=<>=<>=¢¢ THE CSS BLACK BOX and FLOPPY BOARD,¢ a mini tutorial by CHARLES COLE,¢ member of THE OL' HACKERS A.U.G., NY¢¢ For the truly diehard ATARI 8 BIT¢ computer user who sometimes envies the¢ owners of those Messy-Dos machines, or¢ who needs to occasionally read a text¢ file that was written on an MS-DOS or¢ ATARI ST system, the Black Box (BB)¢ and Floppy Board (FB) from Computer¢ Software Services, P.O. Box 17660,¢ Rochester, New York 14624, will solve¢ those problems and many more, by¢ allowing you to use IBM-style 5.25 and¢ 3.5 inch double density and high¢ density floppy disk drives with an¢ ATARI XL/XE. Not only that, but the¢ Black Box also serves as a SCSI hard¢ drive interface, parallel printer¢ port, and high speed modem port (up to¢ 19,200 baud).¢¢ Although rather pricey at $199.95¢ for the basic Black Box and $149.95¢ for the Floppy Board, or $329 if¢ purchased together, this is reasonable¢ when you consider all of the features¢ that they offer. Bob Puff, the owner¢ of CSS, has even incorporated a¢ version of the Super Archiver chip¢ into the Floppy Board so you can make¢ backup copies of your valuable¢ commercial software on high density¢ floppy disketts, and boot that¢ software on high drive speeds.¢¢ A full explanation of the BB/FB¢ features would make for a very long¢ article, so I am going to briefly¢ mention what they achieve. If you've¢ been wondering how you can greatly¢ expand your Atari 8-bit machine's¢ capabilities, consider the following¢ features:¢ 1. You can run up to 8 SCSI hard¢ drives from the Black Box, which¢ theoretically gives our lowly Ataris¢ over 1.6 gigabytes of storage¢ capacity.¢ 2. The RS-232 serial port¢ handles modem speeds up to 19,200¢ baud.¢ 3. The parallel printer port¢ allows the use of any dot matrix or¢ laser printer that has a standard¢ Centronics interface, as long as it is¢ compatible with your software.¢ 4. An optional 64K printer¢ buffer is available, or can be added¢ as a do-it-yourself project from¢ instructions which appeared in the¢ last issue of Atari Classics magazine¢ (written by me, C.C.).¢ 5. A What-You-See-Is-What-You-¢ Get built-in printer dump routine will¢ print any Atari screen to an Epson-¢ compatible printer at the push of a¢ button. ¢ 6. Floppy drives read/write at¢ near hard drive speeds.¢ 7. Large capacity hard drives¢ can be partitioned (divided) into as¢ many as 96 smaller drives.¢ 8. Drive numbers can be easily¢ swapped around from within the¢ configuration menu, so you can boot¢ from any drive.¢ 9. Hard drives can be write-¢ protected with the flip of a toggle¢ switch.¢ 10. Ultra-fast disk I/O for¢ modified 1050s (U.S. Doubler), Happy¢ 810s, and all XF551 drives that are¢ connected through the serial daisy¢ chain.¢ 11. Built-in machine language¢ monitor allows you to examine programs¢ in RAM, disassemble machine language,¢ modify programs and search for bytes.¢ 12. Built-in Task Master for¢ examining or editing diskette files,¢ and a rapid sector copier to/from any¢ drive in any density.¢ 13. Built-in formatting software¢ in ROM for any size/capacity floppy¢ drive allows formatting in either¢ SpartaDOS or MyDOS format.¢ 14. An accompanying software¢ disktte performs the IBM/ST/Atari¢ diskette copying tasks from one format¢ to another and will even translate the¢ carriage return character on the fly. ¢ This diskette also has the Super¢ Archiver software and other helpful¢ utilities.¢¢ (Editor. Thats great CHARLES, now, how¢ about an article about the ICD MIO¢ Board, and if possible the ultra new¢ MIO II Board from MIKE HOHMAN, (Fine¢ Tooned Engineering)? I'm sure MIKE¢ will give you enough info about it for¢ you to write an article about it.¢ Maybe he will even lend (?) you one?¢ A.P.)¢ =<>=<>=¢¢
