What is it?

The ALTAIR 8800 FDC+ is an enhanced version of the original MITS 8" floppy disk controller for the Altair 8800. The FDC+ is a 100% compatible drop-in replacement for the original two-board Altair FDC.

In addition to providing disk controller functions that operate with real 8" and 5.25" floppy drives, the FDC+ includes a built-in, high speed serial port that can connect to a PC running a serial disk server. From the perspective of the Altair computer and software, it appears that an Altair/Pertec drive is attached.

The ESP32 FDC+ Serial Drive Server ("ESP32-FDC-SDS") is a stand-alone device that supports the FDC+ Serial Drive Server Protocol. Your FDC+ no longer has to be connected to a PC in order to use the Serial Drive Server feature, which is a big plus for FDC+ users with Mac or Linux systems.

The ESP32-FDC-SDS has a command line interface for configuring the device. Disk images are stored on a microSD card. WiFi can be used to access the command line interface through telnet and transfer files with FTP. All FDC+ baud rates up to 460.8K are supported. The ESP32-FDC-SDS can be connected to the FDC+ serial port through the DE9 male connector or directly to the FDC+ using a 14-pin ribbon cable.

The ESP32-FDC-SDS includes the ESP32 board and a microSD card loaded with disk images.

Additional information can found on the Wiki.

The firmware is open source and is available on GitHub.

Free your FDC+ from having to be tethered to a Windows PC with the ESP32 FDC+ Serial Drive Server.

What is included on the microSD card?

• Altair Disk BASIC 4.0
• Altair Disk BASIC 4.1
• Altair Disk BASIC 5.0
• Altair DOS
• Burcon CP/M 2.2
• Lifeboat CP/M 2.2
• Serial CP/M 2.2
• 8MB CP/M 2.2
• FDC+ Serial Drive Server 1.4 and 1.51 for Windows