Parts arrived to build Virtual 2315 Cartridge Facility interface board

PCB ARRIVED ALONG WITH THE PARTS

This board is the interface between the IBM 1130 disk controller logic, the 2310 disk drive and the modified RK-05 Emulator that together form the Virtual 2315 Cartridge Facility. The cable from the CPU that normally would plug into the disk drive will plug into this new board. A cable attached to this new board will plug into the disk drive. A pair of ribbon cables connect this board to the RK-05, passing most of the signals between 1130 and disk while processing all the data related signals inside the emulator.

FINISHING UP THE FPGA AND C CODE TO BEGIN TESTING

In order to start testing with the 1130 and disk drive, my modifications to George Wiley's RK-05 Emulator must be installed. The 2310 disk drive differs from the DEC disk drives in quite a few ways. As well, my notion of a hybrid of real disk drive plus emulator is unique. 

I will do some final simulations of the FPGA logic before installing it on the FPGA chip in the emulator. The emulator FPGA works hand in hand with a Raspberry Pi Pico that manages the SD Card where the cartridge images are stored, thus there are some Pi side C code changes needed.