the AppliCard. You should see no difference in its behavior at all. If something out of the ordinary occurs, recheck your installation and IIgs users should check their Control Panel settings to see that they make sense with respect to the AppliCard's presence in the system. You may boot up DOS 3.3, ProDOS, GS/OS or whatever you wish for the time being. This is just to make sure that your system is behaving itself. Once you are satisfied that nothing is amiss with your equipment thus far, you are ready to start the AppliCard. Take the disk labelled "System Boot Disk" and place it in your first 5.25" drive (which should correspond to Slot 6, Drive 1) and take whatever steps you require to boot the computer from that drive. (I.e., go to BASIC and use PR#6, or 6^P from the Monitor, or whatever you need to do on your system.) Now, the moment of truth. Your computer should begin booting from the "System Boot Disk". After a few moments, your screen should clear and will be set in 40-column mode. You should shortly see the message: LOAD DRIVERS appear near the top of the screen. After a few more moments the screen should clear again. If you have 80-column firmware or an 80-column text card in Slot 3 of your Apple ][, your screen should now be in 80-column mode and the message: CP/M Ver 2.2 (C) Digital Research, Inc. PCPI Ver 2.0 (C) Personal Computer Products, Inc. will appear on your screen. Depending on which version of the system you have, this message may also include a note about "Rights Licensed to MicroPro International Corp." along with a date. You should then be presented with the CP/M Console Command Processor prompt, namely: A>_ If you've reached this point--congratulations! You are now running CP/M on your Apple ][ computer! If something seems to have gone a-wry, you'll have to ask for help from a fellow AppliCard user, such as the author of this document (addresses at the end of the document). To get the feel of things, press a few times and try the command: A>DIR which should give you a listing of the files on drive A: (your 5.25" disk at Slot 6, Drive 1). [Apple //e (and possibly IIgs) users: If your display appears unkempt and seems to have characters missing where it's obvious that there should be some, you will have to make some customizations to the system to improve the video performance. This will be described later when discussing customization for your particular system.] Now that you have some idea of what the AppliCard boot process looks like, in the future, you may boot the AppliCard directly by simply booting the System Boot Disk from your first 5.25" drive. In the next section, we'll discuss customizing the system for your hardware setup and create a Custom Boot Disk tailored specifically for your system. [NOTE: The majority of the remainder of this document assumes that you are competent in handling files under CP/M. If you are a newcomer to CP/M, you should try to find one of the many books which discuss it. Three examples are given at the beginning of this document.] Unlike more 'traditional' CP/M systems, the PCPI AppliCard CP/M system does not require that a bootable disk remain in the A: drive. Any disk at all may be in the A: drive (of course there must be some sort of disk in the 'current' drive if A: is not the current drive). Furthermore, if you have the hardware to support a RAMDisk, the RAMDisk may be set up as drive A:, which speeds up CP/M warm boots. This will be discussed in more detail when talking about customizing your system. Customizing the PCPI system for your hardware: The OS and drivers on the System Boot Disk as supplied set up your system in a default manner much like this: 40x24 display mapped onto a 40-255 column virtual screen * OR * 80x24 display if 80-col. firmware detected/enabled * OR * 70x24 display drawn on the HiRes Grahpics screen if you boot the "Utilities" disk (may be useful if you don't have an 80-col. card). Printer buffer allocated to all free Apple ][ memory (including that of the extended 80-col. card, if present in a //e or IIgs) 6 35-track, 16-sector disk drives at S6 D1,D2; S5 D1,D2; S4 D1,D2 respectively (increasing drive letter [A:,B:,C:,D:,E:,F:] with de- creasing slot/increasing drive numbers). This will handle the vast majority of systems on initial startup (as above in "Starting the system for the first time"), but there are some optimizations that you can make, especially when you have additional hardware or other features you'd like to make available to the AppliCard system. There are a number of third-party or other after-market device drivers which may be added to the AppliCard system to support 3.5" disks and ProDOS hard disks under CP/M. PCPI has provided the tools for you to easily customize your OS and drivers to match your hardware. The first thing you should do, is to format at least two 5.25" disks. Run the COPYFRMT.COM utility and choose option 'A'. follow the instructions carefully. When you are done you should have (at least) two disks freshly formatted for what you're going to do next. You're going to create an 'Install Disk' which contains only those files that are necessary for installation of device drivers and configuration of the system for your hardware. (You really should have 2 5.25" disk drives for this...) Copy the following files to one of the disks you just formatted: INSTALL.COM DLDRIVER.COM PCPICPM (or STARCPM if your card is the MicroPro StarCard) CONFIGSV.COM *.DVR (that is, all files with names ending in .DVR) These files are located on the System Boot Disk and System Utility Disk. Once you've copied these files, label the disk as "PCPI Install Disk" or something to that effect. You're going to use the files on this disk to make a custom boot disk from the other disk you formatted previously. In the majority of cases, your screen display will be working properly as supplied. The console driver, SFTVIDEO.DVR, is capable of recognizing a number of different 80-column cards and can map the standard 40-column display into a 40-255 column virtual screen, if it cannot find an 80-column display device. If it appears that SFTVIDEO is not properly handling your display, you need to use CONFIGSV.COM to verify and/or alter it's control codes to properly handle your 80-column display. You may also enable/disable other features of the driver. The menus and descriptions should be helpful enough to let you get things set the way you'd like them. NOTE: Terminal Software Definitions specify the control sequences that applications programs (i.e. Software) will send to the display for the purposes of cursor positioning, cursor movement, etc. Terminal Hardware Definitions are the control sequences that your display device will actually respond to for doing cursor positioning, cursor move- ment, etc. SFTVIDEO.DVR translates the Software to the Hardware. In the vast majority of cases, you should leave the Software definitions set to "Televideo 920/950" and set the Hardware definition to that which matches your 80-column display device. If your 80-column device is not among the choices, you should examine the control codes with the "Other" option and check them against the codes given in your 80-column device's manual. In most cases, "80-col. cards w/ inverse" will work properly for most Apple ][,][+ cards (Videx, AE, ALS, etc.) Apple //e and IIgs users should keep the default setting of "Apple IIe with 80-column card" If you do NOT have an 80-column display, then you will want to make your settings in the sub-menu of "40-255 column display". Most of the menu choices and description of the section that CONFIGSV provides enough help to let you make the decisions you need to make on your settings. Alternatively, You may opt for the 70-column display that SFTVIDEO can provide. An add-on driver, HIRESIO.DVR, works in conjunction with SFTVIDEO.DVR to do this (see "Customizing..." below). It would be recommended, in any case, to set the RUBOUT character to $7F (ASCII 127). Once you've decided that your settings for SFTVIDEO.DVR are the way you want them, choose the option to save SFTVIDEO.DVR and then exit CONFIGSV. This is the only extra configuration step you might need to perform. All other system configuration and customization is accomplished with INSTALL.COM. Now you are ready to build and configure the set of drivers that is tailored to your system's hardware. To begin, run INSTALL.COM. You will then see a screen that looks like the beginning of a table with the message: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Dvr Device name Dev Num Ver ! Dvr Device name Dev Num Ver num num dev num ! num num Dev num ------------------------------------------------------------------- -- NO DRIVERS RETRIEVED -- ------------------------------------------------------------------- A = Get a driver file E = Delete a driver B = Save DRIVERS and Write CP/M F = Move a driver C = Save DRIVERS file G = Change a device number D = Write CP/M to boot tracks H = Change number of devices I = Configure CP/M Enter option (X to return to CP/M): _ followed by the list of menu choices shown. At this point, you should select the option to "Get a driver file". Do this for each driver that will need to be installed. At the absolute minimum, you should load: SFTVIDEO[.DVR] (the .DVR extension is optional when loading drivers) APLFLPY[.DVR] If you have an 80-column Apple //e (or IIgs) you should also load FAST2E80[.DVR] since this will speed up the 80-column video display on the Apple //e (and will probably boost performance on a IIgs as well). If you DO NOT have 80-column firmware or other 80-column display device, you may wish to use SFTVIDEO's 70-column display which it can generate on the HiRes graphics screen of the Apple ][. To use this you must load HIRESIO[.DVR] If you have a serial printer, you MUST load one of the printer buffer drivers, either BUFFER[.DVR] (if your printer uses hardware handshaking) * or * ETXBUFF[.DVR] (if your printer requires ETX/ACK handshaking) If you have a parallel printer, you do not need these drivers, unless you'd like to have a printer buffer. If so, use BUFFER.DVR. It's generally a good idea to re-arrange the drivers so that all of the character I/O drivers (console, printer buffer, etc. all having Device Numbers of 16 or higher) come first in the list that INSTALL builds and displays. Also, it's a good idea to arrange all drivers in order of increasing Device number. [Apple //e and IIgs users: you MUST install FAST2E80 immediately following SFTVIDEO.DVR (which should be Driver #1, Device #16, anyway) That is, "Fast IIe 80CLM" should appear as Driver #2, Device #19. [Likewise, people using the 70-column HiRes Graphics display MUST install HIRESIO immediately following SFTVIDEO.] Use the "Move a Driver" option to re-arrange the drivers to suit. Customizing the block device drivers (i.e. floppy and hard disks) can free up some memory if you have fewer disk drives than any one driver supports. If you have not already loaded APLFLPY.DVR, you should do so now. By default, the "Apple 16*35 Flppy" driver places it's first device at Device Number 0. This corresponds to the A: drive. Also you will notice that this driver shows '6' in the Number of Devices column. By default, the driver can handle that many drives. This is where the savings can be gained through customizing. Use the option to "Change Number of Devices" to set the number of devices equal to the number of Disk ][-style drives you have--taking care that this is not greater than 6 and that subsequent pairs of them are installed in Slot 5, then Slot 4, if present at all. This is the overall strategy with disk drivers. Customize them for the actual number of drives you have (or that you wish to have available) as long as that is not more than the driver can support. Furthermore, you can control which drive-types show up at which CP/M drive letters by changing the "Device Number". The mapping for drive letters to Device Numbers is A:,0; B:,1; C:,2; etc. Once you have the drivers set up the way you like, you should choose the option to "Save DRIVERS and write CP/M". When prompted for the drive, you should give the drive letter of the other blank disk. INSTALL will read the various .DVR files from your install disk and write a file called DRIVERS to the disk that will become your Custom Boot Disk. Then it will read the PCPICPM (or STARCPM) file and adjust a few system areas to make sure that it has enough space reserved for data that it has to keep track of. Then it will write the system image to the boot tracks of your Custom Boot Disk. If space permits, it might bw wise to save a copy of the drivers file right on your INSTALL disk. Choose "Save Drivers" and give the drive letter (if necessary) and filename in which you would like to store your configured drivers file. When next you need to run INSTALL, such as to install a driver for a new piece of equipment, you can simply load the DRIVERS file that you built earlier and make any changes you wish to it, rather than loading in all the separate drivers all over again. By way of example, let's take an Apple //e with 128K, a Buffered Grappler+ printer card, a DuoDisk in Slot 6, and a pair of UniDisk 3.5 drives in Slot 5. INSTALL's final display might look like this: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Dvr Device name Dev Num Ver ! Dvr Device name Dev Num Ver num num dev num ! num num Dev num ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 = Soft Video Dvr 16 1 15 ! 4 = //e RAMDisk 0 1 2 2 = FAST IIE 80 CLM 19 1 5 ! 5 = Apl 16*35 Flppy 1 2 6 3 = Grappler+ Drvr 17 1 2 ! 6 = Disk 3.5 3 2 4 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Going down the list, the setup for this theoretical system is: Driver #1 is Softvideo, device #16, 1 device supported (console), version 15 of the driver. Driver #2 is FAST IIE 80 CLM, device #19 (slot 3 firmware), 1 device supported (//e video screen), version 5 of the driver. Driver #3 is Grappler+ Drvr, device #17 (card in Slot 1), 1 device supported (only one Grappler+), version #2 of the driver. Driver #4 is a block (disk) device. //e RAMDisk, Device #0 (Drive A:), 1 device supported (Extended 80-col. card in //e), version #2 of the driver. Driver #5 is Apl 16*35 Flppy, starting at Device #1 (drive B:) and supporting 2 devices (drives B: and C:), version #6 of the driver. Driver #6 is Disk 3.5, starting at Device #3 (drive D:) and supporting 2 devices (drives D: and E:), version #4 of the driver. [Note: Grappler+ Drvr, //e RAMDisk, and Disk 3.5 are NOT part of the standard PCPI system distribution, but are after-market drivers that were developed after the PCPI System had been out a while. Many of these drivers are available on CP/M and Apple BBS systems or are available via anonymous FTP over the Internet.] This should give you a good idea of how to configure your system when you have the need to change some of its properties or to add/remove device drivers to/from the system. NOTE: Be advised that if you make any alterations to DISK drivers, you MUST save out the drivers and write the new system image to your boot disk again as the memory requirements will change if you alter the number of devices on a driver or add a new disk device driver. Miscellaneous topics: When using the ADOSXFER.COM utility, you must use the CP/M drive letter to specify the drive holding the DOS 3.3 disk you want to see the directory of or to/from which you wish to transfer files. You should generally install any software which uses the terminal control codes to produce its displays as if the console were a TeleVideo 920/950 or Soroc IQ 120/140 terminal. You can look at the control codes of each with the OTHER Software Definitions option under most of the CONFIGSV alteration modes. The ALTER key is generally only useful for those systems which do not have an 80-column display or which cannot generate all the standard ASCII characters (like the Apple][ or ][+). It is normally ESC, except on Apple //e's where it is ESC, unless the ALTER MODE is disabled altogether. If you have a ProDOS-compatible hard disk, there is a generic driver and configuration program available that will allow you to install a CP/M partition on your ProDOS hard disk and access it from the AppliCard's system. This driver/installer package is available from: Steve Hirsch 22 Briarwood Lane Burlington, Vermont 05401 GEnie address: STEVE.HIRSCH Internet: hirsch@uvm-gen.EMBA.UVM.EDU steve.hirsch@genie.geis.com Closing remarks: I hope this document has been of some help to you. The PCPI AppliCard system is truly one of the highest-performance Z80-based computing environments ever devised. It should serve you very well and faithfully for as long as you like. Should you ever decide to part with your AppliCard, for whatever reason, look me up. I'm always looking for another one. I'll find a good home for it if I can't use it myself. If you find anything confusing in this document or you feel that there is some information that is in error, please contact me with your concerns, questions, suggestions, or just chat about Apple CP/M and the AppliCard in general. I am: John D. Baker Rt. 1, Box 177E Brookshire, TX 77423 Internet: jdbaker@NoSpAm!blkbox.com jdbaker@taronga.com John.Baker@f31.n106.z1.fidonet.org jdbaker@tam2000.tamu.edu BBSs: JOHN BAKER on PIC of the Mid-Town [(713) 527-8939] 1:106/31, The Vector Board [(716) 544-1863], Z-Node #45 [(713) 937-8886] WWW: http://http.tamu.edu:8000/~jdb802/ http://www.NoSpAm!blkbox.com/~jdbaker/ And as always, I am: ->A TransWarp'802-powered Apple //e CardZ180 Z-System nut // John D. Baker, 21 October 1993 8 June 1994 9 July 1995 11 October 1995 3 February 1996 -------------------- Copyright 1995 John D. Baker, jdbaker@NoSpAm!blkbox.com ___________ from: http://www.blkbox.com/~jdbaker/SmallSys/AppliCard.html Description: The PCPI AppliCard (also known as the MicroPro StarCard or Franklin ACE-80 CPU) is a co-processor accessory card that fits in one of the standard expansion slots of an Apple ][, ][+, //e, or IIgs computer and runs the CP/M operating system. The AppliCard contains a Zilog Z80 CPU running at a clock speed of either 4 or 6 MHz, 64K of DRAM, a bootstrap EPROM, logic and buffers to interface it with the Apple ][, and may optionally include a Z80 CTC (counter-timer chip). Depending on the revision level of the board there may also be two dual-row header (male) connectors on the board, one with 10 pins, the other with 50 pins. These connectors are for RAM expansion and serial I/O boards which ``piggy-back'' onto the AppliCard. The board was produced by Personal Computer Products, Inc. in the early 1980's and was the fastest CP/M computer of its day. It often was bundled with MicroPro's ``WordStar'' word processor and was known as the ``StarCard.'' Franklin Computer Corporation also offered the card for CP/M compatibility in their Apple ][+ clones, calling it the ``ACE-80 CPU.'' The AppliCard itself was designed by Ray Klein and Winthrop L. (``Wink'') Saville III. Saville wrote the 6502-resident command processor, the Z80 CBIOS and the 6502 device drivers needed to interface the AppliCard with all the other peripherals that could be installed in an Apple ][. At one point in the CBIOS source, the AppliCard is referred to as ``the K & S Z80 board.'' Recent communications with Ray Klein revealed that there was an Apple /// native version of the AppliCard, but by the time the first prototypes were finished, the commercial life of the AppliCard design was just about over. Ray still has the working prototype he and Wink built for a proposed Apple //c version of the AppliCard. It was based on their Apple /// design, but was a separate box that plugged into the external floppy-drive port. The above paragraph was true up until about 9 March 1997. After talking with Ed Sevarese (CEO of PCPI), Ray sent the schematics for all Z80 AppliCard products, the Apple ///-cum-Apple //c prototype and a couple of blank AppliCards and Klein Associates SIO boards to me. WOW! A brief review of the schematics showed that revision 02 and earlier boards had some timing and interrupt problems that were fixed with the revision 03 boards. When I mentioned this to Ray, he dug up a copy of the revision 02 schematics, indicated the changes and will be sending them to me. I'll try to make the information available to all who request it. If your AppliCard bears the legend "PCPI 001-0001-03" on the solder side of the board, you have a revision 03 board. To be continued... PCPI AppliCard Theory of Operation The PCPI AppliCard and the Apple ][ computer in which it is installed form a true distributed processing system. That is, the AppliCard and its Apple ][ host communicate only over a set of I/O ports. They do not share memory or any other system resource. The 64K of DRAM on the AppliCard holds the Z80 CBIOS and the CP/M operating system. All user programs are loaded into this RAM for execution by the Z80 CPU. As the host system, the Apple ][ provides necessary system services for the AppliCard such as console I/O, other character I/O and handling of disk drives. The Z80 CBIOS communicates with a 6502 command processor which runs continuously on the Apple ][ host. This command processor constantly polls one of the AppliCard's I/O locations, looking for a command byte from the Z80 CBIOS. So long as there is no I/O to be done, the AppliCard and the host run independently of one another. When I/O is required, the Z80 CBIOS writes a command byte, followed by appropriate arguments and data, to its host output port. The particular command byte may indicate a function performed directly by the resident command processor, or it may be passed to additional device drivers. Device drivers are responsible for actually controlling the physical devices present in the Apple ][ and making them available for use by the AppliCard. Nearly any peripheral device may be used from the AppliCard system, provided there is an appropriate device driver. Depending on the command, the 6502 command processor (or device driver) may return data to the Z80 CBIOS. To be continued... Expanding the AppliCard System AppliCard files at Oakland.... There are a number of after-market and third-party device drivers available to let you use just about any device you wish with the AppliCard. With few exceptions, if it fits in your Apple, the AppliCard can make use of it. The cheapest and easiest hardware upgrade for the AppliCard is to install a Z80 CTC in the empty 28-pin socket, if your card currently has no CTC in it. What good would it do? Well, it would allow the 6502 to interrupt the AppliCard when necessary--although that would require some re-writing of the CBIOS and 6502 command processor. Another alternative would be using the Z80 CTC as a Real-Time Clock. There were also RAM expansion boards available. These ``AppliDisk'' cards were available in 64K or 128K sizes. Two AppliDisk cards could be stacked for a total 256K of additional RAM. This ram was used as a RAMDisk. At one time, there were plans to implement a banked OS using some of this RAM, but these plans do not appear to have materialized. A very rare bird indeed is the so-called ``Klein SIO board.'' This board allowed the AppliCard to have 2 RS232 serial I/O channels that were local to the Z80 CPU--eliminating the overhead of having to communicate with a serial card in the Apple ][. The Klein SIO used the on-board CTC (described above) to generate the bit rates for the Z80 SIO chip. Ray Klein told me that he has a number of blank printed-circuit boards for his AppliCard SIO available for a ``nominal'' price (as he put it). You can contact him via the link above for more information The author of this document has recently designed his own SIO expansion board. Although inspired by the Klein SIO board, this has a couple of improvements. Whereas the Klein SIO derived bit rates from the the system clock, this SIO board includes its own crystal oscillator so the bit rates are far more accurate. Future plans include adding a real-time clock/ram chip to the SIO board for an all-in-one BBS-capable add-on. My AppliCard Credentials I've been an AppliCard user since 1984 (truly since 1987), so what I have to say here comes from using the card nearly every day for seven years. I've also been fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with some of the low-level device driver code. It's a masterpiece of elegance. True, the console driver could use some work, and I've been hacking at it, but it's quite a lot of complex code and I haven't been able to devote myself entirely to it. I haven't found any software that wouldn't run on the AppliCard (except machine-specific stuff, of course). I even have one running with a Corvus flat-cable Apple ][ hard disk in an Apple ][+ with the CP/M partition installed on a ProDOS volume. It's truly a fantastic machine. _____________ ftp://oak.oakland.edu/pub/cpm/apple/aplicard.txt aplcpmlg.7z7 (Image) GEnie CP/M Roundtable Apple files, July '87 07/20/87, 15104 bytes aplicard.txt (ASCII) Review of the PCPI AppliCard 06/12/85, 6854 bytes aplvidex.ark (Image) Apple ][ w/Videx screen speedup 04/26/87, 7552 bytes cardz180.inf (ASCII) New Apple CP/M card w/64180 01/24/89, 3315 bytes mxh-cz11.lbr (Image) MEX overlay for CardZ180 08/17/89, 12032 bytes pcpi-mon.lbr (Image) 6502 monitor calls from PCPI CP/M 02/07/87, 4992 bytes pcpi-ram.lbr (Image) ramdisk for PCPI and //e (built-in) 02/07/87, 2816 bytes pcpi-rtc.lbr (Image) RTC for Applicard using CTC 05/09/87, 23040 bytes pcpi-sio.lbr (Image) support for Applicard Z80-SIO card 02/07/87, 30592 bytes pcpi-ug.1z1 (Image) Applicard UG Newsletter #101 07/14/87, 1920 bytes pcpi-ug.1z2 (Image) Applicard UG Newsletter #102 08/12/87, 2176 bytes pcpi-ug.1z3 (Image) Applicard UG Newsletter #103 12/11/87, 5760 bytes pcpi-ug.1z4 (Image) Applicard UG Newsletter #104 12/10/87, 1920 bytes pcpi-ug.izf (Image) AppliCard user group information 05/05/87, 1664 bytes pcpi-ws4.azm (Image) Applicard/Wordstar 4.0 Patch 09/11/87, 768 bytes pcpi-xy.bzs (Image) VTAB and HTAB for PCPI w/MBASIC 02/07/87, 1792 bytes pcpi.doc (ASCII) Read/write Apple memory using AppliCard 04/19/85, 815 bytes pcpi.mac (ASCII) Place parameters on stack using AppliCard 04/19/85, 577 bytes pcpi6502.mzp (Image) 6502 memory map for apple with PCPI 02/07/87, 768 bytes pcpias11.azm (Image) Applicard Z3 AUTOST w/Alias Fix 08/15/87, 5760 bytes pcpibdos.mzc (Image) bdos patch for Applicard 02/07/87, 2176 bytes pcpiboot.aqm (Image) Customize Applicard boot message 01/27/87, 2048 bytes pcpibye1.lbr (Image) Applicard Super Serial BYE/KMD 01/15/88, 16640 bytes pcpiclk2.lbr (Image) DateStamper support w/ PCPI card 06/05/88, 13312 bytes pcpiclk3.lbr (Image) Full-Screen Clock for Applicard 09/10/87, 18944 bytes pcpicolr.lbr (Image) color for Apple PCPI card 12/21/86, 6528 bytes pcpidbii.fix (ASCII) Fixes DBII and Applicard problem 07/20/87, 1136 bytes pcpidrvr.zip (Image) PCPI AppliCard device drivers 03/26/94, 30904 bytes pcpidvr6.lzt (Image) List of Applicard Drivers 02/11/88, 2048 bytes pcpifst6.ark (Image) Speed-Up info for the Applicard 06/28/89, 5250 bytes pcpigprt.lbr (Image) use applicard game port as SIO 02/07/87, 6400 bytes pcpigrf2.lbr (Image) Applicard DHR Graphics, v2 07/27/87, 58624 bytes pcpigrfx.lbr (Image) Graphics for the Applicard 02/27/87, 50944 bytes pcpigrlr.lbr (Image) Applicard/Grappler 8th-bit Driver 08/10/87, 2816 bytes pcpimmii.lbr (Image) Applicard/MicroModem II Set-Up 07/20/87, 3200 bytes pcpitime.lbr (Image) PCPI/DS1216E/Turbo Modula-2 support 08/31/87, 3584 bytes pcpiuni.lbr (Image) Applicard .DVR for UDC and 3.5/800K 07/09/87, 24320 bytes pcpivers.azm (Image) Versacard support for Applicard 02/07/87, 3584 bytes pcpixfer.lbr (Image) Transfer between PCPI CP/M & DOS3.3 12/27/87, 5248 bytes pcpiz3v2.mzp (Image) Z80 memory map for Applicard/ZCPR3 02/07/87, 1152 bytes sscdrvr.aqm (Image) Apple SSC interrupt driver 05/09/87, 5632 bytes thunder.azm (Image) Softcard I/Thunderclock routine 01/02/88, 2304 bytes wspatch.lbr (Image) Hints on patching WordStar for Apple 05/31/87, 21760 bytes