JR>

Hmm, this is hardly believable. If the speed is measured correctly, the program must run for about 46 seconds (it first writes a 64k data file in four portions 16 each, and then reads it back). Maybe there's a bug in the program, but at the other hand all other figures look reasonably. 934990[/snapback] Yeah, that's right. It takes almost 50 seconds to complete the test. 934996[/snapback] Interesting.....those numbers were using an old 2.5" laptop IDE drive. I just tried again using a Compact Flash card instead of the drive and got much more respectable numbers: DOS writing: 15855.4838 B/sek. DOS reading: 12288 B/sek. DOS average: 14071.7419 B/sek.

Hmm, this is hardly believable. If the speed is measured correctly, the program must run for about 46 seconds (it first writes a 64k data file in four portions 16 each, and then reads it back). Maybe there's a bug in the program, but at the other hand all other figures look reasonably. 934990[/snapback] Yeah, that's right. It takes almost 50 seconds to complete the test.

That's pretty good. Why the large discrepancy between read and write speeds? Is it doing a write with verify? Are those interfaces still available for purchase? The MyIDE (original external cart version with 3.1 drivers) is a dog by comparison: DOS writing: 2806.680942 B/sek. DOS reading: 2849.391304 B/sek. DOS average: 2828.036123 B/sek. Anybody run this on a Black Box? The dimensions of the MIO are 9.5" X 6.25" X 1.3" (1.5" with the feet). I'll let you do the Metric conversion, my tape measure doesn't have cm.

Here's the results on a hard drive: DOS writing: 14144.406 B/sek DOS reading:14403.5164 B/sek DOS average:14273.9884 B/sek Do you have numbers from other devices for comparison? Just for fun I ran it on the MIO Ramdisk and got these results: DOS writing: 37809.2307 B/sek DOS reading: 45197.2413 B/sek DOS average: 41503.236 B/sek As for the Video port, what I have heard is that an 80 column video add on board was planned, but never released. Here's what the manual had to say: 80 Column Video Interface The MIO has a video port on its front left side. This is for use with an optional 80 column adapter which plugs on top of the MIO circuit board. pin assignments are listed in the 80 Column Adapter Users Manual.

Here are some pics. They are large files (1.2 - 1.8 MB each). I can compress them more if you want, but you said you wanted good Hi-Res.. Let me know if you need anything else.

I've got one right here. What do you need to know?

Yes, that is correct, but since the partitions are created consecutively, once you've answered YES once, it won't ask you any more. All subsequent partitions will then be created after the image area.. No, I haven't done much work with images at all yet.

Sure, set the image offset to 1 then start creating partitions. It will ask if you want to use the area after the image are. Answer NO for the first 3 (or 4 if you want the 14 Meg partition too) and enter 65535 for the number of sectors and 1 to select double density. If you do create the 14 meg partition you can still enter 65535 and it will just assign all it can. For the next partition answer YES if it asks you to use the area above the image area and you can then create 3 more 16 Meg Partitions there. This give you the area from cyl 256 - 768 for images with 2 cyl per image...enough for up to 256 disk images.

Here's one version of the manual. I also have a PDF scan of another version, but i couldn't get it to attach for some reason. Too big maybe?. I have a hardcopy of the CP/M manual but not an electronic one. But then CP/M is CP/M, any CP/M manual will give you most of what you need. Like this one: http://www.iso.port.ac.uk/~mike/interests/.../cpm-22-manual/ If you have any ATR8000 specific CP/M questions, I can try to answer them. Have fun with your new toy. atr8kman.txt

Set the image offset to 1 and you should be able to get 3 16Meg partitions in before the image area with enough left over for a 14 Meg there (but don't create that one if you just want 16 Meg partitions. Then you can still get 3 more 16 Meg partitions after the image area with about 6 meg to spare. This then will give you room for 256 disk images in the image area. That's the best way I've found to do my 512 CF with identical parameters.

I don't remember where I found this but amybe it will shed some light on your problem. The 512k XL upgrade that works rev:2.b NOV 27/2002 Revised by Guy Ferrante -Atari8man- First of All I would like to Thank Jeff Worley (Technoid Mutant) and Shannon Robbinson (Doctor Death) for Helping me Fix the 512k XL upgrade. Without there Help the 512k XL would not work at all. **** Many thanks to Mathy van Nisselroy! he has encourge me to release this upgrade. **** There's a 512k XL upgrade on the Internet at the British Underground web-site that dose not work, I tried 3 times and even spoke about that upgrade to Bob Puff (CSS) and he told me that he to could not get that upgrade to work either. I was ready to give up on the idea of having a working 512k XL but thought I would start researching the darn problem, and by talking to other's that have tried to fix the upgrade. Well after a few months of fooling around with it and gathering notes from other people, the Problem with the 512k XL was fix for good! I then sent the XL to Atari Classic magazine for review, The Publisher Ben P. had a Ball testing the XL and Told me that its was the most XE compatible XL he has ever seen! and that he wanted to publish the upgrade in Atari Classic. Just a few weeks Later Jim Hood passed away and Bob Wooley took over Atari Classic, and the upgrade was never published. NOTE: You must know how to read the pins on ic's and have some soldering skills to do this Mod, if you smoke your XL's or yourself tobad. You can allways find someone that will do this simple upgrade for you at any Atari user club. When your done with this upgrade you will have a perfectly working 512k XL thats more compatible with the XE than just the stocked rambo, a 448k ramdisk and that 10 second (rambo) delay is gone for good! you can now turn your computer on/off without counting to 10! Sparta dos and Mydos work perfect with this mod, Sparta dos-X recongnizes 320k of it, ICD never release enough info on SDX sorry. So if you want to use all the Ram use any binary version of Sparta dos and Mydos 4.5 First of all you must have a perfect working 256k Rambo or Claus Buchholz computer and you will need these parts: 256k Dynamic Rams (150 ns or better) 1) 74LS139 1) 33 ohm resistor 1/4 watt, but 1/2 watt will work also 1) Spool of wirewrap INSTRUCTIONS: Open up your computer and remove the 8 ramchips then install the new ramchip and do a memory check to be sure that the new rams are ok and test fine. If they test good then remove them to. Now bend out pin 15 on 8 of them, clip in half all the pins you bend out. now you must pigyback the chips with a bend pin 15 ontop of the 8 chips that do not have a bent pin 15 and solder them together. Now replace the rams into the computer and daisy chain all the bend 15 pins together with hookup wire. Bend out all the pins, except pin 8 and 16 on the 74LS139. clip in half all the pins you bend out. Now solder a small wire between pin 15 and 8 and another short wire between pin 3 and 10 now clip one lead on the 33-ohm resistor to 1/4 in lenght and solder it to pin 7. Now locate the PIA (u23) part # CO14795 and bend up pin 17. Locate R108, a 33-ohm resistor there are 2 immediately below the row of ram scockets on the board, heatup the inside end and pull it up (This resistor gose to pin 15 on the lower banks) so use a multi-tester to find the correct one. Now solder pin 8 and 16 of the 74LS139 to any 16 pin chip on the motherboard I use u28 but there are others to use, this provides power to the 74SL139. Now solder a wire from pin 1 on the 74SL139 to the pad where you just removed 1 lead of R108. Now Solder a wire from pin 5 on the 74SL139 to the lifted lead of R108. Now Solder a wire from the resistor on pin 7 of the 74SL139 to pin 15 on the top row of rams (the daisey chain) Now Solder a wire from pin 11 on the 74SL139 to pin 6 on the MMU pal (U3 part # C061618) this use to be connected to pin 17 on the PIA before you pulled it up. Now Solder a wire from pin 13 on the 74SL139 to pin 17 on PIA. Now Solder a wire from pin 14 on the 74SL139 to pin 14 on the rambo 74SL153 (IC2) Now Solder a wire from pin 2 on the 74SL139 to pin 2 on the rambo 74SL153 ---------------------------------------THATS IT your done!------------------------------------------------------------- Test the computer and if it works fine use HOT GLUE to tack down the wires. If you computer dose not turn on then check for shorts and solder bridges you may have made and try again. I have build 30 or more of these upgrades for Atari users with out problems. NOTE: Best computer sell the Wiztronics 256k upgarde, there are problem when doing this mod on it. It will work but puts lots of RF on the screen. Use Rambo or the Claus Buchholz ONLY!! I will fix the Wiztronic problem at a later date. Mydos user: Here's what you need to do to setup the ramdisk: At the Mydos menu press o Drive number (return) enter nothing Verify writes (y/n as you wish) Number of file buffers (as you wish) Ramdisk present? Y [A]xlon or [X]E type? X Use default config for 448k Y Use Option H to write dos back to disk with the new configuration and reboot. EXTENDED MEMORY BANKS: EF EB E7 E3 CF CB C7 C3 AF AB A7 A3 8F 8B 87 83 6F 6B 67 63 4F 4B 47 43 2F 2B 27 23 Bits used of Port B - 765432 ---Things to look for in the Future that we are working on--- 320k XL even more compatible with the XE than the 512k XL! by (Atari8man) Comming soon A revised Claus Buchholz compatible upgrade by (technoid Mutant) code name (Sly Stalone!) (done) MIO Clone (1 meg version) in the works 75% completed 256k Ramcart (done) will soon be for sale If you Need help with this mod I can be found on the CTH BBS or comp.sys.atari8bit newsgroup guyferrante@cfl.rr.com Atari8man9@netscape.net

I have a couple of Atari 8-bits that were modified and remarketed for just this purpose. One is a modified 130XE that was marketed by a company called Control and Information Systems, Inc based in Honolulu, HI. Basically what they did was modify the Cartridge port so that it pointed up into the case instead of out the back. An uncased Cartridge board was then installed inside that plugged into the modified port. The cart board has an EPROM, a Clock chip, 3 logic chips and some other LSI chip that is hidden under the Clock chip. The software that boots is Graphtech Systems - Graphtech Character Generator. I haven't explored it much but it has lots of help screens and menus and nice Text editor. It can save files to a disk drive and transfer files over a modem. Looks quite nice actually. Amazingly enough it still holds the time. I don't remember when I last booted this, or if I ever reset the time, but when I booted it today it was only 20 minutes slow. It does have a Y2K bug, it thought today was Tuesday. Incidentally the 130XE Motherboard is late model with the 4 memory chips instead of 16. The other system I have is a modified 800XL. All Atari labels on this were replaced. It was marketed by a company called PromoVision Video Displays LTD and was called the PromoVisoin PRO-1000. I don't know for sure that all of the modifications were done by the manufacturer, but it has a 256K Rambo installed as well as an additional RCA jack in back that supplies Composite Video. It also appears that some of the video components were replaced as well. It does have a nice display. The keyboard has some sticky labels on some of the keys and the console keys have been relabled with what appears to be just a paper insert stuck under the smoked plastic window. Unfortunately I don't know what software this unit ran as I did not get any with it.