ELITE SERIES USER MANUAL

THEORY OF OPERATION

7.2. Elite Controller

7.2.1. Introduction

The four disk drives allowed with each Elite Controller card are grouped into two pairs with drives 1 and 2 (Bank 0) selected when power is first applied.

They may be addressed using the standard “Dl” and D2” used by most Apple software. With a special command to the controller to select Bank 1, drives 3 and 4 will respond as if they were drives 1 and 2. An LED indicates when the second bank (drives 3 and 4) is selected.

An EPROM, containing the Rana boot code, is located on the controller card. The Rana boot accommodates both the standard Apple 13 and 16 sector formats. The controller card is also compatible with the special “copy protected” 16- sect or boot formats since, in a general sense, only the initial boot sector must be read by the boot PROM. Following this, the user software (or DOS) handles any special formats.

The EPROM is switched into and out of the peripheral expansion space ($C800-CFFF) using the protocol recommended by Apple. An LED, located on the Controller Card, indicates when the Rana boot EPROM is switched into the expansion space.

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