27
Appendix A: Native SOS Apple /// Driver
The CFFA3000 driver for the Apple /// computer takes many of the virtual resources of the
CFFA3000 card and makes them available to SOS and the many languages and environments that
SOS supports. The driver has the capacity for up to eight virtual drives hosted by the CFFA3000
card as SmartPort devices. Disk ][ emulation (including the optional remote switch module) is not
available under SOS and should not be enabled.
Unlike ProDOS, most of the environments under SOS are unable to use or correctly recognize more
than 32,767 blocks of data on any given block device (approximately 16 megabytes). This is not a
limitation of the CFFA3000 card; this is a limitation of SOS environments like Pascal, BASIC, and
the Apple /// System Utilities. When creating virtual disks for the Apple ///, remember to make them
of 32,767 blocks or fewer in size.
DIP switches 4 and 7 should be set ON/DOWN in an Apple ///.
Configuration
Using the System Configuration Program (SCP), part of the SOS System Utilities disk, you can copy
the CFFA3000 driver to any boot disk you choose just like any other Apple /// driver. The only
configurable parameter the slot the card is in: 1-4. Ensure the slot parameter number matches which
slot the card is actually plugged in.
The driver is distributed on a copy of the SOS System Utilities disk both integrated into the
SOS.DRIVER
file as well as in a stand-alone
CFFA3000.DRIVER
file. The eight supported device
names are
.CFFA3000D1
through
.CFFA3000D8
.
Compatibility with Earlier CFFA Compact Flash Cards
The CFFA3000 driver will recognize ―native‖ partitions (i.e. original CFFA CompactFlash cards).
However, they generally won‘t be suitable for the Apple /// since they will be 32 megabytes in size,
which will not be represented correctly by most SOS-based environments. They will be usable, but
block sizes will be inaccurately reported. Pascal and the SOS Utilities Disk in particular will be
unable to display the catalog of partitions greater than 32,767 blocks in size (16 megabytes).
Partitions as created by Dale Jackson‘s excellent Apple /// driver for the original CFFA card are not
compatible with this new driver since they could be variably sized. In order to use the information in
those partitions with the CFFA3000, plug the CompactFlash card into a card reader and use the
CiderPress
utility on Windows to extract ProDOS-order disk images of the native SOS partitions.
Then, simply copy those disk image files to a new CompactFlash card for use in the CFFA3000.
After configuring the CFFA3000 to host the images as SmartPort drives, they will be available to
SOS just as they were before.
Firmware Configuration
When a CFFA3000 card is running in an Apple ][, it is simple to call upon the firmware to manage
disk images. However, the user interface - the configuration system -
can‘t run natively on an
Apple ///. There are at least two ways to accomplish the same goal:
1. Plug the CFFA3000 into any Apple ][ and bring up the firmware menu system on it, saving
whatever configuration of drives you wish on a CompactFlash card (or on a USB stick if it is
extremely small - there is very limited space for a USB adapter in the /// case).
