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From: mlsmith@NADC.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Quikdisk
Message-ID: <1785@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 9-Jul-84 13:11:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.1785
Posted: Mon Jul 9 13:11:21 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 13-Jul-84 01:28:16 EDT
Lines: 130
Quikdisk is a high performance floppy disk system designed especially
for the Commodore 64 series computers. It is part of the PEDISK series of floppy
disk systems and is optimized to provide extremely high speed and reliable
operation. The Quikdisk system consists of a small disk controller module,a
cable assembly, and a standard disk drive assembly.
The controller will interface to three inch, five and one quarter inch,
or eight inch drives. The Quikdisk controller module plugs into the cartridge
slot of the computer and a flat cable connects to the drive.
PDOS software emulates a Commodore disk drive by intercepting the disk command
commands from the machine. Quikdisk operates, however, by transferring data
directly from the diskette to the computer memory. With a data transfer rate of
250,000 bits per second, over ten times faster than the serial bus, Quikdisk
provides emulation at the fastest possible speed. A full set of disk utilities
are also available.
MODEL 340-2 DUAL 3" 286K...............$ 895.00
MODEL 540-1 SINGLE 5 1/4" 143K.........$ 595.00
MODEL 580-1 SINGLE 5 1/4" 286K.........$ 695.00
MODEL 580-2 DUAL 5 1/4" 572K...........$ 895.00
MODEL 877-1 SINGLE 8" 250K.............$1095.00
PEDISK CII Controller Module...........$ 295.00
with software operating system
HARDWARE:
The Quikdisk controller module is a 3.5 by 3.5 "L" shaped circuit board with
cover that plugs into the cartridge expansion slot of the computer.
The controller contains a 1793 LSI circuit, memory decoding logic, a contr
control latch, buffers and a "boot ROM" can be located in the "catridge
expansion" memory. A standard 34 wire flat cable connects to the drive. Jumper
options are provided to control several types of drive, single or double sided.
DISK DRIVE INTERFACE
pin 1 - 33 all odd pins common
pin 2 - optional side select
pin 4 - optional index pulse
pin 6 - ready input
pin 8 - index
pin 10 - drive select one
pin 12 - drive select two
pin 14 - drive select three
pin 16 - motor control
pin 18 - direction
pin 20 - step
pin 22 - write data
pin 24 - write gate
pin 26 - track zero input
pin 28 - write protect input
pin 30 - read data input
pin 32 - optional side select
pin 34 - optional drive select four
DRIVE TYPES
MODEL 340-2 3 inch dual drive 286K TRACKS:40 SECTORS:28
MODEL 540-1 5 1/4 inch single drive 143K 40 28
MODEL 540-2 5 1/4 inch dual drive 286K 40 28
MODEL 877-1 8 inch single drive 250K 77 26
Expansion drives can be added to a limit of four drives.
TYPICAL PERFORMANCE:
LOAD AN 8K BASIC PROGRAM: 2.5 SECONDS
LOAD A 40K BASIC PROGRAM: 5 SECONDS
DRIVE ACCESS TIME (TYP): 40 MILLISECONDS
MAXIMUM NUMBER FILES: 151
MAXIMUM NUMBER DRIVES: FOUR
FILE TYPES: SEQUENTIAL, RANDOM, PROGRAM
SOFTWARE:
Quikdisk software resides both on the "boot ROM" and a system diskette. It is
divided into several parts: primitives, boot, initialization, load, save, open,
input, print, get, and utilities. The software interfaces to the computer
through the "Kernal jump table." The PDOS initialization routine modifies the
jump table such that floppy disk functions are routed to PDOS. If the Quikdisk
device number is not being called, the routines revert to standard serial bus
functions. This method provides two key features: transparent operation to many
existing programs and the ability to provide simple, easy to use disk functions
such as formatting a diskette (NEW), copying (BACKUP), etc.
BASIC COMMANDS KERNAL CALLS MEMORY MAPS
LOAD OPEN $FFC0 $0000-$C1FF UNUSED BY QUIKDISK
SAVE CLOSE $FFC3 $C200-$CFFF PDOS, BUFFERS
OPEN CHKIN $FFC6 $D000-$DE03 UNUSED BY QUIKDISK
INPUT# CHKOUT $FFC9 $DE04-$DFDF BOOT ROM
PRINT# CHRIN $FFCF $DFF8 CONTROL LATCH
GET# CHROUT $FFD2 $DFFA-$DFFB LSI CONTROLLER
CLOSE LOAD $FFD5
SAVE $FFD8 $DFFC-$FFFF UNUSED BY QUIKDISK
USING QUIKDISK:
The quikdisk initialization is accomplished with the command SYS56837. The
initialization sets the Quikdisk default device number to eight. Program loading, saving
saving, is done exactly the same as the Commodore disk drive e.g. LOAD "PROG",8
Special disk commands like NEW and SCRATCH are also identical in format. In addit
addition, a special disk utility is available that makes disk maintenance
functions much easier. Tasks like formatting (NEW), eliminating old files
(SCRATCH), copying, and other functions are done via an easy to use menu display
SUBROUTINES AVAILABLE:
PRBLKS - read sectors from disk
PWBLKS - write sectors to disk
DIRSCH - directory search
SCRTCH - kill (scratch) a file
Microtech
PO Box 102
Langhorne, PA 19047
215-757-0284
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NOTE: The preceding information is provided as a public service and is in no way
an endorsement or certification of correctness of the data. As with
previous Microtech products (PEDISK) there appears to be no commonality
between their products format and Commodore. PEDISK worked fairly well
after solving some startup bugs (I think we had s/n 001). However, for a
C-64 the capability to play commercial products is essential. This
limitation is severe for this product. As an auxilliary disk it might
make sense, but as I read it this is an either or proposition, Commodore
disks or theirs. I guess you could load the program off a Commodore disk
and then do the SYS command and save it on Quikdisk (Maybe?)
mlsmith@nadc.ARPA