BBC Micro info
For many years, the
BBC Micro computer,
as produced by (the now defunct) Acorn Computers Limited (formerly
of Cambridge, U.K.), gave a great deal of pleasure to many people.
Although somewhat dated now, the machines still have loyal fans, and these
pages address some of the odd issues I've come across over the years.
Disk Controllers
The gory details on the 8271 floppy disk controller, the 1770 floppy disk controller, DFS/DDFS/ADFS ROMs, and the Solidisk DDFC and DFDC boards
Floppy Disk formats
BBC Micro users will have a large number of DFS and ADFS floppy disks, which
may contain useful data. I have hints on reading DFS and ADFS floppy disk under Linux.
Adding a Hard Disk
Floppies are old hat these days, so you could think about
adding a Hard Disk to the BBC Micro.
Y2000 problems
The original BBC Micros had no real-time clock IC, which made them pretty
well immune from Y2000 problems :-)
The BBC Master 128 computer has a few Y2000 problems. Here are some fixes for the computer
itself, utility ROMs, etc.
Operating System
Utility ROMs
-
Beebug Master ROM.
I used to maintain this for Beebug, and I have the source code.
The versions made available (last was 1.05) have some Y2000 problems,
which I plan to fix. Beebug have agreed that I can provide updates.
The update may only be to switch the century to "20" from "19". If
you need more functionality than this (e.g. to cope with 1980 to
2079), mail me.
Andrew Benham (G8FSL), Salisbury, Wilts SP1, United Kingdom
