Speed DOS

Speed DOS and Speed DOS plus is likely the best known speeder based on ROM replacements for the C64. Developed by "O.Eikemeier" and "O.Joppich" it was released late 1984. The hardware was produced by the german company Elektronik Service – Christoph Dichte and their website states:

1984

Der legendäre Floppy-Beschleuniger "Speed DOS" für die damalige Commodore C64er-Reihe wird in unserem Haus gefertigt und vertrieben.

which translates to:

1984

The legendary Floppy-Speeder "Speed DOS" for the Commodore C64e line is produced and shipped by our company.

The space required on the Kernal ROM was gained by removing tape and RS-232 routines. Speed DOS requires a parallel cable and a modified disk drive ROM next to the C64 Kernal ROM replacement to fully operate. The name Speed DOS was spread a lot due to many programs (mainly copiers) picking it up often when a parallel cable was required.

Even though many people know the name of this ROM the user base is probably near zero nowadays and most people looking into adding a speeder to their system would probably turn towards Jiffy DOS. Speed DOS was rather popular in the 80s due to it being easily cloneable by just copying the ROMs, getting Kernal switching boards and adding the parallel cable to the drive. Still it is a quite slow speeder easily outrun by about anything else but the parallel cable adds additional value when using copiers supporting it (and probably even REUs).

Functionality

• DOS Wedge (@) and protect/unprotect of files
• Basic monitor (M, G, L, S, @ and X) and modified reset routine
• F-Keys
• Start and end address output
• Changed LIST handling
• OLD function

http://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/firmware/drives/new/1541/hacks/1541-II-SpeedDOS.txt

Versions:

SD / SD+ / 35 & 40 tracks - hungarian patching available.

Headbanger did the loader as standalone loader ?

Binaries

tbd

Software

• Speed DOS+ Mr.Zeropage version (included on above package)
• Speed DOS stand alone loader
• Speeddos Double Disk Drive Copy V2.0
• Speeddoscopy
• Flack Turbo +70%

Weblinks

• Speed DOS vs. Prologic DOS german "reprint" of an article from 64'er October 1985, pages 28-29
• Rants on Speed DOS during attempted SD2IEC implementation