1541 Ultimate-II

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1541 Ultimate-II
U-II-Plus
Type: -
Producer: Gideon’s Logic Architectures
Price: N/A
Released: 2016
Discontinued: -
Processor: -
Memory: -
OS: -
Info: Ultimate-II+


The Ultimate-II (Ultimate-II+ since 2016) is a Commodore 64 plug-in hardware device from Gideon’s Logic Architectures that emulates a Commodore 1541 dual floppy disk drive and a host of C64 cartridges. It allows programs and games to load from standard USB memory sticks / external hard disks, but it also features 3 USB ports, Ethernet, integrated speaker, flash upgrading, and dual-SID.



Description[edit | edit source]

The Ultimate-II+ supplies lots of handy features:

Filesystem

  • .D64 and .G64 formats
  • Licensed JiffyDOS ROM
  • Configurable ROM (1541/1541C/1541II or custom)
  • Load .TAP files to C64
  • Capture tape data from C64 to .TAP file
  • Capture tape data from a datasette and store it as .TAP file
  • Write .TAP files back to tape, using a Commodore tape deck
  • FAT/FAT32 support, with sub-directories and long filenames
  • ISO9660 support with Joliet, for reading .ISO files and access external CD/DVD drives through USB
  • Command Interface module with UltimateDOS
  • Includes a licensed JiffyDOS ROM file installed from Retro Innovation, giving the same loading speeds a real JiffyDOS modded 1541.

Audio

  • Stereo audio output
  • Dual SID implementation, optionally 8 voices each
  • Up to 7 voices of sampled audio simultaneously
  • Built-in SID player

Cartridge

  • Final Cartridge III
  • Action Replay
  • Retro Replay
  • Super Snapshot
  • Turbo Assembler w/ Codenet
  • Epyx Fastloader
  • Custom 8K/16K carts
  • Custom Ocean / System3 carts (up to 512K)

Hardware

  • Battery-backed up Real Time Clock
  • Serial port

Memory

  • RAMBOard memory expansion (up to 40K)

The three top-mounted buttons supply additional features:

  • Left: Freeze
  • Middle: Disk access
  • Right: Reset

The colored LED lights display status:

  • Red: Drive status
  • Yellow: Cartridge activity
  • Green: Storage activity

Models[edit | edit source]

The Ultimate has passed through four development stages, each adding extra features: Ultimate (2008), Ultimate II (2010), Ultimate II+(2016), Ultimate-64 (2019), which completely replaces the C64 mainboard inside the case and supplies HDMI for direct connection to modern monitors.

Links[edit | edit source]