ICE Felix HC 2000
Between 1992 and 1994 the Romanian company ICE Felix manufactured the HC 2000 microcomputer that came with a built-in floppy disk drive and there was a version with a built-in tape recorder.
I managed to snatch one from a thrift shop, in my travels.
The HC 2000 was actually an HC-91 with internal disk interface and 3.5" floppy disk drive. Major hardware differences were a white larger case housing the floppy drive, and 64 KB of RAM of which 48 KB were available in Spectrum mode, and 56 KB in CP/M mode. Two 32 KB ROM chips were used, first one held the Spectrum BASIC, second the CP/M OS and IF1 disk interface.
The ROM also held specific commands to manage the diskettes (FORMAT, CAT, LOAD, SAVE, VERIFY, ERASE), as well as a RANDOMIZE USR 14446 which allowed to load the CP/M OS. At boot-up, a simple RUN command loaded and ran a ‘Run’ program (ancestor of MS-DOS ‘Autorun’) on the diskette.
Features
| Manufacturer | ICE Felix [archived website] |
| Country of origin | Romania |
| Manufactured | 1992 - 1994 |
| Built-in language | Sinclair BASIC |
| Keyboard | Full stroke 51 keys |
| CPU | Zilog Z80A |
| CPU frequency | 3.5 MHz |
| RAM | 64 KB |
| ROM | 48 KB (BASIC interpreter (16K), CP/M BIOS (8K) and IF1 disk interface (8K) |
| Text modes | 32 chars x 24 lines (Spectrum mode) - 80 chars x 25 lines (CP/M mode) |
| Graphic modes | 256 x 192 pixels |
| Colors | 16 (8 colours in normal or bright modes) |
| Sound | Beeper (10 octaves) |
| Dimensions | 50 (W) x 20 (D) x 6 (H) cm |
| I/O ports | TV/RF, RGB, Joystick, ZX-Expansion Bus, Tape recorder, Power supply, CCITT V24 serial interface (RS-232C), external floppy disk drive |
| Built-in media | 3.5" floppy drive unit / 720Kb |
| Operating System | Sinclair BASIC or CP/M |
| Power supply | External power supply unit, +5V (for TTL chips), +12V, -12V (for the serial interface) |
| PCB dimensions | 478 (W) x 183 (D) mm |
| Internal FDD | Toshiba LR56034 ND-352TH-A FDD4216G0K or compatible |
Connectors
| RS 232C connector | RGB connector | Joystick | Audio | Power |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |  |  |  |
| 1. CTS | 1. SHVL | 1. Left | 1. In (Mic) | 1. +5V |
| 2. DTR | 2. Ground | 2. Right | 2. Ground | 2. Ground |
| 3. RxData | 3. R (Red) | 3. Up | 3. Out (Ear) | 3. -12V |
| 4. TxData | 4. G (Green) | 4. Fire | 4. Not connected | 4. +12V |
| 5. Network | 5. BL (Blue) | 5. Not connected | 5. +5V | 5. +5V |
| 6. Serial ground | 6. Ground | 6. Not connected | 6. Ground | |
| 7. Serial ground | 7. Composite Out | 7. Joystick 1 select | 7. -12V | |
| 8. Serial ground | 8. Horizontal Sync | 8. Joystick 2 select | 8. +12V | |
| 9. Network ground | 9. Vertical Sync | 9. Down |
| Edge Connector | Floppy Disk |
|---|---|
 |   |
| A15 - 1. - A14 | 1. +12V |
| A13 - 2. - A12 | 2. +12V |
| D7 - 3. - +5v | 3. Ground |
| Not connected - 4. - CPM | 4. Ground |
| SLOT - 5. - SLOT | 5. +5V |
| D0 - 6. - Ground | 6. +5V |
| D1 - 7. - Ground | 7. Ground |
| D2 - 8. - CK | 8. INDEX |
| D6 - 9. - A0 | 9. Ground |
| D5 - 10. - A1 | 10. DS0 (DS1 on external FD connector) |
| D3 - 11. - A2 | 11. Ground |
| D4 - 12. - A3 | 12. DS1 (DS0 on external FD connector) |
| INTL - 13. - IORGE | 13. Ground |
| NMIL - 14. - Ground | 14. DS0 (DS1 on external FD connector) |
| HALTL - 15. - Not connected | 15. Ground |
| MREQL - 16. - Not connected | 16. DS1 (DS0 on external FD connector) |
| IORQL - 17. - Not connected | 17. Ground |
| RDL - 18. - Not connected | 18. DIR |
| WRL - 19. - BUSRAQL | 19. Ground |
| Not connected - 20. - RESETL | 20. STEP |
| WAITL - 21. - A7 | 21. Ground |
| Not connected - 22. - A6 | 22. WRDATA |
| Not connected - 23. - A5 | 23. Ground |
| M1L - 24. - A4 | 24. WREN |
| RFSHL - 25. - ROMCS | 25. Ground |
| A8 - 26. - BUSACKL | 26. TRACK0 |
| A10 - 27. - A9 | 27. Ground |
| Not connected - 28. - A11 | 28. PROT |
| 29. Ground | |
| 30. RDDATA | |
| 31. Ground | |
| 32. SIDE | |
| 33. Ground | |
| 34. Not connected |
Schematic
| Video RGB & composite connector | 9-pin female D-Sub DE-9 | |
| Sinclair joystick connector | 9-pin male D-Sub DE-9 | |
| Tape connector | 5-pin male DIN | |
| Power connector | ||
| Serial port | 9-pin female D-Sub DE-9 | |
| External FDD power connector | Usually not mounted | |
| FDD connectors | 34 pins, external connector usually not mounted, just internal one | |
| Reset button | ||
| Zilog Z80 CPU [ ? ] | Zilog Z084004PSC CPU | |
| HC 2000 ROM [ ? ] | Intel D27256 EPROM 256K-Bit 250ns Production UV Erasable PROM | |
| HC 2000 RAM | Intersil ICM44C64-80 | |
| FDD ROM [ ? ] | Intel D27256 EPROM 256K-Bit 250ns Production UV Erasable PROM | |
| FDD RAM [ ? ] | Hyundai HY6116ALP-10 2048 x 8 Bit CMOS Static RAM | |
| Floppy Disk controller [ ? ] | CM609P 8839, Bulgarian clone of Intel 8272 | |
| ZX Spectrum edge connector [ ? ] |
Connecting to a display
Unless you want to use the ICE Felix display or a TV tuner, you can use the RGB video connector from the HC 2000 to convert the signal to VGA (CGA to VGA converter). One that is cheap and easy to use is Gonbes GBS-8220 CGA/EGA/YUV to VGA converter (manual). Besides the converter, you will need a cable with a D-SUB 9 pin male connector at one side, that gets plugged into the HC 2000. The connections should be as following:
- Red Video to Red Wire (R)
- Green Video to Green Wire (G)
- Blue Video to Blue Wire (B)
- Horizontal Sync to Gray Wire (S)
- Vertical Sync to Yellow Wire (VS)
- Ground to Black Wire
Another option is to take Composite Out (pin 7 from the D-Sub DE-9 video connector) and ground (pin 2) and route them to SCART or RCA connectors. If you’re going for a D-Sub DE-9 to RCA cable, pin 2 (DE-9) should go to RCA barrel and pin 7 (DE-9) to RCA central pin. A D-Sub DE-9 to SCART cable should connect pin 2 (DE-9) to pin 17 (SCART) and pin 7 (DE-9) to pin 19 (SCART).
Connecting to a PC using RS232 serial
Create a passive adapter to match the HC serial port pins to PC ones, 9-pin male D-Sub DE-9 connectors are required.
| HC | PC |
|---|---|
| 1 CTS | 7 RTS |
| 2 RTS | 8 CTS |
| 3 RxData | 3 Tx |
| 4 TxData | 2 Rx |
| 6 GND | 5 GND |
And use this program to transfer the file(s).
Power Supply Unit
In case the original PSU unit is missing, or damaged, or you dislike having the 2kg brick around your desk, you can replace it with a Cisco 34-0874-01 PSU, provided you feel comfortable soldering the HC connector to it.
The Cisco PSU carries the following voltages and ratings:
- +5v: 3A
- +12v: 2A
- -12v: 0.2A
It has 6 wires within the cable, and the wires are color coded as follows:
| Cisco PSU wire color | Description | HC pin(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Black | Two wires, both are ground, solder them together | 2 and 6 |
| Orange | +12V | 4 and 8 |
| Green | -12V | 3 and 7 |
| Red | +5V | 1 and 5 |
| White | Remote on/off | Not connected |
| Blue | Return for remote on/off signal | Not connected |
The white and blue wires must be soldered together in order for the PSU to supply voltage.
Manuals
The manuals are in Romanian for obvious reasons so you’ll need a way to translate them.
Photos
Click on one of the images for a higher resolution photo.
Useful links
- HC-2000 at old-computers.com
- East-European home-computer
- Floppy drive to USB emulator
- FlashFloppy
- HCDisk
- Disk images in .DSK format for GoTek and Flash Floppy
- ZX Spectrum compatible keyboard with MX Cherry keys
- HC2000 rebuild project
- Serial port transfer tool between PCs and ICE Felix HCs
- Serial communication for HC-91 with IF-1
- Quick and affordable manufacturing for your electronic project
- JLCPCB
- Interface 1bis for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum