What is this cartridge?

Enlighted (6116)

29-11-2020, 10:50

The inscription suggests that it is an FDD interface but there is no disk controller inside, only a PPI, a ROM and 3 small chips.

By T.R.

Resident (45)

29-11-2020, 13:15

I'd say there are two possibilities. Either the 8255 itself is used as an FDD controller, or this is a proprietary interface where the actual FDD controller was built into the drive itself.

There are some places online which mention the 8255 used as an IDE controller, but I can't find any mentions of the 8255 used as an FDD controller. There are some mentions of the 8255 being used as an *interface* to an FDD controller.

By st1mpy

Paladin (904)

29-11-2020, 13:35

It appears to be a Beer IDE cartridge (8255, eprom, 30, 32, and if the middle one is 04). It could just be used as any 8255 ppi control board depending on whats on that eprom. This reminds me, I need to sell the ones I made out of pcbs I bought on ebay.

By gdx

Enlighted (6116)

29-11-2020, 15:34

Indeed, it looks a lot like a Beer interface.

By djh1697

Paragon (1696)

29-11-2020, 16:41

My beer interface in my mouth