- Welcome to CPCWiki forum.
The ultimate Amstrad CPC community!
News:
Printed Amstrad Addict magazine announced, check it out here!
Recent posts
#1
P
NC100, NC200, PCW, PDA600 - the rest of the Family! / Disk drives on the PC2086
Last post by PortoManc - Today at 19:59I remember back in 1986, as a student, I had my first own PC - the Amstrad PC2086, bought from Time Computers (then of Blackburn, Lancashire). As Amstrad had been having problems with their own internal HDDs at the time, the spec of the machine I got was a 1 internal floppy drive (3 1/2", 720kb) with a 30 Mb Hard card, partitioned into a 20 Mb OS & software drive C: and a 10 Mb data partition D:. That was in an expansion slot at the back. In addition, I had a 5 1/4", 360kb external drive.
Now, as a now-retired data programmer, I can set up virtual emulators of that early machine, especially if I use 86Box, which allows me to build a specific Amstrad PC2086 'box'. I can add a virtual hard drive, and virtual floppy drives (both 3 1/2" and 5 1/4"). In theory 86Box can allow me to add up to 4 floppy drives of various specs (360kb, 720kb and 1.44Mb), although I haven't tried it. I've still got my original Amstrad PC2086 manuals as well, and the User Guide goes into detail about the Floppy Disk controller (sections 8.2 and 8.3). It also suggests that it's necessary to set a DIP switch to get the machine to read the external drive, which then becomes the drive B:.
Now, my query is whether anyone has tried a configuration of a machine that has TWO internal 3 1/2" drives, with a HDD card in the expansion slots and also (maybe via an expansion slot) an external 5 1/4" drive? Is that even possible, and if so, given that A: and B: normally designate the floppy drives in MS-DOS and C: the first HDD, what would the 3rd drive's letter be? I'd also be interested to know if anyone has tried or replicated that drive configuration in a Virtual Machine such as 86Box, and how did they fare? Just out of curiosity, of course.
Now, as a now-retired data programmer, I can set up virtual emulators of that early machine, especially if I use 86Box, which allows me to build a specific Amstrad PC2086 'box'. I can add a virtual hard drive, and virtual floppy drives (both 3 1/2" and 5 1/4"). In theory 86Box can allow me to add up to 4 floppy drives of various specs (360kb, 720kb and 1.44Mb), although I haven't tried it. I've still got my original Amstrad PC2086 manuals as well, and the User Guide goes into detail about the Floppy Disk controller (sections 8.2 and 8.3). It also suggests that it's necessary to set a DIP switch to get the machine to read the external drive, which then becomes the drive B:.
Now, my query is whether anyone has tried a configuration of a machine that has TWO internal 3 1/2" drives, with a HDD card in the expansion slots and also (maybe via an expansion slot) an external 5 1/4" drive? Is that even possible, and if so, given that A: and B: normally designate the floppy drives in MS-DOS and C: the first HDD, what would the 3rd drive's letter be? I'd also be interested to know if anyone has tried or replicated that drive configuration in a Virtual Machine such as 86Box, and how did they fare? Just out of curiosity, of course.
#2
Quote from: GUNHED on Today at 19:08See CPC-Wiki: 4 MB SoftwareThis here? https://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Category:4_MB_RAM_Software_Support
There are only a few references to FutureOS and some FutureOS apps (text editor, video/sound replay and two unfinished games).
#3
QuoteLoad Screen and small Game menu modif : Cyrille Ayor61
#4
Quote from: eto on Today at 18:24See CPC-Wiki: 4 MB SoftwareQuote from: GUNHED on Today at 18:12and other modern / powerful softwareWhich exactly?
It contains 70% of it.
#5
General Discussion - Introductions / Re: other than Amstrad CPCs wh...
Last post by Gryzor - Today at 18:33Quote from: cwpab on Today at 18:21Ah that's a question I hadn't considered. I was mainly thinking games. Single player. Sure, it would be nice to mess with Netscape etc, but I don't think that would last more than a few minutes of failing to access sites...Quote from: Gryzor on Today at 15:39I'm increasingly feeling the need to create the ultimate 1995 PC myself. I have to put effort in not thinking about it because I don't have the space for it...With or without an Internet connection? (My experience in Spain was "without one" until 2000).
#6
Quote from: GUNHED on Today at 18:12and other modern / powerful softwareWhich exactly?
#7
C
General Discussion - Introductions / Re: other than Amstrad CPCs wh...
Last post by cwpab - Today at 18:21Quote from: Gryzor on Today at 15:39I'm increasingly feeling the need to create the ultimate 1995 PC myself. I have to put effort in not thinking about it because I don't have the space for it...With or without an Internet connection? (My experience in Spain was "without one" until 2000).
#8
That's a very cute demake😊
Gotta love the loading screen, too.
Gotta love the loading screen, too.
#9
Technical support - Hardware related / Re: iRAM/640 - Ram Expansion -...
Last post by eto - Today at 18:16Quote from: Blank_Reg on Today at 18:02Many thanks. Wasn't aware of a disable jumper - is that on top or bottom of the daughter board? Would maybe explain how the thing even boots at all if it was faulty. I'll have a check tomorrow when I'm able to access the unit. I have another 6128 I can check it with as well.Depends on the revision. The early version has it on the bottom the second revision on top. It's usually not populated as there is no known (common) situation where it would have been required to disable it.
#10
Quote from: PulkoMandy on 07:51, 05 July 25I don't know myselfWell, thanks a lot for 2 MB!!! Lots of users are very grateful for that. I'm only one of them.
Some people asked for it so I made it. There is even some demand for a 4MB version. I think FutureOS could make use of that. Maybe FUZIX as well, but there each app is limited to 64K, so you would have to be doing a lot of multitasking.
Modern and powerful software does of course benefit from more RAM. A 4 MB version would be awesome too! But FutureTex and other modern / powerful software does benefit a lot.
BTW: 4 MB of RAM is just enough to keep the complete DNA sequence from yeast (S. cerevisiae) inside the RAM. And that's essential for doing genetics on the CPC.