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Czech versions of TOS 1.4 and 2.06
Bugs are in all TOS versions, beginning with version 1.0 released on 6.2.1986 up to the latest
TOS version 4.04 released on 8.3.1993. Hopefully there is a way how to fix the bugs (if are
known, of course) and burn the fixed TOS into new EPROM. I did it with both TOS 1.4 and TOS
2.06 - thanks to list of bugs and fixes, which is freely available in files named TP14Vxx.ZIP
and TP26xx.ZIP on the net.
Since we used to buy computers from German (i.e. with German TOS) and because I didn't
understand German at all, I translated both TOSes completely to Czech, including all three
system fonts. If you are interested in Czech version of TOS 2.06, please send me an e-mail , thanks.
Modul of real time with PCF8573
New: Y2K aware software driver for download here
Together with Zdenek Kucera from Brno we developed a modul of real time. It's built around IC
PCF8573 and communicates with CPU via I2C bus. When installed in an Atari ST/STE it's connected
with just two vires - one leads to ACIA MIDI and the second to Yamaha (both ping were
originally unused). When the computer is turned off the modul takes the current from a VARTA
accumulator and keeps the time. After power on the accumulator gets refreshed and CPU can read
the real time and store it into IKBD processor. It's been tested widely and it works really
well.
FT/20
With big help from Georg Acher (the author of BlowUP030 screen enhancer and FX-Card
accelerator) I developed my own accelerator. After installation it simply raised system clock
from 32 to 40 MHz and thus accelerated Falcon to 125% of its original speed. The construction
is very simple and the whole FT/20 is cheap, so if you think you would need a bit faster
Falcon, get the FT/20! :-) I must point out that today the Nemesis (Falcon accelerator from
Black Scorpion) is something I would recommend instead of my FT/20, but if you really would
like to save as much money as possible, I could sell you FT/20 just for 890 Kc.
Falcon in Bigtower
We (Jiri Kucik and me) developed our own Bigtower for Falcons - better say we found a
way how to adjust usual PC Bigtower to Falcon's motherboard, how to fit it inside and how to
lead out all its connectors. Jirka may write a step-by-step document sometime, especially when
you mail him about your interest in this topic.
UNI-BI HW adapter for parallel port
This is finally my own invention completely ;-) When thinking about PARCP
I wanted to use only one program for all computers called PC. The problem was that these
computers used two different parallel interfaces - the older parallel ports were just
uni-directional (output only) while the newer parallel ports are bi-directional (input or
output, you can choose). All well known programs which communicates via parallel ports (5:30,
Norton Commander, LapLink) choose the worse possibility from those two above and always use
every parallel port as a uni-directional. This way they effectively slow the maximal possible
speed on the newer parallel ports to the half (50%).
I, on the other hand, developed a simple HW interface, which was named UNI-BI as it converts
the originally uni-directional PC parallel port to bi-directional one! With a little help from
software this port can transfer data nearly as fast as if it was a real bi-directional port.
This UNI-BI adapter is supported not only by PARCP, but also by HDD-Daemon v2.1 and later...
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