Apple PowerCD "portable" CD ROM drive
- Thread starter MOS8_030
- Start date
Do the others have battery power base units? From the logos they were players for the media, but were they capable of doing slide shows and VCD presentations as standalone embedded processor gizmos? A teardown comparison would be interesting, anybody got pics of the Kodak/Philips base unit?
Now I'm wondering about Software/Hardware Apple development may have done or outsourced (from Philips?) to extend the capabilities of the baseline media players? I've always thought of it as "just a rebadged Philips product" and now it's clear that it was much more than that.
Since SCSI is a general purpose I/O standard, I wonder if it would be possible to develop an OS to run them as an old school 8bit home computer via Small Computer Systems Interface. MiniComputers were considered small when Shugart developed SASI during the production lifetime of the Apple II! It'll boil down to what SCSI controller is inside the base unit whether such a crazy software/firmware hack would be feasible, given a capable controller.
Less insane would be to see if there's room for BeagleBone or Rpi wedged in at the ROM socket for WiFi/Bluetooth connectivity. Pretty neat little battery operated case we have here and so much more powerful than MiniComputers of the SASI/SCSI 1 era.
Now I'm wondering about Software/Hardware Apple development may have done or outsourced (from Philips?) to extend the capabilities of the baseline media players? I've always thought of it as "just a rebadged Philips product" and now it's clear that it was much more than that.
Since SCSI is a general purpose I/O standard, I wonder if it would be possible to develop an OS to run them as an old school 8bit home computer via Small Computer Systems Interface. MiniComputers were considered small when Shugart developed SASI during the production lifetime of the Apple II! It'll boil down to what SCSI controller is inside the base unit whether such a crazy software/firmware hack would be feasible, given a capable controller.
Less insane would be to see if there's room for BeagleBone or Rpi wedged in at the ROM socket for WiFi/Bluetooth connectivity. Pretty neat little battery operated case we have here and so much more powerful than MiniComputers of the SASI/SCSI 1 era.
LOL! Apparently you never used a blazingly fast single speed CR-ROM drive on your computer back in the day. :lol:
Cool! Not too many folks around here remember when there was only one speed. Agreed, sloooooow, but if all you've got is a broken down draft horse . . .
. . . its teeth are plenty good enough to chew the feed. :lol:
. . . its teeth are plenty good enough to chew the feed. :lol:
