Date: 23 Oct 90 03:08:48 GMT
From: noao!ncar!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu!hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu@arizona.edu (Frank E. Seipel)
Subject: Blackbox/MIO comparison
To: Info-Atari8@naucse.cse.nau.edu

 Having had the opportunity to use both the BlackBox from CSS (computer Software
Services) and the MIO from ICD, I thought I would share what I have learned
about these two unique pieces of hardware for the 8-bit Atari.
 The systems I have used include: 130XE computers (upgraded to 512K), 1-meg MIO,
256K MIO, BlackBox, Supra Modem 2400, Seikosha MP1300AI printer, 2 Happy 1050
floppy drives, an Adaptec 4000a hard drive controller, 2 Adaptec 5500 hard drive
controllers, a Seagate ST225 20 meg hard drive, a ATASI 3046 40 meg hard drive,
and a CMI 5516 13 meg hard drive.

What is a MIO or a Blackbox?

 An explanation of just what the MIO and BlackBox are is in order. Both include
a SASI/SCSI hard disk interface, a printer port, a RS232 port, and some type of
printer buffer. The MIO comes with either 256K or 1 megabyte of dynamic RAM on
board which can be used as any combination of ramdisk(s) and printer spooler.
 The BlackBox comes either with no user ram or 64K of static ram which can be
used only as a printer buffer. Additionally, the BlackBox (BB) can use the
standard extended banks of a 130XE as a 64K printer buffer.
 The RS232 and/or printer ports can be disabled in both units to allow an
external device such as an Atari 850 interface to be used.
 Both come with clear manuals printed on 8 1/2 by 11 inch unbound paper. The
pinouts for all ports are clearly shown in the manuals and there are examples
showing how to set up a hard disk system. The BBS manual includes several short
assembler listings showing some methods of accessing the BB from machine
language.

Appearance

 The MIO comes in a nice gray case with the SCSI connector and printer port on
one end. The other end has the RS232 port, on/off switch, power plug, and two
LED's - one is a power indificator and the other lights up when the MIO is busy.
My 1-meg MIO has a second 9 pin plug on this end for a planned 80 column adapter
which never happened. The 50 conductor ribbon cable which plugs into the
computer is on one side.

 The BB comes with no case. Cases are available for it for $39.95 (and they are
even black!). On the front edge is the connector which plugs into the 130XE. The
other side has the SCSI connector, the floppy controller connector (see below),
and the power plug. The printer plugs onto one end and the modem to the other.
The BBS also has two LED's which serve the same functions as the ones in the
MIO.

Plugging it in

 The MIO has a 50 pin connector which plugs in to the parallel expansion port on
a 600XL or 800XL. An XE adapter must be purchased for $16.95 to plug the MIO
into a 130XE computer. This adapter plugs into both the ECI port and the
cartridge port on the 130XE and has sockets for two cartridges on it. The second
cartridge plug is primarily for R-Time 8 cartridge from ICD.
 The BlackBox is built to plug directly into the 130XE. It comes with a short 50
pin cable for plugging into an XL machine. No extra adapter is needed. For my
own system, I use the XE adapter from ICD and plug the 50 pin cable on the BB
into it (I use the R-Time 8 and this keeps the cartridge stack shorter).
 The MIO has the expected 9 pin and 15 pin d-connectors for plugging in your
printer and modem. The BB comes with 34 pin card edges for use with 34 conductor
ribbon cable. You can use both standard crimp-on connectors for both cables (use
25 conductor ribbon cable for the modem cable) or you can buy the cables you
need from CSS. There is also an unused 34 connection card edge on the BB. This
is for the floppy controller that CSS is planning to release. This floppy
controller will allow the user to attach industry standard disk drives -- up to
80 track 720K - to the BB.
 The MIO comes with a heavy duty 9v power supply. The BlackBox comes with a
power supply which has +12v -12v and +5v output. All three voltages are used by
the BB.

Menus

 Both the MIO and the BlackBox have menus. Here is a list of options available
from the Main Menu of both:

1) Assign drives as floppy disks, or hard drive partitions. When assigning
floppy drives, you can assign any physical floppy drive as and drive from D1: to
D8: (and D9: on the BlackBox).

Note: On the MIO ramdisks can also be defined. These ramdisks refer to MIO
memory only - not memory available inside the computer. A DOS ramdisk handler
must be used for memory in the computer.

2) Swap drives - shows up as 'Exchange Drives' on the BlackBox and allows you to
swap the drive assignments of two drives. For example, you could swap drives 1
and 4. The drive assigned to D4: would then become logical drive #1 and you
could boot from it while the drive that was drive 1 would then be addressable as
D4:. I am writing this using PaperClip which I booted from my hard drive using
this method.

3) Lock Drive - Write locks a drive if it a hard drive partition or a RAMdisk.

4) Save configuration - This writes the current configuration to the first
sector of device 0,0 (the first hard drive on your system). If no hard drive is
present this option does nothing.

 The other options available from these menus are different enough to need
separate descriptions.

The MIO Menu:

 The MIO Menu is entered by holding down the <Select> button and pressing
<Reset>. This loads the menu into the computers program ram starting at address
$3000. This destroys whatever was there, so it is best to re-boot the computer
after accessing the menu. The Main Menu is the drive configuration menu. This is
where you set up your hard drive partitions, partition the MIO ram into
ramdisks, and assign floppy drives. The printer and RS232 menus are also
accessed from here.

Available from the Printer Menu:

1 - Pause/Resume printing
2 - Clear Spooler
3 - Print Repeat copies
4 - Set port type
5 - Set spooler size
6 - Set Port Number

 The 'Repeat Copies' option allows you to print copies of any text currently in
the MIO print spooler. Setting the port type allows printing to either parallel
and serial printers. This function is also used to turn line feeds on/off.
Spooler size is adjustable in 32K byte increments from 0 (OFF) up to the maximum
ram available on the MIO. Maximum available ram includes all ram on the MIO not
already assigned to ramdisks. The port number can be set to P1:, P2:, or OFF.

Available from the RS232 Menu:

1 - Set Baud Rate
2 - Set Stop Bits
3 - Set Parity
4 - Assign Port Number

 Baud rate can be set from 110 to 19,200 baud. Stop bits can be set to either 1
or 2. Parity can be set to None, Odd, Even, or Space. Since most terminal
software handles these items, I am not sure why they are on the menu. Maybe it
looked empty without some extra options (R1:, R2:, or NONE are the allowable
port assignments).

The BlackBox Menu:

 The BlackBox Menu is entered by pressing a button on the BlackBox. This menu
does not use any programming ram and is therefore non-destructive. You can enter
the menu and usually exit with no effect on the program you are running.
Available from the BlackBox menu are:

1 - Drive configuration menu
2 - Port Status Menu
3 - 6502 Monitor

 From the Drive Configuration Menu you can partition your hard drive, assign
floppies, add hard drive partitions to the partition list (explained below),
enter the Controller Menu, or enter the Partition List Menu.
 The Controller Menu allows you to add up to 8 different hard drives to your
system.
 The BlackBox allows you to have up to 96 hard drive partitions. The information
on these partitions (size, start sector, controller and drive number, etc) is
kept in the Partition List. You are allowed to name each partition with any name
of up to 11 characters; 10 of which show up in the menu.
 The Main Configuration Table of the BlackBox has room for nine drives (and/or
partitions). You can load any partition from the Partition List into the Main
Configuration Table by going to the Partition List, moving the cursor to the
partition you want and pressing <Return>. You will then be returned to the Main
Configuration Table and asked what drive you want the partition loaded as.

Options on the Port Status Menu are:

1 - I/O Sound On/Off
2 - RS232 Port On/Off
3 - Printer Port Number
4 - Printer Line Feeds On/Off
5 - Spooler Status
6 - HD Partition List Start Sector
7 - Save Configuration

 Yes, I/O sound with a hard drive, heh! The RS232 port can only be turned on/off
with no option to be assigned as anything other than R1:.
 The printer port can be assigned as any one of P1: through P8:, ALL, or NONE.
Spooler status cycles between off, XE extended banks, and BlackBox ram (if the
ram is available on the BB).
 This is also where you tell the BB where to look for the Partition List which
takes up to 14 sectors and can be located anywhere on the first hard disk on the
system. You can save the configuration here as well as from the Drive
Configuration Menu.
 The 6502 monitor is the best I have seen for the 8-bit Atari. It doesn't have
as many features as others but it is transparent to the system and does a MUCH
better job of interruping a program than either DDT or Omnimon. I have tetired
my Omnimon and never used DDT much anyway. With the BB Monitor you can interrupt
a program, examine/change memory, and usually resume right where you left off.
  Ever had a lockup you couldn't get out of by pressing RESET? With the BB
Monitor you can change the program countert to point to $E477 (the cold start
vector) and when you exit the BB the computer will cold start. This is nice for
saving the files in your ramdisks.

Note: While snooping in the BB ROM I discovered that holding the Help key and
pressing Reset causes a cold start. Holding Shift-Help does not cause the cold
start. This feature was not mentioned in the documentation.

Software

 Other than programs to form hard drives, the only software I am aware of for
these devices requires SpartaDOS. There are programs to:

1) Swap drive assignments
2) Lock/Unlock drives/partitions
3) Load/Save configuration tables from/to disk files
4) Load/Save BB partition lists from/to disk files
5) Print information contained in configuration files and partition list files
6) Load a partition from the partition list into the configuration table of the
BB.

 There are also some .CMD files used by BBS Express Pro! sysops to work with the
MIO. I am sure there is software available that I don't know about or forgot to
mention here.

Miscellaneous

 There are two buttons, two switches, and a bank of eight dip switches on the
BlacKBox.
 One of the buttons is used to access the menu. The other dumps the screen to
the printer. This can be done at any time.
 One of the swiches allows you to select either text or graphics mode for the
screen dump. In graphics mode all Atari graphics characters appear on paper just
as they do on your screen. In graphics mode, screen dumps take the full width of
8 1/2 by 11 inch paper. This makes a Graphics 0 screen look like Graphics 2 on
the printout.
 The other toggle switch write protects ALL hard drives. This is handy when you
want to try out a new program and don't want it to mess with the hard drives.

The dip switches are used as follows:

1) Force printer fauly line to NO FAULT. This causes the BB to not send any data
to the printer. You could have another printer interface (and printer) attached
to your computer and control which printer prints with this switch.

2) Enable hard disk port/high speed floppy SIO. This allows you to disable
access to your hard drives and disable the BB's high speed SIO code for floppy
disks.

3.) Enable parallel printer port

4) Enable RS232 port

5) Enable printer line feeds

6) Printer is a Prowriter (Used by graphics dump routine)

7) MIO compatibility mode where hard drives are concerned. The MIO inverts all
data as it writes to the hard drive. In normal mode, the BlackBox doesn't do
this. Flipping this switch to the MIO mode allows a hard drive to be used by
either the MIO or the BlackBox. Note: This affects ALL hard drives that are
online.

8) Unused

* Switches 3-5 are mainly for systems with no hard drives online. If a hard
drive is present this information is contained on the configuration sector.

 The BB gives more storage capacity on hard drives than does the MIO. It is able
to format a drive using 512 byte sectors. These are accessed as 256 byte sectors
after formatting. (Each 512 byte physical sector contains two 256 byte logical
sectors).
 CSS claims that using 512 byte sector format can add up to 20% to the storage
available on a hard drive.
 I gained a little over 10% formatting my 40 meg hard drive in this mode. I have
a 40 meg drive that formats out as follows:

Format		Type			Sectors
MIO		256 byte sectors	146685
BB		256 byte sectors	148994
BB		512 byte sectors	162530*

*This is the number of logical (256 byte) sectors

 The onyl way I have fouund to empty the printer buffer on the BlackBox is to
enter the port status menu and cycle the buffer off/on.
 Printing through the printer buffer with either the BlackBox or the MIO slows
down both the printing process and the computer (especially when accessing other
devices like disk drives).

Reliability

 The MIO has been plagued by problems and rumors of problems since it was
released. I personally know of at least 11 MIO's that had to be sent in for
repairs at one time or another. (And I know only 8 people who own MIO's). I
bought my MIO's second hand and both had been sent back by the original owners
to be fixed. Here are some problems I have experienced when using the MIO:

1) Wierd things have happened when I used the printer buffer. Everything from
wierd flickering and characters showing up on the screen to garbage being sent
to the printer.
2) I could not use my Mac/65 cartridge and the ram in the MIO at the same time.
When I tried, the ramdisk(s) formatted themselves whenever they felt like it and
I had to use a sector editor to recover anything important. To my knowledge, no
one else has had this particular problem.

3) When using terminal programs the MIO frequently locked up on me while I was
online. I suspect that this is a problem when the MIO is the originator of a
call because I know of many BBS's using the MIO that have been online for a long
time with no such problem.

Note: Boterm 1.20 claims to solve this lockup problem by supplying its own
handler for the MIO which also allows it to transfer at a true 19,200 baud rate.
 I have had no problems with the BlackBox except when I wired it into my 230
watt power supply. I reversed the +12v and -12v lines and fried a couple of
chips. A normal person would not have done this.

Product Support

 ICD has apparently lost interest in the Atari 8-bit machines. At this time they
offer little support for the MIO. If anything goes wrong, they are not likely to
offer any help to the user at all beyond fixing them for $40.00+parts+shipping.
 My own experience with ICD has left a lot to be desired. I have been using ICD
products since about 1984. I use the SpartaDOS X-cartridge and when I first got
my MIO, I couldn't exit the menu without the computer doing a cold-start.
Thinking something was wrong with the MIO, I called ICD for help. I asked for
technical assistance and my call was forwarded to Howard.
 I explained my system and the problem to him and he told me that the MIO was
faulty and to send it in for repairs. He informed me that repairs would cost
$40.00+parts+shipping.
 Well, it turns out that exiting the MIO menu with a cartridge plugged in causes
a cold-start with all MIO's. So much for getting good help from ICD for their
8-bit products (in fairness to ICD, I heard that they do a better job supporting
their ST product line).

 CSS, on the other hand has proved to be a gold mine for Atari 8-bitters. As I
mentioned above, I fried a couple of chips on my BlackBox. I called CSS and
(with some embarassment) told Ron exactly what I did. Instead of saying "Send it
in with your wallet, checkbook, and credit cards', he told me exactly what chips
I had probably fried. I found the chips at Radio Shack (for about $2.00) and
fixed my BlacBox. These folks really do care!
 The people at CSS have answered some pretty dumb questions for me (and one or
two intelligent ones too). They have even helped people with their ICD products.
They have also give me any technical information I needed - or thought I needed
- to write programs for the BlackBox.

Trivia

 BB really stands for BobBox (For Creator Bob Puff).

Conclusion

 The MIO has been plagued with reliability problems. The RS232 handler has been
known to cause lockups when online and drops the carrier (hangs up the modem)
when RESET is pressed. The print spooler sometimes does wierd things and is only
semi-reliable. I have been told that the spooler sometimes writes to hard drives
instewad of the printer. I kept the spooler turned off when my hard drive was
attached. I just didn't want to verify this the hard way. The MIO is also known
to have (electronic) noise problems, especially when used with 130XE's. The
result is loss of ramdisk configuration and/or contents. I have only heard a few
complaints about the hard disk interface on the MIO. I have experienced no
problems with the hd interface.
 Pretty is as pretty does. I have found the BB to be a far more reliable tool
than the MIO. It is more flexible in most areas, offers more options, and
product support is just fantastic. And it costs less too.
 The only problem I have heard of regarding the BB had to do with printer dumps
when an older Gemini-10X printer was used. A ROM upgrade has fixed this problem.
The RS232 handler doesn't cause lockups, and you can press RESET without losing
the carrier. I have never had any wierd stuff happen when using the printer
handler. I don't have the 64K spooler on the BB but am sure it meets up to the
standard of the rese of this fine product. The screen dump feature works weel.
It will dump any graphics 0-2 screen with no problem and has no problem with
most other graphics modes. The hard disk interface works flawlessly and allows
use of 512 byte as well as 256 byte sector formats.
 The BB also has an MIO compatible mode so that you can use hard drives that
have been written to by an MIO. CSS claims that the BB is up to 20% faster than
the MIO depending on the brand of controller and drive used. I noticed only a
slight increase in speed after converting to BB format using my Adaptec
controllers with 3 different brands of hard drives.
 I really like the BlackBox. I heartily recommend the BB over the MIO and
encourage all 8-bit Atari users to support CSS. After all, they are supporting
us.
 Now if they would only get that floppy controller out...

The BlackBox	$199.95
The Black Box with 64K RAM	$249.95
BB Case	$39.95

Available from:

Computer Software Services
P.O. Box 17660
Rochester, NY 14617
Phone: (716) 586-5545
BBS:	(716) 247-7157

The MIO w/256K RAM	$239.95
The MIO w/1 meg RAM	$469.95
XE adapter	$16.95

Available from:

ICD, Inc.
1220 Rock Street
Rockford, IL 61101
Phone: (815) 968-2228
BBS: (815) 968-2229