CD32 limitations

[BippyM]

What are the CD32 limitatations that are not overly easy to overcome in 2021?


For example, why can't we connect a floppy drive? Someone suggested the logic has been removed at a hardware level when the CIAs and Gayle were incorporated into the akiko. Is this true?


What else cannot be easily supported/added to a CD32?

[eXeler0]

Originally Posted by BippyM

What are the CD32 limitatations that are not overly easy to overcome in 2021?


For example, why can't we connect a floppy drive? Someone suggested the logic has been removed at a hardware level when the CIAs and Gayle were incorporated into the akiko. Is this true?


What else cannot be easily supported/added to a CD32?

Depend on how deep you wanna go but for example, of you start adding newly produced expansions like 030 CPU, IDE interface, RGB out, you lose the ability to use the original MPEG decoder (FMV module) so, you need to make choices. No solution gives you everything at once. Floppy has been done, but usually not a high priority for most.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by BippyM

For example, why can't we connect a floppy drive? Someone suggested the logic has been removed at a hardware level when the CIAs and Gayle were incorporated into the akiko. Is this true?

Yes. CIAs are Akiko internal and almost all CIA I/O pins don't exist physically (basically left unconnected inside Akiko), including floppy and parallel port pins.

[BippyM]

Originally Posted by eXeler0

Depend on how deep you wanna go but for example, of you start adding newly produced expansions like 030 CPU, IDE interface, RGB out, you lose the ability to use the original MPEG decoder (FMV module) so, you need to make choices. No solution gives you everything at once. Floppy has been done, but usually not a high priority for most.

I don't think losing fmv woukd be a big issue for most

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

Yes. CIAs are Akiko internal and almost all CIA I/O pins don't exist physically (basically left unconnected inside Akiko), including floppy and parallel port pins.

So they included the logic, but didn't connect it up... Typical commodore

[xArtx]

The floppy drive can be implemented with 4 stock logic chips to decode addresses (if you call that easy) as done by Bruce Abbott in 1995, but there was no way to decode _INDEX (IIRC don’t quote me) some hardware banging games did use it, so the interface was only guaranteed to ready legal system disks, and yeah I built one, and it worked. Later also did the parallel port in the same manner. The registers may exist internally. They do read as one state or another, but as stated already, it makes no difference if the pins aren’t there to physically access.

[Superman]

You can buy a specific floppy drive for the CD32 but its not cheap.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184324838...4AAOSwZi5eNEXE

[BippyM]

Originally Posted by Superman

You can buy a specific floppy drive for the CD32 but its not cheap.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184324838...4AAOSwZi5eNEXE

hahahaha it is pointless really

[alexh]

It's not completely pointless. It adds lots of missing IO and someone made an 8MB Fast RAM card which replaces the RTC card these things have.

They were cheap when Analogic first started selling them. They were £69.99 soon going to £99.99 but at £199 you're better off buying a TF330

[BippyM]

The tf330 literally only misses the floppy port. Maybe some of the other ports, but I guess for the price one cannot complain, and there are ways around it I suppose