Theory of Operation: Modus Operandi

3. Theory of Operation
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    The A570 is meant to be an exact copy of the Commodore CDTV, or
Commodore Dynamic Total Vision multimedia player.  It has the specialized
ROM chip for CDTV functions, such as CDXL and other CD related libraries.
This ROM are merged into the A500.  On power up of the entire system, the
A570 takes control of the A500, checking for bootable floppy disks and
CDRoms.  It does not allow devices on the expansion bus to boot, taking all
priorities.  There is no way so far to disable this "feature".  If a boot
disk is found, either on floppy or on the special SCSI Hard Disk, never
sold by Commodore, but provisioned for, the A570 goes into an AmigaDOS
mode, which allows itself to be used as device CD0:

    Onboard is a custom CDRom interface to save money, running a
Matsushita (Panasonic) or Mitsumi raw mechanism.  Also onboard is the
standard CDTV mixer, which combines Amiga RCA and CDRom audio into one
stream.  Volume and mixing are both software controlled.

    There are two mysterious expansion ports, a 40 pin header which is
for a 2 MB RAM expansion, and a small slot port with space in the back for
a SCSI HD (no space that I can see, but this looked a like a module-type
design that you'd shove in, probably 2.5" GO Drive mechanism).  They are
mentioned in the manual, but according to CBM Canada, were never produced.
AmiTrix Development makes a thing called the A570 SCSI-TV which does the
same job.  CBM Canada has referred me to them, so give them a shout.