Elite controller, Introduction – Rana Systems Elite Series User Manual

Page 170

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ELITE SERIES USER MANUAL

THEORY OF OPERATION

7 . 2 . E l i t e C o n t r o l l e r

7 . 2 . 1 . I n t r o d u c t i o n

The four disk drives allowed with each Elite

Controller card are grouped into two pairs with

drives 1 and 2 (Bank 0) selected when power is

first applied.

They may be addressed using the standard “Dl”

and D2” used by most Apple software. With a

special command to the controller to select Bank

1, drives 3 and 4 will respond as if they were

drives 1 and 2. An LED indicates when the

second bank (drives 3 and 4) is selected.

An EPROM, containing the Rana boot code, is

located on the controller card. The Rana boot

accommodates both the standard Apple 13 and 16

sector formats. The controller card is also

compatible with the special “copy protected” 16-

sect or boot formats since, in a general sense,

only the initial boot sector must be read by the

boot PROM. Following this, the user software

(or DOS) handles any special formats.

The EPROM is switched into and out of the per-

ipheral expansion space ($C800-CFFF) using the

protocol recommended by Apple. An LED, located

on the Controller Card, indicates when the Rana

boot EPROM is switched into the expansion space.

P a g e 7 — 7

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