In 1983 the company ABM sold a floppy disk system, Commodore IEC 1541 based, for the AIM 65. It also offered a serial interface for the AIM 65 TTY connection and a parallel port.
The system consists of a PCB with the interfaces, a manual and the AH5050 ROM. The user has to add the Commodore diskdrive and IEC cable.
The 1541 Commodore drive was quite popular in the 80ties for SBCs, since it was affordable, the serial IEC connection simple (one 7406 TTL IC and a couple of I/O lines) and the drive itself intelligent, the host did not have to implement a DOS with low level drivers and file system. It is slow, and has a low capacity, small SBCs like the AIM 65 are more than happy with that
Nowadays floppy drives like the 1541 are like dinosaurs. But the SD2IEC 1541 replacement devices are cheap!
See the links below for current implemntatiosn pf the AH5050 disk interface. Simple to make yourself, just a 7406 and an IEC DIN connector!
Downloads
AH5050 User’s manual ABM document No. AL5051 | |
AH5050 ROM at $D000 $D000 is the usual place for the assembler, see below for an alternative version of the assembler ROM for $B000 |
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AH5050-4 ROM, some extra code | |
INIBAS program, see manual how to use. Required to use Basic, frees up overlapping zeropage locations |
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STARTUP program, see manual | |
AH5050 – partially commented disassembly | |
AH5050 – hexdump | |
AH5055 version of assembler for $B000 |
Links
- Long discussion on the AH5050,mainly about the INIBAS program,also the source of the partial disassembly of the AH5050 ROM.
- Retrospy AH5050 plus audio interface sale, also where I found ROMS and INIBAS and STARTUP programs
- Another AH5050 interface on the German classic Computing forum