ASCII HD interface

Champion (344)

01-08-2021, 11:57

Is the ROM of the ASCII HD interface (SASI, pre SCSI-1 protocol) already dumped ?

I was digging into the MSXDOS2 ROM of the NIA-2001, and discovered that it was based on a patched MSXDOS2 ROM kernel with a SASI/SCSI driver (32 MB HD hard coded support). So the SASI/SCSI driver was patched, creating a stand-alone MSXDOS2 (usefull for RAMDISK).
So possibly this could be based on the ASCII HD interface.
The MSXDOS2 kernel is version 2.30, dating 1989. So this is an older version than the one used in the Panasonic FSA1-GT which are dated 1990. The NIA-2001 MSXDOS2 ROM does not include the MSXDOS1 kernel either, and is missing the code to start into MSXDOS1 mode.
MSXDOS2 kernel ROM segment switch is at 07FF0H, same as the FSA1-GT/FSA1-ST.

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Par mars2000you

Enlighted (6397)

01-08-2021, 12:11

According the Wiki, it is not yet dumped.

https://www.msx.org/wiki/ASCII_HD_Interface

Par gdx

Enlighted (5992)

01-08-2021, 12:45

It may be interesting for those who have this interface because MSX-DOS2 is not included.

Par Giangiacomo Zaffini 2

Champion (277)

01-08-2021, 16:12

If I'm right x68000 retro scene uses raspberry pi as SASI card interface for accessing mass storage devices like Compact Flash memories or Secure Digital cards. Can it be something similar for MSX?

Par st1mpy

Paladin (891)

01-08-2021, 17:05

That is possible on x68000 cos it has a built in scsi(sasi) controller. To use scsi hdd or a flash based scsi emulator on msx you need a scsi cartridge.

Par sdsnatcher73

Prophet (3808)

09-10-2021, 05:25

SASI became SCSI during the development of the standard (SASI was developed within Shugart). According to Wikipedia SASI is ultimately a subset of SCSI but most if not all (their words) are compatible with SCSI. However I do believe with SASI it was in principle the idea to include the controller on the drive whilst with SCSI the controller is seperated from the drive.

Par sdsnatcher73

Prophet (3808)

17-10-2021, 21:03

Anyway, I think this converter (compatible with PC-9801) should work on the ASCII HD interface as well.