IS Plate

{Preserved from a now-defunct Atari board}

________________

Martin

IS PLATE HARDWARE UPGRADE FOR 1050

INSTALLATION

A small board containing a 6502 chip, 16K RAM and an EPROM.
The new PCB replaces the ROM and CPU chips in the disk drive board and plugs into the CPU socket - no soldering! The PCB cutaway makes it impossible to fit incorrectly.

SOFTWARE

The IS Plate is accompanied by a disk of software for use with the device. On one side is the ISP driver while on side two is the IS Menu.

The ISP driver is a menu driven set of programs which are principally concerned with setting up the drive for your requirements. You can select Skew, Fast Write, Verify, Slow down and Write protect and these functions remain enabled until the drive is switched off. There are also two high speed copiers on the disk, one for 130XE and the other a general purpose copier. They are fast but will not copy protected disks.

The IS Menu (or Lighter Menu) is rather like Multiboot XL allowing several boot programs to be menu driven off one disk. It is colourful, has sound and a special character set and is based around a special DOS which only works with the Plate and gives a very fast load, something over twice the speed of Multiboot XL. Also on the menu is the IS Customiser - this is a utility which allows you to create your own custom disk formats with mixtures of different densities, bad sectors, duplicated sectors and extra sectors. If you are a skilled programer this means that you can protect your great works but a good knowledge of disk drives and operating systems is necessary if you are to make full use of this facility.

DRIVE FEATURES

intelligent disk control/buffer.
Reads a track at a time from disk
SD/ED/DD capability
Fast read and write.
Archiver and USD/ICD emulation (with appropriate software).
Standard 1050 emulation makes Plate invisible to commercial software.

++++++++++++++++++++++
IS Plate Disks.zip (88.85 KB) (dead link)

My own IS Plate was non-fuctioning.
Nir was looking for some spare 1050 boards to work on, so I boxed these up and - in conversation - some chat (Fred, Nir and myself) about IS Plate software (Lightspeed, ISP Diags, The Lighter, K-Up System Disk, et al) and request for these - which I had stashed somewhere in the cloud....the topic turned to the actual IS Plate board itself, and Nir offered to have a look at it for me - the idea being two-fold.

1] get it working, and
2] grab the rom data and integrate that into any other 1050 upgrade boards - the Mega Speedy seemed to be the best "potential" fit.

so the 1050 boards and IS Plate were consigned to Israeli Airspace.
I'll let Nir take up the story...


I'll let Nir, pick up the story​

ndary

Post by ndary on Jun 15, 2017 at 12:07pm
Brenski sent me a faulty 1050 I.S Plate board to take a look at and fix it, i identified that the 6502 processor that was soldered to the board is faulty and need to be replaced... so a new processor is doing its way here

in the meantime i managed to dump the EPROM and together with Hias we added the I.S Plate into the Mega Speedy as one of the 1050 enhancement that the Mega Speedy can emulate.

if you own the Mega Speedy, you need a XILINIX programmer to upgrade the CPLD on the board, then upload a new Config, Flasher and The I.S Plate ROM to the Mega Speedy and you can select that the Mega Speedy will act as an I.S. Plate







​

ndary

Post by ndary on Jun 15, 2017 at 12:09pm
most important is that the I.S Plate is a 1050 enhancement that was developd in UK back in the 80ies
it was advertised on Page 6 and the New Atari User magazine but considered to be a very rare 1050 enhancment

Nir
​

ndary

Post by ndary on Jun 15, 2017 at 12:21pm
Here is a picture of the I.S Plate i got from Brenski




i put the components on Sockets so they can be tested quickly..
looking at the design it looks like a happy clone, it is not 100% a copy of happy.. it use different processor and software but the concept is similar

it has an 8k ROM but when examine it it contain two identical 4k blocks (one of these is probably unused), but guess is that they used an 27C64 rom (even if they only use half of it) for future plans

There's also a $Exxx decode output that's routed via a trace to an unconnected through-hole - maybe some preparation for another 4k ROM block or some other future upgrade? One of the 8k RAM chips is mapped to $8000-$BFFF - like on the happy - the second RAM chip is mapped to C000-DFFF

the Gramlin Grabber software that was sold seperately was Advertised as a software that could copy protected disks, and the copied disk could run on any drive (even without the upgrade)

anyway we now got another UK Atari Development back to life

Nir
​

thark

Post by thark on Jun 15, 2017 at 12:50pm
I got to say it's just amazing what you can do with the old tech, superb
​

8bitbaz

Post by 8bitbaz on Jun 15, 2017 at 1:02pm
Like you, Thark, full of admiration for the work put in there by Nir.

Brilliant piece of investigation and restoration work.

Well done, Nir.​

Martin

I think a combination of persistence and genius from Nir gets a great result.
just think - all those Mega Speedy owners who can now add IS Plate functionality to their (already) top notch 1050 upgrade...and I'll have a working IS PLate

fantastic stuff

FOOTNOTE:
Nir's post above really doesn't show quite how much he put into this, so if you'll all humour me a little, I'll post (below) a transcript of our what'sapp conversations.​

June 6th
Nir: Hi Martin, good news, package arrived today. I will start working on the IS Plate and update you on progress.
Nir: Tested the board, and i confirm it does not work. Next step is to test the rom



Martin: So it could be dead then?
Nir: it could be a bad rom or processor
Martin: are either easy to replace?
Nir: first step put rom on socket and read it on eprom reader
Nir: i better put all chips on sockets - so they can be easily replaced
Nir: removed eprom and read it - looks like there's data there



Nir: i will need to replace the header pins to shorter ones



Nir: if there's a socket and iC on top, board will be too tall
Martin: yes, they're old wire wrap pins...real pain to use
Nir: everything is in sockets, time to test it




Martin: fingers crossed?
Nir: did not work, same as before. so can be either of two things
Nir: bad 6502. don't have one here and need to order off ebay. rockwell 6502
Nir: there is an installation procedure we are missing, maybe some pins need to be bent on the 1050
Nir: do you have the IS Plate installation guide?
Martin: installation says two minute job www.page6.org/archive/issue_27/page_50.htm
Nir: that's exactly what i did - removed 1050 Rom and CPU and put in the board. I'm going to order the 6502 now
Martin: let me know the cost?
Nir: don't worry. it's only $3 - but form China so will take a month to arrive
Martin: don't know if the Germany, France or Italy ones would get to you sooner...if so, I could paypal you the £20
eventually we found a UK and France (less expensive) option that may ship to Israel...


June 13
Nir: Hi Martin, good morning, do you have a Mega Speedy upgrade in one of your drives?
Martin: no, only mini-speedy
Nir: I am working with HIaas to add IS Plate to Mega Speedy...in addition to Happy, Archiver, USD, Duplicator and Speedy
Martin: is that doable?
Nir: yes, it's doable. I am waiting for a good 6502 in the meantime, to get the board to work.
Nir: there should be space in the Mega Speedy 1050 to add IS Plate logic
Nir: i just got the beta firmware for Mega Speedy with IS PLate support. but to upgrade my Mega Speedy I need a xilinix jtag programmer that I don't have at the moment

June 14
Nir: managed to borrow xilinix programmer device...it's an old model, but may do the job



Nir: this is a picture of Mega Speedy inside my 1050. I will try now to upgrade the logic chip




Nir: upgraded the Mega Speedy logic, rom and config files. Now testing the Mega Speedy in IS Plate mode with the IS Plate ATRs






Martin: stunner. nice work
Nir: need to thank Hiaas for adding IS Plate to Mega Speedy
Martin: from the image file you grabbed??
Nir: yes.. the rom form the pcb you sent was added to the Mega Speedy along with the needed logic
Martin: nice to have helped contribute something to the community. knew that IS Plate would serve a purpose one day.
Nir: this confirms rom is ok and it's a bad 6502 on the board
Martin: much easier to fix. dead rom = dead board
Nir: yes. once good 6502 arrive i will test it and ship back to you​

vulcanman

Post by vulcanman on Jun 16, 2017 at 4:22pm
It's a shame these boards aren't made anymore. Would certainly buy one of these.​

8bitbaz

Post by 8bitbaz on Jun 16, 2017 at 6:45pm
Fantastic thread/investigative work, guys.

Well done for teaming up on this great renovation project and through the wonders of Whats Up Doc, I mean Whatsapp, you guys have kept in close contact and documented it really well throughout -

TOP ROMMING / 6502ing, Nir/Brenski.​

Baker

Post by Baker on Jun 27, 2017 at 3:57pm
Very interesting thread, and kudos to Nir/Brenski. But I'm quite happy (pun intended) with my Happy clone from Atarimax, and will be getting another one of those from Atarimax for my second 1050. I am curious, however, that if the IS plate is a Happy clone, then (and I no very little about the Happy, I just use it) could the IS rom be integrated into a Happy clone rom from AtariMax?

I just love the fact that Nir is a regular on our little site, I've been intrigued with Nir's brilliance and works ever since I first heard of, and installed a PAL Antic in my NTSC, which worked flawlessly for years, until my 1084 monitor died and I finally had to do a full PAL conversion to my 1200XL because the hybrid wouldn't work right with my newer LCD monitor. Thank God for Dropcheck and her PAL conversion board that made this a simple task for me too. She has so many awesome hardware items.
​

Martin

I'm pretty sure that Nir will be able to confirm this for sure, but here's how i see it:

IS Plate = 4k rom
is there spare capacity to fit this into either the standard happy or the atarimax happy

the most viable option is the integration that Nir has already managed into the Mega-Speedy - as this has the rom capacity available.​

charliechaplin

Post by charliechaplin on Jun 28, 2017 at 4:08pm
Well,

both Happy and Speedy upgrades do have an 8k cache/track buffer and these buffers can be filled and programmed (!) with any data. For the Speedy (mini-Speedy, normal Speedy, etc.) there exists a Turbo 1050 emulator, you just load in some software into the 8k cache and voila, your Speedy is and works (temporarily, until switched off) like a Turbo 1050.

For the Happy there is an Archiver or US-Doubler emulator by S.Carden, which works the same way, you load some software into the cache buffer and turn your Happy either into an Archiver or US-Doubler (only one of them, but I forgot which one).

Thus, if the IS plate has only 4k ROM, it should be doable to load the modified ROM into the 8k cache buffer of a Speedy or Happy and therefore turn it into an IS plate temporarily... (but do not ask me how to do it, I am no programmer).

(Sidenote: Some older Happy enhancements do have only 6k cache buffer, but that should still be enough to emulate the IS plate.)​

Baker

Post by Baker on Jun 28, 2017 at 7:13pm
Well,

both Happy and Speedy upgrades do have an 8k cache/track buffer and these buffers can be filled and programmed (!) with any data. For the Speedy (mini-Speedy, normal Speedy, etc.) there exists a Turbo 1050 emulator, you just load in some software into the 8k cache and voila, your Speedy is and works (temporarily, until switched off) like a Turbo 1050.

For the Happy there is an Archiver or US-Doubler emulator by S.Carden, which works the same way, you load some software into the cache buffer and turn your Happy either into an Archiver or US-Doubler (only one of them, but I forgot which one).

Thus, if the IS plate has only 4k ROM, it should be doable to load the modified ROM into the 8k cache buffer of a Speedy or Happy and therefore turn it into an IS plate temporarily... (but do not ask me how to do it, I am no programmer).

(Sidenote: Some older Happy enhancements do have only 6k cache buffer, but that should still be enough to emulate the IS plate.)
Thanks for the info! As to software for the Happy, I'd take an educated guess that it's the Archiver or Super Archiver since all the above upgrades have the double density and "Ultra/turbo" speeds like the US-Doubler already. And that's all the US-Doubler does to the 1050.​

ndary

Post by ndary on Jul 4, 2017 at 1:10am
although i defined the IS PLATE as a happy clone do to similarity in design they are not exactly the same.
you cannot take the IS PLATE ROM stick it in a Happy board to turn it into an IS PLATE card

Both Happy and IS PLATE us the 6502 as processors but Happy has only one 8K SRAM while the IS PLATE has two 8K SRAM chips on the board.
the IS PLATE has 8k EPROM but use only 4k ROM on it, maybe the developers of the IS PLATE had plans to evolve and enhance the board on a later date but that never happened.

Nir​

Martin

well, i'd like to add a really great conclusion to this IS Plate saga.

Nir has managed to replace the faulty 6502 in my board, and shipped it back to me Sunday 16th, and lo and behold - here we are Friday 21st and it's made its journey all the way from Israel to the UK arriving safely inside 4 working days!!!
I have to say Nir's job on socketing the old soldered ICs is excellent - you really wouldn't know the board didn't start off life socketed!

a couple of "games" ensued with getting the wirewrap pins to go into the intended socket on the stock 1050 board - but in the end i gave this up as a bad job. opting instead to remove a USD from another drive - the sockets appeared more accommodating to the depth of the wirewrap pins.
swapped USD into stock 1050, and IS plate into (what was) USD.

a couple of bad contacts were resulting in the "non IS Plate hardware D1:" message
remove , blow compressed air thru the socket, re-seat...all GOOD!!!

I've now configured this IS Plate 1050 as D2: as part of my IS Plate double act - so good to have a matching pair of original IS Plate drives, meaning I now have full functionality of my Lighter ISM, Grabber, ISP Menus 2/3 software - these are really intended for use with 2x IS Plate drives

Most will be aware there are not that many IS Plates still out there. Thanks to Nir one more is now functioning. Also Nir's copying and tweaking of my IS Plate rom data will ensure that Mega Speedy owners can now also have an IS Plate option...wins all round

Nir, thanks again - a gentleman and a genius!!!​

8bitbaz

Post by 8bitbaz on Jul 21, 2017 at 1:23pm
As per my shoutbox... two blokes - who know what they're doing - what they're about - coming up trumps.

I, for one, would be interested in acquiring one of these new Mega Speedy's with an IS Plate additional enhancement as and when/if they are made available, chaps.

Nir, have you got any updates on the possibility of buying such kit from either yourself or from the ABBUC/Syscheck II team (excuse my ignorance on not knowing the exact source of the remaining Mega Speedy stocks)?

Again, may I join Brenski in hailing you as another bloody genius we've got on here who can handle a soldering iron, circuit board, box of ICs and rock n roll bringing bust stuff back to life!

(I salute you all who perform these kind of operations as I am a well-known cack-handed 'solder everything but the component in question' type monkey).



ABOVE: Here's what the board looked like after brenski sent it to me... ?!​

ndary

Post by ndary on Jul 21, 2017 at 2:01pm
The MEGA SPEEDY is sold by ABBUC, Contact ABBUC Store and put an interest in buying one.. if there is a demand they will put a new production run..
adding the IS PLATE support to the MEGA SPEEDY is easy you just need the tool to burn a new firmware to the device.. but if its produced with the latest firmware then the IS PLATE comes build into the menu

Nir​

ndary

Post by ndary on Apr 21, 2018 at 4:59pm
Here is a link to the IS PLATE User Manual
IS PLATE USER MANUAL

and to the disks that came along with it: DISKS
​