Re: apple 2 usb

Smohn Jith wrote:
"David Wilson" <mcs6502@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:1135860395.652818.54380@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

bob@xxxxxx wrote:

how hard would it be to create a usb card for the 2? even just a gs usb
card?


It is harder than you might think. A USB host has to do a lot more work
than a USB target - the USB protocol was written to make simple devices
like mice cheap to make. Also, the Apple II has never had hot pluggable
devices (SCSI, ADB, Smartport etc all enumerate the devices once at
power-up/boot). Finally, the standards for mouse cards and disk cards
(for example) use conflicting ROM ID locations making a card that can
support both difficult to design using standard interfaces.

It certainly could be done for the IIgs but you would need to write
GS/OS drivers for all possible USB devices (mice, keyboards, mass
storage etc) as well as the code for an embedded microprocessor on the
card to run the USB protocol.

I will be impressed if anyone (or a group) manage to do this.


First there's HID standards for USB that mice and keyboards would be handle without fancy drivers, second why does USB for the Apple II have to be hot swappable? It is for other systems, but it does it HAVE to be? Or just a USB card that supports printers would be a big step. As with all things Apple II trying to make it perfect usually makes it not at all.... 

But if you want a mouse to look to the Apple like an Apple mouse,
or a joystick like an Apple joystick, or a keyboard like the Apple
keyboard, there is serious work to be done on the Apple II side.

In the case of the keyboard, for example, 8-bit Apple programs
expect the keyboard ASCII and any-key-down signals to appear at
specific memory-mapped addresses.  That is not an easy adaptation
for any peripheral card.

If a card presents itself as a smartport disk device, then it
cannot also appear to be something else at the same time.  The
"driver" problem is an essential part of any solution.

Having a partially standardized interface to a class of HIDs
on the USB side helps, but does not solve the problem of
making the device usable to existing Apple programs, which
severely limits the utility of a USB port.

-michael

Music synthesis for 8-bit Apple II's!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it is seriously underused."
.

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