From: mitch2gs@hotmail.com   
      
   Jeff Blakeney  wrote:   
      
   >It has been a long time since I played with my SCSI hardware.  I have a   
   >couple CFFAs now.  What's worse is I hardly ever turn on the hardware   
   >anymore.  Finding time to do all the things I want is always a problem.   
      
       Still actively using a SCSI Jaz and Zip drive on my IIGS (most of my SCSI   
   hardisks have failed or too noisy), but not sure I'd be able to ever switch   
   to a CFFA after being spoiled by the speed of the RamFAST. Yep, I hear   
   you about time these days!   
      
   >I believe at one point I was using a RamFAST with v3.01ez firmware (I   
   >think v3.01f was the latest)   
      
       Yep, 3.01f was the final, but only 1 byte changed from 3.01e (the "ez"   
   I do remember was for the putting the Zilog CPU into Hitachi mode on   
   Sequential System boards). As for what the differences are for the U16   
   ROM on the older revision C board, that's what I'm curious about.   
      
   >that I had connected to a 1.2 GB SCSI hard  drive.  I had an Apple High   
   >Speed SCSI card connected to a CD-ROM drive.   
      
       The RamFAST had issues with devices 1 GB or larger, though I've been   
   able to use it with my 1 GB Jaz drive with some moderate success. The card   
   though did not support SCSI arbitration which caused incompatibilities with   
   several newer drives at the time. Is it possible your Apple HS SCSI was   
   connected to the 1.2 GB, not the RamFAST?   
      
   >  I'm pretty sure the RamFAST did work with the CD-ROM drive but because   
   >I had such a large hard drive with 11 ProDOS and 1 HFS partitions, that   
   >used up all 12 partitions the RamFAST firmware could handle so I put the   
   >CD-ROM on a separate controller.   
      
       Had that issue back in the day, still do. My solution was to disable some   
   of the hardisk partitions whenever I inserted a CD-ROM disc. Swapping   
   partitions in and out as I needed them.   
      
   >Also, if I recall correctly, the RamFAST couldn't detect when you changed   
   >disks in the CD-ROM drive but the AHS card could.   
      
       I believe that was resolved in the later firmware updates. I know for   
   certain with my RamFAST D (ROM 3.01ez) I can pop CD's in and out while   
   in the IIGS Finder and new discs appear on the desktop.   
      
       Also noticed while working on the IIe, if I swapped CD's while in the   
   RamFAST C's built-in menus, and pressed control-E, it detected the new   
   discs without the need to restart the computer.   
      
   >As you are planning on just hooking up the CD-ROM drive, I don't think   
   >it really matters which card you use as you would be rebooting all the   
   >time anyway so being able to detect a disc change isn't important.   
   >However, with the RamFAST, I think you would have to access the firmware   
   >(I believe it was hold down the zero key when booting) and map any   
   >partitions on the CD to get them to show up properly.   
      
       Yes, and it works quite well with the Zip drive I'm testing it with!   
   I'm curious if it would be as flexible with the Apple High Speed SCSI   
   card, detecting the ProDOS partition and booting it directly. I'm also   
   curious how it fares in terms of speed--the RamFAST really flies with   
   ProDOS-8! I may pop in an Apple board just to see the difference...   
      
   >I'm 99.9% sure that you can boot CD-ROMs on the Apple II but I couldn't   
   >tell you how to set one up or even if both types of SCSI card support   
   >it.  I think that some of the CD-ROMs that exist for the Apple II are   
   >bootable.  I'd have to pull out my collection or do some online research   
   >to find out and see if there are any details on how it was accomplished.   
      
       I do remember booting YourWordBox CD-ROM directly from my   
   RamFAST SCSI on the IIGS. Interesting thing is the Apple IIe is   
   attempting to do the same. I popped in that same CD-ROM and got   
   the message "GS/OS REQUIRES APPLE IIGS HARDWARE". So   
   looks like even on an Apple IIe, booting from a CD-ROM is doable!   
      
       I'll do some tests with burning some Total Replay CD's and fooling   
   about with the RamFAST and Apple SCSI controllers. Unfortunately   
   my equipment is failing....all 3 of my SCSI CD-ROM drives, my spare   
   Zip drive. Even the built-in speakers on my CRT TV set I'm hooking   
   the Apple IIe up to! Speaking of time, I need time to sit down and   
   repair a lot of my vintage hardware!   
      
   Mitchell Spector   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)