Commander X16

Edmond D wrote: ↑Sun Dec 22, 2024 6:54 pm

RulsanSoftware wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2024 1:59 pm Need CDDA on CX16's CD-ROM Add-on

Can I ask what is CCDA?

It is the initialism (not acronym) for CD Digital Audio. In other words: this lets you play music and audio CDs through the computer's speakers.

Usually, CD-ROM drives have a 4-pin analog audio output on the back. If you connect this output to the matching motherboard input, you can start a compact disc playing in the drive, and it will play though the computer's sound system, without using the host CPU. Some CD players even had an LCD panel and track selection controls on the front. Others sometimes had a single "Play" button. Either way, users could control CD playback from an app on the computer.

Thanks for the explanation Tom, as a Google of CDDA wasn't productive.

Building in a (music) CD player into an X16 system sounds possible. Like others state it's probably not going to happen unless someone takes up the challenge. I don't see al lot of interest or demand yet.

For myself, I bought an X16 to relive the 1980's experience; that included several limitations that are acceptable to me.

Commander X16 CD-ROM Add-on Idea is Good Idea

RulsanSoftware wrote: ↑Mon Dec 23, 2024 7:45 pm Commander X16 CD-ROM Add-on Idea is Good Idea

I never said it wasn't a good idea. Rather I stated my opinion that it wouldn't be something I wanted/needed.

Hmm, trigging that CD-play using VIA#2 sounds like an interesting challenge.

It's been awhile since I've played with those 4-pin connectors on the CD-ROM. Were they left/right audio only, or was it actual signal commands also? In otherwords, is the command to issue the "Play CD" command through that 4-pin connector or does it go through the PATA (IDE) connector?

So if that's all was meant by the X16 supporting CD audio - yea, that'd be neat (since yes, it should be self contained and the host CPU is not involved). The extra DC power connector on the picoITX PSU could be used to power the CD-ROM (some have Molex or SATA to Molex adapters, I've used it to power small DC LCDs).

Right, the host CPU isn't involved, it's just cueing the drive itself. Then features like Next/Skip, Pause, etc. But I'm not sure where a spec is (I guess the signals could be captured by an inline monitor).

voidstar wrote: ↑Tue Dec 24, 2024 12:31 amIt's been awhile since I've played with those 4-pin connectors on the CD-ROM. Were they left/right audio only, or was it actual signal commands also?

Just left/right line level audio and two ground pins. The drives came supplied with a lead to connect this output to an analogue input on a sound card, usually labeled "CD Audio." Some drives also had a separate two-pin connector for digital audio out, which could be connected to any coaxial S/PDIF DAC or amplifier input.

Later drives had the ability to extract digital audio and send it across the ATA bus, hence why applications like Windows Media Player on Windows 95 had a "digital CD audio" (or something to that effect) checkbox.

voidstar wrote: ↑Tue Dec 24, 2024 12:31 amIn otherwords, is the command to issue the "Play CD" command through that 4-pin connector or does it go through the PATA (IDE) connector?

You have to send an ATAPI command across the bus to control the drive.

voidstar wrote: ↑Tue Dec 24, 2024 12:31 amRight, the host CPU isn't involved, it's just cueing the drive itself.

This, incidentally, is how music (and even some sound effects) worked on many early PC and PlayStation 1 games; the game simply told the drive to play back the relevant audio track at the correct time. Tracks 2 onwards on such game CDs can be played in a regular audio CD player, track 1 being the actual game data in ISO format.

Later on, when CPUs became sufficiently powerful to handle compressed audio, in-game music started being shipped in the form of files on the data portion of the disc.

ahenry3068 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2024 10:21 pm An audio CD add-on might be cool. But it would be very niche....

Right, because the CX16 is so mainstream.

I'm with Voidstar and Ed. CDs have no place with 8-bit computers. Cassettes and floppies are the domain of this era.

mortarm wrote: ↑Fri Dec 27, 2024 6:25 am I'm with Voidstar and Ed. CDs have no place with 8-bit computers. Cassettes and floppies are the domain of this era.

This. A cassette interface is a lot more likely than a CD player. (It would not even be hard to support a Commodore Datasette, considering most of the hardware is in the tape drive.)

This isn't the first time I've seen CD-ROM support discussed. If someone wants to make such a thing and are capable of doing so, they should go for it. As most of what we're doing serves no practical purpose, it's all a bit of fun and there are no bad ideas.

What I like about the tape discussion is that there's no reason why the audio input would have to be an actual cassette tape, e.g. you could distribute software via YouTube videos (played on PC or smartphone). Though that would be best with a loader that can fill banked RAM and VRAM as well, even if doing so means it takes an hour to load. The anticipation!