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AT-SPEED software with IDE support for Lightning ST

Verfasst: 10. Jul 2022, 16:50
von czietz
AT-SPEED Version 2.33IDE

This is a version of the software for AT Speed PC emulator card with added IDE hard disk support. Previously, it only supported ACSI hard disks. Now, IDE can be selected in the configuration program ATS_INST.PRG, via the menu: “Disk → HD-Type”. The other settings remain as documented in the manual. In particular, “Disk → Zuordnen” allows mapping between TOS and DOS drive letters, and “Disk → Harddisk” determines whether the hard disk is active and whether it should be used as boot drive (option “HD-Boot”). You might also want to set the keyboard layout via “Keyboard → Layout”.

The limitations regarding hard disk support – as described in the AT Speed manual – also stay the same: maximum 32 MB per partition, only Atari partitions. For IDE this implies: the disk must be in Atari byte-order! You might therefore want to use an IDE interface with hardware byte-swapping (such Smartswap in the Lightning ST), as this facilitates data exchange with a PC, particularly, when using a CF or SD card as IDE drive.

Since setting up a partitioning scheme suitable for the AT Speed and DOS can be a bit tricky, a pre-made bare-bones disk image is also included that has been successfully tested with the Lightning ST IDE interface. Some remarks about the disk image:
  • For copyright reasons, it comes with the demo version of HDDRIVER. While this does not impact the hard disk access from DOS running on the AT Speed, I strongly encourage you to replace the driver by the full version (that you certainly have already bought). Of course, this is not necessary when running EmuTOS.
  • The image contains the necessary drivers to make the 8 MB Alt-RAM and RTC of the Storm ST accessible under DOS. If you’re not using a Storm ST, you need to remove the STORM_PC.SYS and STORMCLK.COM drivers from CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT.
  • The image contains a minimal installation of FreeDOS: just the kernel and the command-line interpreter. When re-installing DOS, be sure not to partition the drive or format the partitions. This might destroy the compatibility with TOS. Just install the system files via the SYS command, e.g., SYS A: C: