Changes

Multiple mass-storage, RTC and network solutions already exist for the Amstrad CPC. We can put them in 3 categories:*Historical: The [[Dobbertin Harddisc|Dobbertin HD20]] with [[Dobbertin Smart Watch]] is were sold during the commercial lifetime of the true historical solutionCPC. But it's this solution is clumsy to use with 4 partitions of 5MB each and no FAT filesystem. While it clearly has historical value, is it still relevant to the community today?*Historically-plausible: The [[Symbiface II]] IDE/PATA mass-storage or [[X-Mass]] with [[Nova]] NVRAM/RTC is the historically-plausible solution , as the IDE/PATA interface was created in 1986. But it's a lie fake as the IDE interface was effectively introduced on the CPC with the [[CPC-IDE]] prototype in 2004, and the Symbiface II being available in 2006. Also, these devices don't offer any network support.*Modern: [[Symbiface 3]], [[Albireo]], [[M4 Board]] and [[ULIfAC]] are the modern solutions that feed as they give the CPC a direct file view of the mass-storage instead of a sectors view. So the FAT filesystem does not need to be handled on the CPC itself. It's overall a simpler, more convenient approach. And it is definitely , more future-proofapproach. But that means throwing away historical pretense.*Symbiface 3 is really pushing limits. So much that it denatures the CPC by bringing an onboard mp3 player. On the other hand, it has really nice features like the concept of rombanks. It also emulates old peripherals like the Dobbertin HD20, SSA-1, AmDrum The Albireo and Digiblaster.*Albireo could potentially provide low-level modem-like access to internet via SLIP which means having the IP stack on ULIfAC don't have a NetAPI unlike the CPC side instead of it being done by the peripheral like in the M4 board, Symbiface 3 and having a bridge server on the other side. But it would not be convenient. Also, just like the X-Mass, the Albireo does not provide RTC functionality.*M4 Board is [https://unidos.cpcscene.net/doku.php?id=en%3Aannexes And the fastest measured solution for mass-storage on the CPC]. It Symbiface 3 is a very complete and convenient solution going overboard with NTP-based RTC and Wifi network and very future-proof. But that means sacrificing historical pretense as the M4 board does all the hard work regarding the filesystem and network protocols for the CPC. As the Internet stack was never to be implemented on the CPC during its commercial lifetime anyway, does historical pretense matter for that kind of stuff?*ULIfAC is the newest one. Seems quite like an M4 Board, but is not compatible with it. The hardware and software are different. The ULIfAC emulates the floppy-drive at a lower level than the M4, offering better compatibility. On the other hand, the M4 handles CPR files while the ULIfAC does not. Also, the M4 provides a NetAPI for accessing the Internet while the ULIfAC does notembedded MP3 player.

The problem is that all these multiple solutions are incompatible and are fragmenting the CPC community. That means we have less compatible CPC software, and we get needless complexity and confusion for users and developers. Currently, the choice is as follows: