Catweasel controller

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Detail of an Mk3 with audio cabling

The Catweasel controller is a special floppy disk controller that can be used to read and write almost any disk format.

The Catweasel offers a connection for floppy disk drives with Shugart bus (including normal PC floppy disk drives). In contrast to the standard PC diskette controller, the Catweasel is freely programmable and therefore also allows unusual disk formats to be processed. With its help, for example, floppy disks from the Commodore C64 , Commodore Amiga , Apple II and also from the old Apple Macintosh can be read and written.

The only formats that cannot be used with this controller are those that use a non-standard track spacing, such as the 100 tpi format of the Commodore SFD1001 drive. Even the best controller is of no use here, as the tracks in these formats cannot be precisely traced with a PC floppy disk drive.

model series

Catweasel ISA

For PC, Alpha AXP and BeBox . Alpha AXP drivers are only available for Linux. Only I / O addresses are occupied, the hardware does not require DMA and IRQ .

Catweasel MK2

The MK2 exists for the Amiga 1200 and Amiga 4000 . With the A1200 connection to the clock port and with the A4000 it is looped into the IDE port. If the hardware is connected to the A1200 clock port, it is possible to connect the I / O module "HyperCom 3 plus" to the local expansion port of the Catweasel MK2. There is an update for the Diavolo backup software to be able to create backups on XTRA-HD disks (2380 KByte per disk).

Catweasel ZII S-Class / Catweasel ZII MK2

The Zorro Catweasel combines the products Buddha ( IDE controller for all Amigas with Zorro slots) and Catweasel MK2. The Buddha has another IDE port.

Catweasel MK3 PCI / Flipper

PCI card for PC, Mac and AmigaOne . Flipper means the card is a flip card. In addition to the 5 V PCI connection, there is a connection for the Zorro slot on the other side. There is also the option of connecting to the clock port of an A1200. There are two connectors on the card for digital joysticks and paddles (9-pin Sub-D connector). An original SID chip from the Commodore C-64 can be used on the card . An additional circuit of the MK3 enables the output of the fourth voice with newer SID-Chips (8580), which with older SID-Chips (6581) could only be activated with a software trick. If the MK3 is connected to the internal CD input of a sound card, the fourth voice can be output on a separate channel if required. The MK3 uses the Commodore chip 8701 for the clock.

Catweasel MK4 (plus) PCI

With a height of 63.5 mm, the card has become smaller than its predecessor and thus complies with the low-profile PCI standard, which can be important for flat computer cases. In contrast to the MK3, there is only the option of connecting to PCI. Many new features have been added, such as support for auto-eject drives without their own eject button, as used on the Apple Macintosh. There are two PS / 2 ports, e.g. for a mouse and keyboard. The CD³² game pads are fully supported, as well as a second SID chip, the MK3 can only accommodate one SID chip. The MK4 is also designed for 3.3 V PCI slots.

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