Vortex Disc Drives

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A series of external 3.5" and 5.25" floppy disc drives from Vortex providing up to 720K capacity (704K available). The Vortex drives were most popular in Germany. For more information regarding VDOS and the Vortex Disk Format, see the dedicated VDOS Wiki page.

S- and D-Drives (720K)

These are the first generation of 720K floppy disc drives from Vortex. They came in variants having either a single drive ("S" variant) or two drives ("D" variant). The "S" variant (as well as the "Z" variant) was delivered with the same double-height casing as the "D" variant, so that a second drive could be retrofitted. The 5,25" drives used were BASF 6138 type drives (double-sided, double density, 80 tracks per side, 96 tpi).

Variants

  • F1 - S Single 5.25" drive with power supply and custom NEC 765 based controller providing VDOS
  • F1 - D Double 5.25" drive with power supply and custom NEC 765 based controller providing VDOS
  • M1 - S Single 3.5" drive with power supply and custom NEC 765 based controller providing VDOS
  • M1 - D Double 3.5" drive with power supply and custom NEC 765 based controller providing VDOS


  • Vortex F1-D

  • Vortex F1-D Front view

  • Vortex F1-D Back view

  • Vortex F1 Manual

  • Vortex F1 System Utilities Disk

  • F1-D Interface (CPC 664)

  • F1-D Interface Board (CPC 664)

  • F1-D Interface Board (CPC 664)

  • F1-D Interface Board (CPC 6128)

A1-S Upgrade Kit

Vortex offered an upgrade kit consisting of a bare 5,25" drive (BASF 6138) and an installation manual, allowing to upgrade a single F1-S drive to a dual F1-D drive. To do this, one simply had to install the additional drive in the free slot of the drive case.

FDA-1 3" Drive Adapter

This adapter allows to use an external Amstrad FD-1 3" drive on Vortex F1/M1 setups connected to a CPC 464. Since only two drives can be used simultaneously, the 3" drive had to be manually selected first using RSX commands.

RSX Description
|S,1 Use 3" drive as drive A, upper Vortex drive is disabled
|S,2 Use 3" drive as drive B, lower Vortex drive is disabled
|S,0 Disable the 3" drive (default)

  • Adapter to connect an additional 3" disc drive in between a CPC 464 and a F1/M1

  • Inside the adapter box

  • Inside the adapter box (closeup)

FDC I/O Ports

All types of floppy disk controllers for the F1-S/F1-D/M1-S/M1-D range are based on the NEC 765 chip. The manual states that on "controllers having an integrated ROM module/eprommer" (probably the later 6128 interfaces?), the port addresses can be freely configured using a decoder ROM.

CPC 464:

Address Description
0xFB7E uPD control
0xFB7F uPD data
0xFA7E motor on/off

CPC 664/6128:

Address Description
0xFBF6 uPD control
0xFBF7 uPD data
0xFA7E motor on/off


Z-Drives (180K/side)

These are less expensive drives and were meant to be directly connected as B drive to a CPC 464 with DDI-1 or a CPC 664/6128. Since these drives do not ship with an own controller or a VDOS ROM, they do rely fully on AMSDOS and thus only 40 tracks can be accessed. The Z-drives were basically S-drives without a Vortex controller and CP/M license.

Variants

  • F1 - Z Single 5.25" drive with power supply with ribbon cable (does not come with interface containing FDC or VDOS)
  • M1 - Z Single 3.5" drive with power supply with ribbon cable (does not come with interface containing FDC or VDOS)

A1-Z Upgrade Kit

Vortex offered an upgrade kit consisting of a controller, manual, CP/M license and utility disk which upgraded a Z-Drive to a S-Drive.


X-Drives (720K)

These are the latest drives from Vortex for use with a CPC 464 with DDI-1 or a CPC 664/6128 (ie. on systems that already have a floppy disc controller); no additional controller was required anymore. Instead, a ROM module was supplied together with the drive, which provided VDOS 2.0-X. Only single-drive variants were available. The |S command (for accessing a third drive) is no longer used, the new |X command allows to swap drive A and B (same as X-DDOS from Dobbertin). These drives are very well designed and have solved many of the problems of the earlier series, especially in terms of compatibility.

Variants

  • F1 - X Single 80 track, Double Sided, 5.25" drive with power supply
  • M1 - X Single 80 Track, Double Sided, 3.5" drive with power supply
  • F1 - XRS same as F1-X, upgraded with RS232-C interface
  • M1 - XRS same as M1-X, upgraded with RS232-C interface


  • F1-X (CPC 664)

  • F1-X (CPC 664) backside

  • F1-X (CPC 664) backside, showing edge connector

  • F1-X (CPC 664) inside view

  • F1-X/M1-X manual and system utilities disk

  • M1-X (CPC 464)

  • M1-X (CPC 464) backside

  • M1-X (CPC 464) backside, showing IDC connector

  • M1-X (CPC 464) underside

  • M1-X (CPC 464) inside view, showing the drive and power

  • M1-X (CPC 464) inside view, close-up of the drive from above

  • M1-X (CPC 464) inside view, close-up from the backside

X(RS)-Modul

The X-drives for the CPC 664/6128 are connected directly to the floppy port. In order to provide VDOS, the "X-Modul" (sometimes also called "VDOS module") must be connected additionally to the expansion port. This contains a ROM board that provides a VDOS 2.0-X ROM and was also available with an additional RS232-C interface (in this case called "XRS-Modul"). The board supplied for the CPC 464 version came in a clunky housing in which both the "X(RS)-Modul" and the DDI-1 controller had to be installed.


  • X(RS)-Modul (CPC 464)

  • X(RS)-Modul with built-in DDI-1 visible (CPC 464)

  • XRS-Modul board beneath the DDI-1 (CPC 464)

  • X-Modul (CPC 6128)

  • X-Modul (CPC 6128) board

RS232 I/O Ports

The RS232-C interface of the "XRS-Modul" was advertised to be compatible with Amstrad/Pace interfaces, but offers only one channel (so no channel B).

Address Description
0xFADC SIO data (R/W)
0xFADD SIO control (R/W)
0xFBDC 8253 counter 0 (R/W)
0xFBDD 8253 counter 1 (R/W)
0xFBDF Mode word (W)
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