Central Point Option floppy controller

From: Kai Kaltenbach <kaikal_at_MICROSOFT.com>
Date: Wed Sep 15 12:10:13 1999

Actually, the Deluxe Option Board will copy Apple II diskettes. I've tested
this myself. As far as I can tell, it will copy absolutely any soft-sector
format, and there is even a bit-by-bit mode that will sometimes work on some
hard sector disks.

I'll be bringing my Compaq PC (a.k.a. Portable I, 8088 with the dual
full-height 5-1/4" floppies) to the VCF. It has a Deluxe Option Board
installed and an internal 3.5" IDE HD run by a Silicon Valley IDE controller
with BIOS. The hard drive is there so I can load the Option Board software
without a lot of floppy swapping. It'll be set up as a free
diskette-copying station.

Kai

 -----Original Message-----
From: allisonp_at_world.std.com [mailto:allisonp_at_world.std.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 1999 7:05 AM
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: Re: Central Point Option floppy controller

> I have one of these. Does anyone know how it's hooked up?
> Anybody got the S/W for this thing? Supposedly, you can
> write any format on the planet with this thing. I've

Nope, only softsector formats that used standard address marks. That
leaves out apple, some CBM, Most heath H89 and all northstar systems
at least.

> heard that it won't run i faster, newer machines. Does
> anyone know what the limitations are?

The board is slow, make sure the ISA bus transactions are set up to not
exceed 8mhz and also there should be IO waits. Bet best is to find and
use an old 386 or 486.

Allison
Received on Wed Sep 15 1999 - 12:10:13 BST