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 less expensive "Z" variant) was delivered with the same double-height casing as the "D" variant, so that a second drive could be retrofitted.

The F1-S, F1-D, M1-S, M1-D drives have their own FDC765 in the controller, and this one supports all DS0 up to DS3. The Vortex interface can manage 4 floppy drives in total.

F1-S and F1-D (5,25")

The F1-S and F1-D models are based on BASF 6138 (81690-001) type 5,25" disk drives, i.e. double-sided, 80 tracks per side, 96 tpi density.

  • F1-D

  • F1-D front view

  • F1-D backside

  • F1-D interface
    (CPC 664)

  • F1-D interface board (CPC 664)

  • F1-D interface board (CPC 664)

  • F1-D interface board (CPC 6128)

  • F1-S/D manual

  • F1-S/D system disk
    (CPC 464)

  • F1-S/D system disk
    (CPC 664/6128)

The floppy controller of the F1-D / F1-S was cloned by Hans Hübner of FutureSoft with MX4 connector and without ROM slot. It supports four drives. Under FutureOS they are named E-H.

A1-S Upgrade Kit (5,25")

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

  • BASF 6138 spare drive

M1-S and M1-D (3,5")

The M1-S and M1-D models are based on 3,5" disk drives. Controller and DOS were identical for 5,25" and 3,5" devices.

FDA-1 3" Drive Adapter

This adapter allows to connect an external FD-1 3" drive on Vortex F1/M1 setups on the CPC 464. Since only two drives can be used at the same time, the external 3" drive first had to be selected manually with the RSX command |S. This RSX command worked also with VDOS 2.11 on CPC6128.

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)

  • FDA-1 Adapter

  • Inside the adapter box

  • Inside the adapter box (closeup)

  • Plug (cable side)

  • FD-1 3" floppy drive plug

Clone of the F1-D controller

A clone of the F1-D controller was created by Hans Hübner of FutureSoft in 2024. The card fits on the Mother X4 board and doesn't contain an extra ROM slot. Using FutureOS this card allows to add four additional floppy disc drives to the CPC, being called E, F, G and H.

FDC I/O Ports

All types of floppy disk controllers for the F1-S/D and M1-S/D series 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

Downloads


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 ship neither with an own controller nor a VDOS ROM, they do rely fully on AMSDOS and thus only 40 tracks on one side can be accessed, resulting in the same capacity (180K/side) as the 3" drives.

F1-Z (5,25")

The F1-Z model is based on a later revision of the BASF 6138 type disk drive (81757-001), which offers more configuration options using jumpers. The drive was shipped in a "double step" configuration to use only 40 tracks, and thus the cheaper and more widely available DS DD floppy disks (48 tpi, 180K/side) could be used.

  • BASF AG 6138 (81757-001) drive

  • BASF AG 6138 (81757-001) 40 track jumper configuration

A1-Z Upgrade Kit (5,25")

Vortex offered an upgrade kit consisting of a controller, a manual, a CP/M license and an utility disk which allows a F1-Z drive to be upgraded to a F1-S drive.

M1-Z (3,5")

The M1-Z model is equipped with a single 3,5" disk 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).

F1-X and F1-XRS (5,25")

The F1-X model is based on either a single BASF 6138 (81690-001) or a single BASF 6139 5,25" disk drive. The BASF 6139 is a revisioned version which is slightly more compact (~1cm shorter), and also a number of electronical and mechanical design flaws that affected durability were corrected. The F1-XRS variant is equipped with an additional RS232-C interface.

  • F1-X

  • F1-X backside, showing IDC connector (CPC 464)

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

  • F1-X inside view, showing a BASF 6139 drive

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

M1-X and M1-XRS (3,5")

The M1-X model is based on a single NEC FD1035 type 3,5" disk drive. The M1-XRS variant is equipped with an additional RS232-C interface.

  • M1-X

  • M1-X backside

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

  • M1-X underside

  • M1-X inside view, showing the drive and power

  • M1-X inside view, close-up of the drive from above

  • M1-X 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. The ROM board supplied for the CPC 464 came together with a chunky housing in which both the "X-Modul" and the DDI-1 controller were installed. All variants were also available with an additional RS232-C interface (in this case called either "XRS-Modul" or "X-Modul/RS").

  • XRS-Modul (CPC 464)

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

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

  • XRS-Modul board backside (CPC 464)

  • X-Modul (CPC 6128)

  • X-Modul board (CPC 6128)

  • X-Modul board backside (CPC 6128)

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)
0xFBDE 8253 counter 2 (R/W)
0xFBDF Mode word (W)

Downloads


Software Accessories

DOSCOPY

DOSCOPY is a CP/M 2.2 utility which allows to read and write files from IBM and Atari ST formatted 5,25" disks. It was written in 1987 by Peter Höpfner.

  • DOSCOPY physical manual

  • DOSCOPY 5,25" disk

  • DOSCOPY screenshot

Downloads

PARA 3.0

PARA 3.0 is a CP/M 2.2 utility allowing to exchange files between the CPC and other CP/M based systems. It claims to support "reading, writing and formatting of 99% of all CP/M formats" and provides a comprehensive disk format analzer. It was written in 1987 by Peter Höpfner.

  • PARA 3.0 physical manual

  • PARA 3.0 5,25" disk

  • PARA 3.0 loading screen

Downloads

PARA 3.0 PLUS

PARA 3.0 PLUS (or PARA PLUS) is an enhanced distribution of PARA 3.0 which also integrates DOSCOPY 1.3 into a single software suite.

  • PARA 3.0+ loading screen

  • PARA 3.0+ main menu

  • PARA 3.0+ format analyzer

Downloads

  • PARA 3.0+ Language:german (Vortex 720k disk image, bootable)

SPARA

SPARA was either the predecessor or a cut-down version of PARA 3.0 and was supplied with the F1-Z drives, only supporting 40 track formats.

FileCopy

FileCopy 3.0 is a comprehensive tool to copy files with up to 16 different devices (using letters A to P), it supports the Vortex 704 KB format for 80 Track drives.


3rd Party Software

FutureOS

FutureOS has support for Vortex drives, it uses the Vortex 704 KB format for 80 Track drives.

ParaDOS

ParaDOS supports Vortex X-drives and can be used as a replacement for the VDOS-X ROM. There is also a patched version called VaraDOS, which is configured to use a Vortex X-drive as drive B per default. ParaDOS does not provide a way too boot CP/M from drive B.

House of Usher

Besides tape and 3 inch floppy disk release, the game House of Usher has been officially released on 5.25 inch floppy disk for the Schneider CPC with Vortex F1 floppy drive.

  • House of Usher ads.jpeg
  • House-of-usher-floppy-cover.png
  • House-of-usher-floppy-no-cover.png


Media Coverage

  • Schneider CPC International 1985/09

  • Schneider CPC International 1986/02

  • Schneider CPC International 1986/04

  • Schneider CPC International 1986/07

  • Schneider CPC International 1986/08

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