Vortex Disc Drives

Disc drives from Vortex, with 80 tracks and 720K capacity (704K available).

Vortex -S and -D Drives (720K/disk)

F1 - S Single 5.25" drive with NEC765, with VDOS 1.0
F1 - D Double 5.25" drive with NEC765, with VDOS 1.0
M1 - S Single 3.5" drive with NEC765, with VDOS 1.0
M1 - D Double 3.5" drive with NEC765, with VDOS 1.0

These are the original drives from Vortex, for use on CPC 464. The hardware supports one or two 80 track drives, additionally a 3" FD-1 can be connected as third drive, ie. unlike most other CPC disk interfaces it supports more than 2 drives. VDOS only stores information for 2 drives at one time.

TO BE CONFIRMED: Does the interface fully decode US0/US1 from NEC765 and if you select unit 3 which drive is accessed.

Vortex -Z Drives (180K/side or 180K/disk?)

F1 - Z Single 5.25" drive without FDC, without VDOS
M1 - Z Single 3.5" drive without FDC, without VDOS

These are the Low-Capacity drives from Vortex, for use on CPC 664/6128 or CPC 464 with DDI-1 (ie. on computers that already have a FDC and AMSDOS). There doesn't seem to be anything special about this product, just an off-the-shelf disk drive, shipped with a CPC-specific connection cable.

AMSDOS can only access 40 tracks. TO BE CONFIRMED: Are the drives 80 track, double sided? Is there any way to access the second side with AMSDOS (e.g. side switch??)

Vortex -X Drives (720K/disk)

F1 - X Single 5.25" drive without FDC, with VDOS 2.0
M1 - X Single 3.5" drive without FDC, with VDOS 2.0 (not inside drive)
F1 - XRS same as F1-X, upgraded with RS232 interface
M1 - XRS same as M1-X, upgraded with RS232 interface

These are the newest drives from Vortex, for use on CPC 664/6128 or CPC 464 with DDI-1 (ie. on computers that already have a FDC). 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)

Vortex Add-ons

Vortex X modul (adding RS232 support to -X drives)
VDOS2.0 (upgrading older drives to VDOS 2.0)
Second drive unit (for upgrading a single -S drive to a dual -D drive)

I/O Ports

 Standard Addresses (same as used by AMSDOS):
   FB7Eh 765 FDC (internal) Status Register (R)
   FB7Fh 765 FDC (internal) Data Register (R/W)
   FA7Eh Floppy Motor On/Off Flipflop
 Special Addresses (secondary FDC):
   FBF6h 765 FDC (Vortex,ext) Status Register (Read)
   FBF7h 765 FDC (Vortex,ext) Data Register (R/W)
   FA7Eh Floppy Motor On/Off Flipflop (same as normal)
 (The Special addresses are mentioned in the manual
 for the Vortex -X drives) (but apparently they are referring
 to other/older Vortex drives, not the -X drives)

The Special addresses are used only on CPC 664/6128 and only if the Vortex drive includes an FDC chip.

The X drive has a different PCB than the PCB for the S, the manual describes connecting the DDI-1 interface to the X drive interface and a 'decoder-ROM' which defines the I/O decoding?

Note1: The -Z and -X drives do not include FDC chips.
Note2: The -S and -D drives do reportedly work only on CPC 464 (?).

So, not sure if/when the Special addresses are used at all?

 RS232 Ports (for -X drives with RS232)
   FADC/FADD=Serial Data/Control
   FBDC/FBDD/FBDF=Counter 0/1/Mode.
 So it's probably compatible with Amstrad/Pace 
 (and probably also including, but not using,
 Channel B Ports FADE/FADF and FBDE).

Vortex Disk Format

See VDOS

The Vortex -Z drives do not seem to include any VDOS ROM (so they do support only normal 40-Track AMSDOS Formats, but NOT the 80-Track Vortex format).