Apple2Info.Net
Home Hardware Software Links Contact

EDD Plus Card

EDD Plus Card

Utilico Microware (1986)

The EDD Plus Card is a card that was sold with some versions of the EDD (Essential Data Duplicator) 4 Plus bitcopy program. It is an auxiliary disk drive controller that intercepts the raw data stream from an Apple II disk drive before it is processed by the Apple floppy disk controller and passes it to the EDD 4 Plus copy program. The card was placed in an unused slot, usually slot 5, and the floppy drive cable was plugged into it. A second cable connected the EDD Plus Card to the normal Apple floppy disk controller. This allowed diskettes with certain copy protection schemes to be copied.

Bob Brown reverse-engineered his EDD Plus card and homebrewed a prototype to verify his schematic. Below are some pictures of his work. Click on the photos to enlarge them.

EDD Plus Card Layout (Front)
Front of pc board with layout & pinouts.

EDD Plus Card Layout (Back)
Back of pc board with layout & pinouts.

Prototype EDD Plus Card
Homebrew prototype of the EDD Plus card.

 

Resources

Thanks to Bob Brown for the photos of his hand-built EDD Plus card and the following:

EDD 4 Plus version 4.9
EDD 4 Plus Software v4.9
Version 4.9 of the Essential Data Duplicator 4 Plus program. This version requires the EDD Plus Card to be installed and will run on a IIgs. This is a Shrinkit disk archive (.sdk) of  a bootable 5.25" DOS 3.3 diskette.

EDD Plus Card Schematic
Schematic of the EDD Plus Card.

My thanks go out to Jean-Pierre in France for providing the following resources:

EDD 4 Plus version 4.2
EDD 4 Plus Software v4.2
The Essential Data Duplicator 4 Plus program that uses the EDD Plus card if it is available. It can also be used without the card. This is a Shrinkit disk archive (.sdk) of  a bootable 5.25" DOS 3.3 diskette.

Jean-Pierre's memory map of the EDD 4 Plus program.

Jean-Pierre's boot trace, an annotated disassembly of the boot sectors of the EDD 4 Plus disk. This consists of two files: Boot Stage 1 and Boot Stage 2.

edd4src_120.jpg
EDD 4.2 Source Code Listing. My thanks to Ed Eastman for allowing this rare document to be scanned.

Thanks to JM Boutillon for providing the following:

Patch to allow versions of EDD 4 Plus earlier than version 4.4 to run on a IIgs. This is a scan of an article by Brian A. Troha that appeared in issue #61 of Computist magazine.

This Softkey for EDD 4 by Brian A. Troha which leads you step-by-step through a boot trace of the disk appeared in issue #49 of Computist. magazine.

EDD 4 Plus Advertisement
Magazine advertisement for EDD 4 Plus. This ad appeared in several issues of Computist magazine, which are archived at The Computist Project.


© 2005 Dave Touvell.
All Rights Reserved.
Home Hardware Software Links Contact