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A Mini-manual for the PCPI AppliCard, v1.0
(aka MicroPro StarCard, aka Franklin ACE-80 CPU)

A quick-reference to get you up and running if you have one of these
cards and the system disks, but are missing the manual.

John D. Baker, 18 October 1993


Before we begin:

     This document assumes that you are familiar with the operation of
the Apple ][-series of computers and Apple's DOS v3.3.  Familiarity with
Apple ProDOS 8, ProDOS 16, and/or GS/OS may be sufficient to allow you
to follow many of the instructions related to making backup copies of the
PCPI AppliCard system disks and transferring files between CP/M disks and
those of the other Apple operating systems.

Furthermore, this document assumes that you are competent at installing
accessory cards into the expansion slots of your Apple ][.  If you are
uncomfortable with opening your machine and handling any of the components
inside, it may be wise to _get_ comfortable with doing just that.  As an
absolute last resort, find someone who can install an accessory card for
you.

This document also assumes that you have a working knowledge of CP/M.
That is, you know how to run programs, copy files and are generally
on friendly terms with the

A>

prompt.  If you are new to CP/M, there are numerous books that can teach
you everything you need to know (and more) for following the instructions
in this document that relate to CP/M.  Some noteworthy titles are:

_The CP/M Handbook with MP/M_ by Rodnay Zaks, Sybex Books.
_The Osborne CP/M Handbook_ by Thom Hogan, Osborne-McGraw-Hill.
_The CP/M Primer_ by Steven Murtha and Mitchell Waite, Hayden Books.

This should suffice for an introduction.  Now on with the show!


Description:

The PCPI AppliCard (also known as the MicroPro StarCard or Franklin
ACE-80 CPU) is a co-processor accessory card that fits in one of the
standard expansion slots of an Apple ][, ][+, //e, or IIgs computer.
An Apple ][ or ][+ MUST have AppleSoft in ROM for the system to operate
although the AutoStart Monitor is _not_ required.

The AppliCard contains a Zilog Z80 CPU running at a clock speed of either
4 or 6 MHz, 64K of DRAM, a bootstrap EPROM, logic and buffers to interface
it with the Apple ][, and may optionally include a Z80 CTC (counter-timer
chip).  Depending on the revision level of the board there may also be two
dual-row header (male) connectors on the board, one with 10 pins, the other
with 50 pins.  These connectors are for RAM expansion and serial I/O
boards which 'piggy-back' onto the AppliCard.  Count yourself VERY fortunate
if you have (or can find) these add-on boards.

If you've managed to obtain a complete AppliCard set-up, there will be an
approximately 18" wire attached to a 16-pin chip socket on one end, the
other end having a spring-loaded hook-type connector on it.  This bit
of hardware is the "single-wire SHIFT-key mod" and is used when installing
the PCPI AppliCard into an Apple ][ or ][+ computer.


Backing up your system/other distribution disks:

Before doing anything else, make at least one copy (preferably two copies)
of the disks that accompanied your AppliCard.  This can be done with any
DOS v3.3 or ProDOS utility that can make a verbatim disk copy (aka track
copy, sector copy, etc.) such as Central Point Software's Copy II Plus,
Locksmith, or even good old COPYA from the DOS v3.3 System Master Disk.

Whichever method you use to copy the disk, be aware that at least one,
probably more, and possibly _all_ of the 5.25" disks you received with
your AppliCard are DOUBLE-SIDED.  That is, the "back side" of the disk
has data on it as well.  To read the "flip side" of the disk, simply take
the disk out of the drive, turn it over so that the 'bottom side' is up
and reinstall it like that in your Disk ][-compatible disk drive.

If you wish to make double-sided disks of your own, you will have to cut
a 'write-enable' notch on the edge of the disk jacket exactly opposite
the one that is already there.  There are disk-notcher devices available
for this, or you can notch most disks effectively with a hand-held single-
hole paper punch.

However you wish to proceed, just be certain that you copy all disk sides
and label them accordingly.  Please put the original disks away in a
safe place and only use the copies.


Hardware Installation:

Please inspect the component (chip) side of your AppliCard.  If your
card is one of those which has the expansion connector headers on it,
look at the long (50-pin) header and verify that there is a jumper (or
shorting block) on the 13th (thirteenth) pair of pins (there should
also be arrows printed on the circuit board pointing to these pins).

If there is not a jumper on the 13th pair of pins of the 50-pin
connector, you must find one and install it.  The AppliCard may be
damaged if you attempt to operate it without this jumper installed.

If, on the other hand, you are lucky enough to have one of the RAM
expansion boards for the AppliCard, the jumper just described should,
of course be removed and your expansion board installed on the connectors.

(Caveat:  At this point, the author cannot offer any further instruction
regarding inspection and preparation of the AppliCard with respect to
any expansion boards as he's not been able to find any for his own
AppliCard.  Be careful.)

Now that the jumper (or your expansion board) is installed on the
AppliCard, you are ready to install it in one of your Apple's
expansion slots.

[Apple ][, and ][+ users:  At this point, you should install the "Single-
Wire SHIFT-key mod" if you do not already have this.  The socket simply
plugs into the game port socket as usual.  The spring clip on the other
end should hook onto the second pin from the right of the ][,][+ keyboard
encoder board (as you peer into the case from over the keyboard).  If
you do not have the socket-wire-clip hardware, then you may make a suitable
replacement by running a wire from pin 4 of the gameport (PB2) to the pin
on the encoder described above.

[If you do not have the encoder board, you will have to remove your left-
hand SHIFT key and solder this end of the wire to the solder-pad that is
just to the right of the left SHIFT key.]

The AppliCard can be installed in any available slot in an Apple ][
computer.  It should be noted, however, that the system software expects
to find at least one Disk ][-style disk drive installed at Slot 6,
Drive 1.

If you have an 80-column text card in your Apple ][, it should be
installed in Slot 3 so the system software will find it and use it.

[Apple //e and IIgs users:  The AppliCard may be installed in Slot 3
of a IIgs or //e (of course, 80-column display on the //e requires an
80-column card be installed in the AUX slot).]

[Apple IIgs users:  It turns out that the Applicard is just a trifle
long to fit inside the Apple IIgs case.   Seems you're on your own
as to figuring out a way to make it fit.  Some people have trimmed
the IIgs case near the slot where they plan to install the AppliCard.

[The AppliCard will work just fine at high speed in your IIgs.
Furthermore, if you have installed the AppliCard in Slot 3 of your
IIgs, you may leave the Control Panel set at 'Internal' for Slot 3.
If you install the AppliCard in a slot other than Slot 3, you should,
of course, set the Control Panel to 'Your Card' initially.  If you
wish, you may experiment with this setting to see what you can get
away with....]

NOTE:  The AppliCard has a small 'peg' or 'tang' hanging down from  it
near the 'front' of the board (under the DRAM array).  On some models
of the Apple //e, (and perhaps on the IIgs as well) some components on
the motherboard may interfere with this peg.  Especially bothersome is
the video ROM on the Extended-Keyboard model of the Apple //e (if you
are installing the AppliCard in Slot 3).  You may safely clip this 'peg'
off of the AppliCard with a pair of wire cutters and file the rough edge
off of the circuit board so long as you cut no higher than the component
label 'C6' that is nearby.

If you lack sufficient courage to perform this surgery, try to select a
slot in your Apple ][ where there will be no such obstructions to the
AppliCard's support peg.  If you still really want to install it in an
obstructed slot, find someone who will carefully remove the support peg.

Once these precautions have been taken and you have selected which slot
is to hold the AppliCard, use the usual care and install the card, making
certain that it is well seated in its slot.

At this point, the card is installed and you're ready to power-up your system.


Starting the system for the first time:

You should power-up your system the way you normally did before you
installed the AppliCard.  You should see no difference in its behavior
at all.  If something out of the ordinary occurs, recheck your installation
and IIgs users should check their Control Panel settings to see that they
make sense with respect to the AppliCard's presence in the system.

You may boot up DOS 3.3, ProDOS, GS/OS or whatever you wish for the
time being.  This is just to make sure that your system is behaving itself.

Once you are satisfied that nothing is amiss with your equipment thus far,
you are ready to start the AppliCard.  Take the disk labelled "System Boot
Disk" and place it in your first 5.25" drive (which should correspond to
Slot 6, Drive 1) and take whatever steps you require to boot the computer
from that drive.  (I.e., go to BASIC and use PR#6, or 6^P<ret> from the
Monitor, or whatever you need to do on your system.)

Now, the moment of truth.  Your computer should begin booting from the
"System Boot Disk".  After a few moments, your screen should clear and will
be set in 40-column mode.  You should shortly see the message:

LOAD DRIVERS

appear near the top of the screen.  After a few more moments the screen
should clear again.  If you have 80-column firmware or an 80-column text
card in Slot 3 of your Apple ][, your screen should now be in 80-column
mode and the message:

CP/M Ver 2.2
(C) Digital Research, Inc.
PCPI Ver 2.0
(C) Personal Computer Products, Inc.

will appear on your screen.  Depending on which version of the system you
have, this message may also include a note about "Rights Licensed to
MicroPro International Corp." along with a date.  You should then be
presented with the CP/M Console Command Processor prompt, namely:

A>_

If you've reached this point--congratulations!  You are now running
CP/M on your Apple ][ computer!  If something seems to have gone a-wry,
you'll have to ask for help from a fellow AppliCard user, such as the
author of this document (addresses at the end of the document).

To get the feel of things, press <return> a few times and try the command:

A>DIR

which should give you a listing of the files on drive A: (your 5.25"
disk at Slot 6, Drive 1).

[Apple //e (and possibly IIgs) users:  If your display appears unkempt
and seems to have characters missing where it's obvious that there should
be some, you will have to make some customizations to the system to improve
the video performance.  This will be described later when discussing
customization for your particular system.]

Now that you have some idea of what the AppliCard boot process looks like,
in the future, you may boot the AppliCard directly by simply booting
the System Boot Disk from your first 5.25" drive.  In the next section,
we'll discuss customizing the system for your hardware setup and create
a Custom Boot Disk tailored specifically for your system.


[NOTE:  The majority of the remainder of this document assumes that you
are competent in handling files under CP/M.  If you are a newcomer to
CP/M, you should try to find one of the many books which discuss it.
Three examples are given at the beginning of this document.]

Unlike more 'traditional' CP/M systems, the PCPI AppliCard CP/M system
does not require that a bootable disk remain in the A: drive.  Any disk
at all may be in the A: drive (of course there must be some sort of
disk in the 'current' drive if A: is not the current drive).  Furthermore,
if you have the hardware to support a RAMDisk, the RAMDisk may be set up
as drive A:, which speeds up CP/M warm boots.  This will be discussed in
more detail when talking about customizing your system.


Customizing the PCPI system for your hardware:

The OS and drivers on the System Boot Disk as supplied set up your system
in a default manner much like this:

40x24 display mapped onto a 40-255 column virtual screen
 * OR *
80x24 display if 80-col. firmware detected/enabled
 * OR *
70x24 display drawn on the HiRes Grahpics screen if you boot the
"Utilities" disk (may be useful if you don't have an 80-col. card).

Printer buffer allocated to all free Apple ][ memory (including that of
the extended 80-col. card, if present in a //e or IIgs)

6 35-track, 16-sector disk drives at S6 D1,D2; S5 D1,D2; S4 D1,D2
respectively (increasing drive letter [A:,B:,C:,D:,E:,F:] with de-
creasing slot/increasing drive numbers).

This will handle the vast majority of systems on initial startup (as
above in "Starting the system for the first time"), but there are
some optimizations that you can make, especially when you have
additional hardware or other features you'd like to make available
to the AppliCard system.  There are a number of third-party or other
after-market device drivers which may be added to the AppliCard system
to support 3.5" disks and ProDOS hard disks under CP/M.  PCPI has
provided the tools for you to easily customize your OS and drivers
to match your hardware.

The first thing you should do, is to format at least two 5.25" disks.
Run the COPYFRMT.COM utility and choose option 'A'.  follow the instructions
carefully.  When you are done you should have (at least) two disks freshly
formatted for what you're going to do next.

You're going to create an 'Install Disk' which contains only those files
that are necessary for installation of device drivers and configuration
of the system for your hardware.

(You really should have 2 5.25" disk drives for this...)

Copy the following files to one of the disks you just formatted:

INSTALL.COM
DLDRIVER.COM
PCPICPM       (or STARCPM if your card is the MicroPro StarCard)
CONFIGSV.COM
*.DVR         (that is, all files with names ending in .DVR)

These files are located on the System Boot Disk and System Utility Disk.
Once you've copied these files, label the disk as "PCPI Install Disk" or
something to that effect.  You're going to use the files on this disk to
make a custom boot disk from the other disk you formatted previously.

In the majority of cases, your screen display will be working properly
as supplied.  The console driver, SFTVIDEO.DVR, is capable of recognizing
a number of different 80-column cards and can map the standard 40-column
display into a 40-255 column virtual screen, if it cannot find an 80-column
display device.

If it appears that SFTVIDEO is not properly handling your display, you need
to use CONFIGSV.COM to verify and/or alter it's control codes to properly
handle your 80-column display.  You may also enable/disable other features
of the driver.  The menus and descriptions should be helpful enough to let
you get things set the way you'd like them.

NOTE:  Terminal Software Definitions specify the control sequences that
applications programs (i.e. Software) will send to the display for the
purposes of cursor positioning, cursor movement, etc.

Terminal Hardware Definitions are the control sequences that your display
device will actually respond to for doing cursor positioning, cursor move-
ment, etc.  SFTVIDEO.DVR translates the Software to the Hardware.  In the
vast majority of cases, you should leave the Software definitions set to
"Televideo 920/950" and set the Hardware definition to that which matches
your 80-column display device.

If your 80-column device is not among the choices, you should examine
the control codes with the "Other" option and check them against the codes
given in your 80-column device's manual.  In most cases, "80-col. cards
w/ inverse" will work properly for most Apple ][,][+ cards (Videx, AE, ALS,
etc.)  Apple //e and IIgs users should keep the default setting of
"Apple IIe with 80-column card"

If you do NOT have an 80-column display, then you will want to make your
settings in the sub-menu of "40-255 column display".  Most of the menu
choices and description of the section that CONFIGSV provides enough
help to let you make the decisions you need to make on your settings.

Alternatively, You may opt for the 70-column display that SFTVIDEO
can provide.  An add-on driver, HIRESIO.DVR, works in conjunction
with SFTVIDEO.DVR to do this (see "Customizing..." below).

It would be recommended, in any case, to set the RUBOUT character to
$7F (ASCII 127).

Once you've decided that your settings for SFTVIDEO.DVR are the way you
want them, choose the option to save SFTVIDEO.DVR and then exit CONFIGSV.

This is the only extra configuration step you might need to perform.  All
other system configuration and customization is accomplished with
INSTALL.COM.

Now you are ready to build and configure the set of drivers that is
tailored to your system's hardware.  To begin, run INSTALL.COM.  You
will then see a screen that looks like the beginning of a table with
the message:

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Dvr   Device name    Dev Num Ver ! Dvr   Device name    Dev Num Ver
num                  num dev num ! num                  num Dev num
-------------------------------------------------------------------
                    -- NO DRIVERS RETRIEVED --
-------------------------------------------------------------------

A = Get a driver file              E = Delete a driver
B = Save DRIVERS and Write CP/M    F = Move a driver
C = Save DRIVERS file              G = Change a device number
D = Write CP/M to boot tracks      H = Change number of devices
                  I = Configure CP/M

Enter option (X to return to CP/M): _


followed by the list of menu choices shown.  At this point, you should
select the option to "Get a driver file".  Do this for each driver that
will need to be installed.  At the absolute minimum, you should load:

SFTVIDEO[.DVR]  (the .DVR extension is optional when loading drivers)
APLFLPY[.DVR]

If you have an 80-column Apple //e (or IIgs) you should also load

FAST2E80[.DVR]

since this will speed up the 80-column video display on the Apple //e
(and will probably boost performance on a IIgs as well).

If you DO NOT have 80-column firmware or other 80-column display device,
you may wish to use SFTVIDEO's 70-column display which it can generate
on the HiRes graphics screen of the Apple ][.  To use this you must
load

HIRESIO[.DVR]

If you have a serial printer, you MUST load one of the printer buffer
drivers, either

BUFFER[.DVR]  (if your printer uses hardware handshaking)
 * or *
ETXBUFF[.DVR]  (if your printer requires ETX/ACK handshaking)

If you have a parallel printer, you do not need these drivers, unless
you'd like to have a printer buffer.  If so, use BUFFER.DVR.

It's generally a good idea to re-arrange the drivers so that
all of the character I/O drivers (console, printer buffer, etc.  all
having Device Numbers of 16 or higher) come first in the list that
INSTALL builds and displays.  Also, it's a good idea to arrange
all drivers in order of increasing Device number.

[Apple //e and IIgs users:  you MUST install FAST2E80 immediately
following SFTVIDEO.DVR (which should be Driver #1, Device #16, anyway)
That is, "Fast IIe 80CLM" should appear as Driver #2, Device #19.

[Likewise, people using the 70-column HiRes Graphics display MUST
install HIRESIO immediately following SFTVIDEO.]

Use the "Move a Driver" option to re-arrange the drivers to suit.

Customizing the block device drivers (i.e. floppy and hard disks) can
free up some memory if you have fewer disk drives than any one driver
supports.

If you have not already loaded APLFLPY.DVR, you should do so now.
By default, the "Apple 16*35 Flppy" driver places it's first device
at Device Number 0.  This corresponds to the A: drive.  Also you will
notice that this driver shows '6' in the Number of Devices column.  By
default, the driver can handle that many drives.  This is where the
savings can be gained through customizing.

Use the option to "Change Number of Devices" to set the number of
devices equal to the number of Disk ][-style drives you have--taking
care that this is not greater than 6 and that subsequent pairs of them
are installed in Slot 5, then Slot 4, if present at all.

This is the overall strategy with disk drivers.  Customize them for
the actual number of drives you have (or that you wish to have available)
as long as that is not more than the driver can support.

Furthermore, you can control which drive-types show up at which CP/M
drive letters by changing the "Device Number".  The mapping for
drive letters to Device Numbers is A:,0; B:,1; C:,2; etc.

Once you have the drivers set up the way you like, you should
choose the option to "Save DRIVERS and write CP/M".  When prompted
for the drive, you should give the drive letter of the other blank
disk.  INSTALL will read the various .DVR files from your install
disk and write a file called DRIVERS to the disk that will become
your Custom Boot Disk.  Then it will read the PCPICPM (or STARCPM)
file and adjust a few system areas to make sure that it has enough
space reserved for data that it has to keep track of.  Then it will
write the system image to the boot tracks of your Custom Boot Disk.

If space permits, it might bw wise to save a copy of the drivers
file right on your INSTALL disk.  Choose "Save Drivers" and give
the drive letter (if necessary) and filename in which you would like
to store your configured drivers file.

When next you need to run INSTALL, such as to install a driver for
a new piece of equipment, you can simply load the DRIVERS file that
you built earlier and make any changes you wish to it, rather than
loading in all the separate drivers all over again.

By way of example, let's take an Apple //e with 128K, a Buffered
Grappler+ printer card, a DuoDisk in Slot 6, and a pair of UniDisk
3.5 drives in Slot 5.  INSTALL's final display might look like this:

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Dvr   Device name    Dev Num Ver ! Dvr   Device name    Dev Num Ver
num                  num dev num ! num                  num Dev num
-------------------------------------------------------------------
 1 = Soft Video Dvr   16   1  15 !  4 = //e RAMDisk       0   1   2
 2 = FAST IIE 80 CLM  19   1   5 !  5 = Apl 16*35 Flppy   1   2   6
 3 = Grappler+ Drvr   17   1   2 !  6 = Disk 3.5          3   2   4
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Going down the list, the setup for this theoretical system is:

Driver #1 is Softvideo, device #16, 1 device supported (console),
version 15 of the driver.
Driver #2 is FAST IIE 80 CLM, device #19 (slot 3 firmware), 1 device
supported (//e video screen), version 5 of the driver.
Driver #3 is Grappler+ Drvr, device #17 (card in Slot 1), 1 device
supported (only one Grappler+), version #2 of the driver.

Driver #4 is a block (disk) device.  //e RAMDisk, Device #0 (Drive A:),
1 device supported (Extended 80-col. card in //e), version #2 of the driver.
Driver #5 is Apl 16*35 Flppy, starting at Device #1 (drive B:) and
supporting 2 devices (drives B: and C:), version #6 of the driver.
Driver #6 is Disk 3.5, starting at Device #3 (drive D:) and supporting
2 devices (drives D: and E:), version #4 of the driver.

[Note:  Grappler+ Drvr, //e RAMDisk, and Disk 3.5 are NOT part of the
standard PCPI system distribution, but are after-market drivers that
were developed after the PCPI System had been out a while.  Many of these
drivers are available on CP/M and Apple BBS systems or are available
via anonymous FTP over the Internet.]

This should give you a good idea of how to configure your system when you
have the need to change some of its properties or to add/remove device
drivers to/from the system.

NOTE:  Be advised that if you make any alterations to DISK drivers, you
MUST save out the drivers and write the new system image to your boot
disk again as the memory requirements will change if you alter the number
of devices on a driver or add a new disk device driver.


Miscellaneous topics:

When using the ADOSXFER.COM utility, you must use the CP/M drive letter
to specify the drive holding the DOS 3.3 disk you want to see the
directory of or to/from which you wish to transfer files.

You should generally install any software which uses the terminal control
codes to produce its displays as if the console were a TeleVideo 920/950
or Soroc IQ 120/140 terminal.  You can look at the control codes of each
with the OTHER Software Definitions option under most of the CONFIGSV
alteration modes.

The ALTER key is generally only useful for those systems which do not
have an 80-column display or which cannot generate all the standard
ASCII characters (like the Apple][ or ][+).  It is normally <Shift>ESC,
except on Apple //e's where it is <open Apple>ESC, unless the ALTER
MODE is disabled altogether.

If you have a ProDOS-compatible hard disk, there is a generic driver and
configuration program available that will allow you to install a CP/M
partition on your ProDOS hard disk and access it from the AppliCard's
system.  This driver/installer package is available from:

     Steve Hirsch
     22 Briarwood Lane
     Burlington, Vermont 05401

     GEnie address:  STEVE.HIRSCH
     Internet:       [e-mail]
                     [e-mail]

Closing remarks:

I hope this document has been of some help to you.  The PCPI AppliCard
system is truly one of the highest-performance Z80-based computing
environments ever devised.  It should serve you very well and faithfully
for as long as you like.  Should you ever decide to part with your
AppliCard, for whatever reason, look me up.  I'm always looking for
another one.  I'll find a good home for it if I can't use it myself.

If you find anything confusing in this document or you feel that there
is some information that is in error, please contact me with your
concerns, questions, suggestions, or just chat about Apple CP/M and
the AppliCard in general.  I am:

     John D. Baker
     Rt. 1, Box 177E
     Brookshire, TX 77423

     Internet:  jdbaker@NoSpAm!blkbox.com
                [e-mail]
                [e-mail]
                [e-mail]

     BBSs:  JOHN BAKER on
            PIC of the Mid-Town [[phone]] 1:106/31,
            The Vector Board [[phone]],
            Z-Node #45 [[phone]]

      WWW:  http://http.tamu.edu:8000/~jdb802/
            http://www.NoSpAm!blkbox.com/~jdbaker/

And as always, I am:

  ->A TransWarp'802-powered Apple //e CardZ180 Z-System nut //


John D. Baker, 21 October 1993
               8 June 1994
               9 July 1995
               11 October 1995
               3 February 1996

--------------------
Copyright 1995 John D. Baker, jdbaker@NoSpAm!blkbox.com

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