The Nascom II single board Z80 machine included a simple but reliable
cassette interface. The circuit diagrams are online at
http://www.nascomhomepage.com/pdf/Nascom2.pdf
Kevin
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org
[mailto:owner-classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Richard Erlacher
Sent: 28 October 2001 19:28
To: classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Almost on topic - Cassette I/O
I don't know what data rate you're after, but with a couple of parallel I/O
bits, you can build a very seriously reliable audio cassette interface,
requiring only that you ditially time the transitions on the serial link.
If
you use Manchester encoding which has timing information embedded in every
bit,
you can operate the cassette interface at the highest rate at which the
head/media combination is capable, without any particular hardship. You
just
need to low-pass filter the output and AC-couple the input with a couple or
three passives for each, you're done. If your cassette is capable of 10 kHz
then you need simply approximate the I/O rate to match, since a string of
either
1's or 0's will have that frequency, and the transitions between them will
never
have less than a +180-degree phase shift.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ben Franchuk" <bfranchuk_at_jetnet.ab.ca>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2001 11:58 AM
Subject: Almost on topic - Cassette I/O
> I am building a FPGA ( Field programmable gate array ) computer
> in the style of the early computers that had a front panel and
> TTY for I/O. While I don't have have a front panel working the
> Hardware serial bootstrap does work on my prototype. Since I
> have a few LOGIC cells left in my FPGA to play with I was
> thinking adding a cassette interface. Does anybody know of
> schematics on the web that I can get ideas from.
> Ben Franchuk.
> --
> Standard Disclaimer : 97% speculation 2% bad grammar 1% facts.
> "Pre-historic Cpu's" http://www.jetnet.ab.ca/users/bfranchuk
> Now with schematics.
>
>
Received on Mon Oct 29 2001 - 01:24:39 GMT