GoTek Floppy Emulator
With good floppy drives hard to come by, to say nothing of blank diskettes, an alternative is needed. A GoTek drive with Flash Floppy firmware update is capable of reading and writing disk formats as used by SK*DOS, REX and OS9. The GoTek uses USB memory sticks to store images of floppy disks and can hold thousands of disk images on a single USB stick. The images can be emailed as well as downloaded over the internet. We supply boot disk images for the GoTek, so you will need to have at least one GoTek in your system. GoTek's are available from Amazon for about $30; the Flash floppy firmware is free; an OLED display adds a few dollars but is a necessity so you can see the name of the disk you are selecting. Otherwise you are selecting the disks by a number and not by the name of the disk image.
The instructions for flashing the firmware and adding the OLED display can be found here - https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy/wiki
You may use a real floppy drive with a GoTek should you have a need to read or write real diskettes.
SK*DOS
The Humbug Monitor will support RS232, Monochrome and CGA monitors. VGA is not supported. With the optional HD floppy controller all disk sizes between 320K and 1.4MB are supported. Hard disk support is either for the WD1002A-HDO or Western Digital XT MFM controller cards.
REX
Rex will support RS232, CGA, EGA and VGA. The list of EGA and VGA cards supported has been lost. All CGA cards should work but only cards containing a ET4000 chip will work and not all cards containing a ET4000 will work. Rex will support floppies from 320K to 1.4MB. 1.2MB/1.4MB requires the use of the FD-3765 HD floppy controller. HD support is either a XT-IDE controller card that was produced in the 90's or a Western Digital MFM XT controller card.
Hard Disk support for IDE drives for REX or SK*DOS
There is no support for the PT-XTIDE controller card at present. Source code for both REX and SK*DOS is available and it would be possible to modify these operating systems to support the PT-XTIDE controller card. Source code for the PT-XTIDE controller for OS9 could be used as a guide.
OS9
OS9 will work with RS232, Monochrome, CGA, EGA and VGA cards. The list of EGA and VGA cards supported has been lost. All CGA cards should work but only cards containing a ET4000 chip will work and not all cards containing a ET4000 will work.
OS9 hard disk drivers have been updated to support modern IDE drives with the PT-XTIDE controller card. A new boot ROM allows OS9 to boot from this controller.
The XTIDE controller card will support SD,CF, SSD, SATA or rotational hard drives. You will need an appropriate adapter to connect between the IDE port and your drive choice. For example a SD memory card to IDE adapter. Numerous examples of this adapter can be purchased on Amazon for between $10 and $20. SATA to IDE adapters are also readily available on Amazon.
Downloads
Click here for PT68K2 User Manual
Click here for PT68K2 Brochure PT68K2 Historical Product Brochure - The address and telephone number are not valid.
SK*DOS
Humbug_68K_1987.pdf Humbug Users Manual
SK_DOS_68K_Users_Manual_1988.pdf SK*DOS Users manual
68000 Hardware Manual.pdf This manual is a combination of the Radio Electronics Articles and a course taught by Peter Stark using the PT68K2.
Click here for PT68K2.Boot.SKDOS.IMA GoTek image file for SK*DOS - boots on 1772 Floppy controller
Click here for PT68K2/3765.Boot.SKDOS.IMA GoTek image file for SK*DOS - boots on 3765 Floppy controller
OS9
OS9 - 68K V2.4 Users Manual.pdf
OS9 - 68K V2.4 Technical Manual.pdf
OS9 - 68K V2.4 Technical IO.pdf
As of 11/13/21 there is one PT68K2-10 in stock - There are 7 boards left - Production is limited to 2 boards per month.
PT68K2-10 | PT68K2 System Board 10 MHZ - assembled with 1MB 100ns memory | $399 |
PT68K2-12 | PT68K2 System Board 12.5 MHZ - assembled with 1MB 100ns memory | $450 |
PT-XTIDE-K2 | IDE controller card, XT slot for PT68K2, Works only with OS9, no SK*DOS or REX support | $39 |
PT-XTIDE-K2-32GB | IDE Controller with SD memory to IDE adapter,32GB card, OS9 Pre-loaded | $59 |
K5-RS232/VGA/KBD | Use a VGA monitor and PS/2 keyboard on one of the RS232 Ports | $33 |
K5-RS232/VGA/USB | Use a VGA monitor and USB keyboard on one of the RS232 Ports | $33 |
FD-3765 | High Density floppy controller ,Plugs in XT slot uses 3765 controller chip | $30 |
OS9/68020 | Professional OS9 V2.4 for PT68K5, Includes K&R C, Editor, Assembler, Linker, BASIC and over 80 utilities | $299.00 |
SK*DOS | SK*DOS Operating system | $99 |
REX | REX Operating system, supports VGA - Free - sold for $10 to cover copying manuals and disks | $10 |
CLIBV3.2 | C Graphics Library for K&R V3.2 (Includes Source) | $50 |
CLIB-ULTRA | C Graphics Library for Ultra C (Includes Source) | $50 |
BASIC | BASIC for REX Operating System | $10 |
BASICSRC | Source Code for BASIC on 1.4MB Diskette | $20 |
SCULPTOR | CloseOut - Version 1.14:6 (No support) | $50 |
REXSRC | Source for REX Operating System | $10 |