Reconstruction of Dobbertins famous HD20 hard disc

[TFM]

When Dobbertin released it's famous hard disc HD20 in 1990 it was the most wonderful mass media the CPC ever saw. Full support under BASIC, CP/M 2.2 and CP/M Plus. The CPC can even boot from the HD20.
 
Despite it's wonderful software the hardware design was kept quite easy. In principle it was a PC MFM hard-disc connected to an XT controller, which in turn was connected to the CPC.
 
Due to the huge amount of software supporting the HD20 it would be quite wonderful to rebuilt this device. Well, using todays components of course. What do you think?
 

[TotO]

It may look interesting. 

[Gryzor]

Of course it'd be interesting, just for the fun of it.


When you say 'boot from the HD', how do you mean it?

[TFM]

The X-DDOS 2.11 provided the commands |CPM,4 (5, 6 or 7) to boot from hard disc partition D (E, F or G).
 
This way you can boot up to four different versions of CP/M 2.2 or even CP/M Plus (!) from the hard disc. Without the need of any floppy disc.
 

[arnoldemu]

The X-DDOS 2.11 provided the commands |CPM,4 (5, 6 or 7) to boot from hard disc partition D (E, F or G).
 
This way you can boot up to four different versions of CP/M 2.2 or even CP/M Plus (!) from the hard disc. Without the need of any floppy disc.

What if the roms and cpm were patched to use new interfaces, including rpalmers hd interface, symbiface etc.
Then you have the software that you know working with modern interfaces...

I already started to dissassemble the xddos rom, because I wanted to understand more about the dobbertin hd interface to emulate it.
I didn't make much progress yet.

[TFM]

Well, I do have the full source code of X-DDOS, R-DOS and pretty much all Dobbertin Software. The thread here is not about patching software for new hardware. We have new hd interfaces since 2004 (CPC-IDE, then SF2 and and and). And if someone want's to do that fine. There is also BonnyDOS for the SF2. 
 
The topic here is to replace the hardware in a way that it runs with existing software WITHOUT the need of patching it.
 
It should be doable to emulate / recreate the part of the controller developped by Dobbertin. It's not very complex. The new part would be the linkage to an IDE hard-disc instead of an XT controller.
 

[Bryce]

Does anyone have the original hardware or the schematics so that it could be reverse engineered for a 2013 version?

Bryce.

[Ygdrazil]

Hi TFM


I am very interessted in the sourcecode of R-DOS by Dobbertin. Please upload it to the wiki :-)


Regards,
Ygdrazil

Well, I do have the full source code of X-DDOS, R-DOS and pretty much all Dobbertin Software. The thread here is not about patching software for new hardware. We have new hd interfaces since 2004 (CPC-IDE, then SF2 and and and). And if someone want's to do that fine. There is also BonnyDOS for the SF2. 
 
The topic here is to replace the hardware in a way that it runs with existing software WITHOUT the need of patching it.
 
It should be doable to emulate / recreate the part of the controller developped by Dobbertin. It's not very complex. The new part would be the linkage to an IDE hard-disc instead of an XT controller.

[TFM]

Does anyone have the original hardware or the schematics so that it could be reverse engineered for a 2013 version?

Bryce.

I will try to care about that soon. Meanwhile you can throw a glance at an article I did write about it in the FutureView discmag (and of course the Wiki page here). The Link to the FV III is this here:
http://www.colorado-boys-muenchen.de/users/futureos/files/Future%20View%20III.zip
 
The article describes also the used ICs, so this may give some first hints.

 

I am very interessted in the sourcecode of R-DOS by Dobbertin. Please upload it to the wiki :-)

At present time I'm not allowed to release it into public. But I'm talking to the owner of rights from time to time. So patience is a virture.
 

[Bryce]

I have to install FutureOS, create a disk, transfer it to a CPC and then work out how to read it?!?!? Don't you have it as a TXT or something slightly more useful??

Bryce.

[TFM]

No I only have the disc-mag[nb]You don't seriously want a .txt. First you have to transfer it to disc, then to CPC, then start CP/M, then a text editor, then load the file, and search through it. Can't be worse[/nb]. Easy does it:
 
- Insert DSK in any drive (use an emulator if your real hardware is not accessible)
- Start the very first file with the name " Start FV 3"
 
That's all

[Bryce]

You don't seriously want a .txt. First you have to transfer it to disc, then to CPC, then start CP/M, then a text editor, then load the file, and search through it. Can't be worse

Very funny. Actually a simple "vi textfile.txt" in the CLI does it for me.

Bryce.

[TFM]

Neither I know what that is, nor I do think that I have it on my (C)PC.[nb]And a comment on a footnote should be a footnote  [/nb]

[Bryce]

vi is the standard Linux text editor.

Bryce.

[TFM]

Ok, learnt something new.
Now, back to topic :-)
 

[robcfg]

Does anyone have the original hardware or the schematics so that it could be reverse engineered for a 2013 version?

Bryce.

CPCManiaco has the hardware. As soon as I can visit him I can try to scan,dump,etc everything you need. You just name it

[robcfg]

Well, Good news!


The scans of the PCB were already in the Dobbertin HD page in the wiki, and also the XD-Dos 2.0 rom was also in its page.


Now, we managed to dump the two gals, and they are uploaded to the wiki page!


If there's anything else you may need, tell us 


Have a nice day!

[TFM]

WoW!!! That's really great to have the GALs. Now what can be done next.
 

[TotO]

Sure it's a bit off topic, but if you can dump the 6128 PAL (16L8AC) too...
That will allow to build RAM expansion for 464/664.