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TriBlade Prop PCB: Uses 3 Propeller ICs for a Single Board Computer (SBC) - Page 8 — Parallax Forums

TriBlade Prop PCB: Uses 3 Propeller ICs for a Single Board Computer (SBC)

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Comments

  • Dr_AculaDr_Acula Posts: 5,484
    edited 2009-08-17 08:02
    Ok, using Cluso's 'james' files for the moment:
    1) I edited z.bat to this:

    homespun024 zicog_demo009_rr092_james2 -b -d -i3 -w
    zicog_demo009_rr092_james2.binary
    pause

    This speeds up the compilation process. Edit the spin in the Prop tool or notepad. Save the file. Run z.bat. Double click on the 'load eeprom'
    Shut down the prop tool. Run the terminal program.

    2) One nifty thing about the zicog is debugging. I have DRIVE__I.DSK added to the list
    #else
      FindDriveBase(0, string("DRIVE__A.DSK"))              'set the SD card drive base(s)   CPM2.2
      FindDriveBase(1, string("DRIVE__B.DSK"))              'set the SD card drive base(s)
      FindDriveBase(2, string("DRIVE__C.DSK"))              'set the SD card drive base(s)
      FindDriveBase(3, string("DRIVE__D.DSK"))              'set the SD card drive base(s)
      FindDriveBase(4, string("DRIVE__E.DSK"))              'set the SD card drive base(s)
      FindDriveBase(5, string("DRIVE__F.DSK"))              'set the SD card drive base(s)
      FindDriveBase(6, string("DRVCPM_2.DSK"))              'set the SD card drive base(s)   CPM2.2
      FindDriveBase(7, string("DRVCPM_3.DSK"))              'set the SD card drive base(s)   CPM3
      FindDriveBase(8, string("DRIVE__I.DSK"))              'set the SD card drive base(s)   8MB   
    #endif
    
    


    Then add some debugging capture to the ports that don't exist yet (two new lines near the bottom to print the port and the byte)

    'Handle Z80 IO port reads
      case io_port
        srport:                                      'Altair front panel switches register
          in_srport
        simhport:                                    'SIMH control port
          in_simhport          
        constat:                                     'Console status port.
          in_constat
        condata:                                     'Console data port
          in_condata
        statin:                                      'Altair disk status port
          in_statin
        secpos:                                      'Altair disk sector position port
          in_secpos
        dskread:                                     'Altair disk read port 
          in_dskread
        n8vem_uart_test:                            ' test port $6D
          in_test_n8vem                             ' is a byte ready returns 0 for no byte, 1 for a byte
        n8vem_uart_in:                              ' ask for input from port $68
          in_uart_n8vem                             ' get the byte
    #ifdef hdskenable
        hdskport:
          in_hdskport                                'SIMH style hard disk port
    #endif
        other:
          UART.transmitCharacters(string("Read from unimplemented I/O Port &H"))
          printhex(io_port)
          UART.transmitCharacters(string(" with byte &H"))
          printhex(io_data)
          UART.transmitCharacters(string(13,10))
          io_data := 0
      io_command := 0         
    
    


    and
    PRI on_output
    'Handle Z80 IO port writes
      case io_port
        ledport:                                     'An 8 bit parallel output with LEDs attached
          out_ledport          
        simhport:                                    'SIMH control port
          out_simhport
        condata:                                     'Console data port
          out_condata
        constat:                                     'Console status port
          out_constat
        punstat:
          out_punstat                                'Punch control port
        selout:                                      'Altair disk controller select port
          out_selout
        dskcon:                                      'Altair disk function port
          out_dskcon
        dskwrit:                                     'Altair disk write port
          out_dskwrit
        n8vem_uart_out:                              ' &H68                                            
          out_n8vem_byte
    #ifdef hdskenable
        hdskport:
          out_hdskport                               'SIMH style hard disk port
    #endif
        other:
          UART.transmitCharacters(string("Write to unimplemented I/O Port &H"))
          printhex(io_port)     ' print the port number for debugging
          UART.transmitCharacters(string(" with byte &H"))
          printhex(io_data)
          UART.transmitCharacters(string(13,10))
      io_command := 0                                 'Set flag ready for next io
    
    




    And now try to get into drive I. It prints out the following:


    Write to unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &H02
    Write to unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &H00
    Write to unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &H00
    Write to unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &H06
    Write to unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &H00
    Write to unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &H39
    Write to unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &HF7
    Read from unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &HF7
    Write to unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &H02
    Write to unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &H00
    Write to unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &H01
    Write to unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &H06
    Write to unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &H00
    Write to unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &H39
    Write to unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &HF7
    Read from unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &HF7
    Write to unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &H02
    Write to unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &H00
    Write to unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &H02
    Write to unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &H06
    Write to unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &H00
    Write to unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &H39
    Write to unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &HF7
    Read from unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &HF7
    Write to unimplemented I/O Port &HFD with byte &H02

    etc

    Then tried uncommenting this line
    #define hdskenable 'Uncomment for hard disk support
    and added this line
    PRI in_hdskport_read | r
    'Handle read from hdskport during a disk read command
    'This read triggers the actual disk sector transfere
    'and must return an error code.
    'N.B. sectors are mapped to blocks 1 to 1
      UART.transmitCharacters(string("hdisk read "))
    
    


    and it then gets to hdisk read.

    But further down
    PRI in_hdskport_write
    'Handle read from hdskport during a disk write command
    'This read triggers the actual disk sector transfere
    'and must return an error code.
    'N.B. sectors are mapped to blocks 1 to 1
      if hdsk_check_dts                                 'Check drive, track and sector are sane
        io_data := $FF                                  'Return error if not
        return
    #ifdef TriBladeProp
      '???
    #else
    
    



    Not sure what the '??? means, at this point I'm stuck. Any help would be most appreciated.

    Post Edited (Dr_Acula) : 8/17/2009 8:15:47 AM GMT
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,066
    edited 2009-08-17 08:39
    Sorry James... this is over to heater as I didn't know what to do.

    But, do we really require hard disks (hence code complexity) if we can up the floppies size to 8MB (or indeed 32MB if we up the sectorsize to 512B)??? There is really no difference between floppies and hard drives as they are all being emulated on the one SD card anyway. That was one objective in choosing the fixed size of 32MB. So 8x32MB=256MB which should be fine for CPM, and remember, we can always add a routine to remount (remap) a floppy to a different file anyway.

    Next thing James is to get the bst compiler running - no code changes required. It has the editor and downloader inbuilt plus a teminal program to boot! However, I cannot get bst to recognise my USB port under Vista. It will archive everything too. If you have an issue with the font, download and install the latest PropTool 1.2.6 which fixes it.

    I have been looking at the SD drivers this afternoon.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Links to other interesting threads:

    · Home of the MultiBladeProps: TriBladeProp, RamBlade, TwinBlade,·SixBlade, website
    · Single Board Computer:·3 Propeller ICs·and a·TriBladeProp board (ZiCog Z80 Emulator)
    · Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)
    · Emulators: Micros eg Altair, and Terminals eg VT100 (Index) ZiCog (Z80), MoCog (6809)
    · Search the Propeller forums (via Google)
    My cruising website is: ·www.bluemagic.biz·· MultiBladeProp is: www.bluemagic.biz/cluso.htm
  • Dr_AculaDr_Acula Posts: 5,484
    edited 2009-08-17 09:45
    But, do we really require hard disks (hence code complexity) if we can up the floppies size to 8MB (or indeed 32MB if we up the sectorsize to 512B)??? There is really no difference between floppies and hard drives as they are all being emulated on the one SD card anyway

    Ah, so floppies can go to 8mb? How do you do that? I'm getting only 984k (see at the bottom) - is that right?
    A>dirx
    
    Name    Ext Bytes   Name    Ext Bytes   Name    Ext Bytes   Name    Ext Bytes
    ASM     COM    8K ! EXZ80ALLCOM   12K ! SBASIC  COM   26K ! UNERA   COM    2K
    BASICLIBREL   42K ! EXZ80DOCCOM   12K ! SHOWSEC COM    4K ! UNLOAD  COM    2K
    BOOT    COM    2K ! FORMAT  COM    2K ! SID     COM    8K ! USERLIB REL    2K
    BOOTGEN COM    2K ! HALT    COM    2K ! SPEED   COM    2K ! USQ     COM    2K
    CCPZ    TXT   40K ! HDIR    COM    2K ! STAT    COM    6K ! W       COM    4K
    CONIN   ASM    2K ! L80     COM   12K ! SUBMIT  COM    2K ! WS      COM    8K
    COPY    COM    2K ! LOAD    COM    2K ! SUPERSUBCOM    4K ! WS      OVR   52K
    CPU     COM    2K ! M80     COM   20K ! SURVEY  COM    2K ! WSMSGS  OVR   14K
    DD      TXT    2K ! MBASIC  COM   24K ! SYSCOPY COM    2K ! XFORMAT COM    4K
    DDT     COM    6K ! NEW     BAS    2K ! SYSCPM2 SUB    2K ! XMODEMP COM    4K
    DDTZ    COM   10K ! NEW     COM    4K ! SYSCPM2ZSUB    2K ! XMODEMQ COM    4K
    DIR     TXT    2K ! OVERLAYBCOM    8K ! TEST    BAK    2K ! XSUB    COM    2K
    DIRX    COM    4K ! PACMAN95COM   18K ! TEST    TXT    2K ! ZASM    SUB    2K
    DUMP    COM    2K ! PIP     COM    8K ! TIMER   COM    2K ! ZSID    COM   10K
    ED      COM    8K ! R       COM    4K ! TS      SUB    2K ! ZTRAN4  COM    4K
    EX8080  COM   12K ! RSETSIMHCOM    2K ! UNCR    COM    8K
    63 File(s), occupying 472K of 984K total capacity
    182 directory entries and 512K bytes remain on A:
    A>
    
    
  • heaterheater Posts: 3,370
    edited 2009-08-17 09:50
    Dr_A: Your hard disk investigations look good so far. I will try very hard to have a few hours free to help with this this evening (7 hours away here)
    I have to remind myself how it was all supposed to work!

    Cluso: I think we should stick to the idea of having the 8 SIMH compatible floppy disks and up to 4 SIMH compatible hard disks. Because then:

    1) We don't need to create and maintain a customized BIOS to create new sizes of floppy disks
    2) All disks can be compatible with SIMH, just drop them into ZiCog and they work.
    3) The SIMH hard drives use DMA rather than fetching individual bytes. Should be faster. Floppies do not unless we change the BIOS (See 1)
    4) The SIMH style hard drives can be customised (size, geometry) on the fly in Spin with no CP/M BIOS hacking. Just change the disk parameter table.
    5) RAM disk should be hard drives and use the disk parameter table for definition.
    6) All the code is in place already and most of it has been shown to work already.

    Think that's about it[noparse]:)[/noparse]

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    For me, the past is not over yet.
  • heaterheater Posts: 3,370
    edited 2009-08-17 09:54
    Dr_A: Making the floppies bigger requires changes to the CBIOSX.
    I'd rather not get into that. I'd like to be able to run all the SIMH CP/M with no or as few changes as possible.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    For me, the past is not over yet.
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,066
    edited 2009-08-17 09:59
    James: I think that size comes from the floppy size on the SIMH disk. You could try a format of one of the blank drives an see what that gives (I have done this before).

    Heater: OK sounds great. We should therefore set the sector size to 512Bytes. Does 4x32MB drives sound good or do you want them bigger ??

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Links to other interesting threads:

    · Home of the MultiBladeProps: TriBladeProp, RamBlade, TwinBlade,·SixBlade, website
    · Single Board Computer:·3 Propeller ICs·and a·TriBladeProp board (ZiCog Z80 Emulator)
    · Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)
    · Emulators: Micros eg Altair, and Terminals eg VT100 (Index) ZiCog (Z80), MoCog (6809)
    · Search the Propeller forums (via Google)
    My cruising website is: ·www.bluemagic.biz·· MultiBladeProp is: www.bluemagic.biz/cluso.htm
  • heaterheater Posts: 3,370
    edited 2009-08-17 10:07
    Yes, for hard disks sector size should match the SD block size to make best use of the SD card and the virtual DMA for speed.

    If I remember correctly 32M is the limit for CP/M 2 but we can go much bigger for CP/M 3.
    What I have been fishing for is a CP/M guru is knows how to tweak the disk parameter tables to do this.
    Not to mention suitable params for a RAM disk.

    If we can't find a guru it's back to studying the CP/M customization manuals....

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    For me, the past is not over yet.
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,066
    edited 2009-08-17 10:11
    OK, lets limit it to 32MB disks. They are done already and the same will work for CPM2 & 3

    I am not sure about virtual DMA. Remember, the sram is shared with the SD card so we cannot actually implement this as it will be way too slow!!!

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Links to other interesting threads:

    · Home of the MultiBladeProps: TriBladeProp, RamBlade, TwinBlade,·SixBlade, website
    · Single Board Computer:·3 Propeller ICs·and a·TriBladeProp board (ZiCog Z80 Emulator)
    · Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)
    · Emulators: Micros eg Altair, and Terminals eg VT100 (Index) ZiCog (Z80), MoCog (6809)
    · Search the Propeller forums (via Google)
    My cruising website is: ·www.bluemagic.biz·· MultiBladeProp is: www.bluemagic.biz/cluso.htm
  • Dr_AculaDr_Acula Posts: 5,484
    edited 2009-08-17 10:33
    I tried creating a blank 32mb file (=8mb drive) which makes DRIVE__Z.CPM in the vb6 program and then renamed it DRIVE__B.DSK
    but it still comes up as less than a mb.

    Attached is the little DIRX program as this gives the space used and the space left and the directory. Sort of a combination of stat and dir

    Then I read heaters comment. Does that mean drives A-H are 1mb and I, J, K L are 8mb each?

    I see a parameter in the spin code that limits the number of drives to 8 - is that relevant?

    'The following taken from SIMH Altair simulator CBIOSX.MAC
    ndisks = 8 ' total number of Altair disks

    The N8VEM parameter blocks seem different - not sure if this will be relevant or not but these are the parameter blocks for the 448k ram disk
    1mb rom disk, 8mb hard disk and a 1mb hard disk. But perhaps stick with the simh ones

    DPBLK0:                ; DISK PARAMETER BLOCK (ROMDISK 32KB WITH 16 2K TRACKS, 22K usable)
    SPT_0:    .DW  16            ; 16 SECTORS OF 128 BYTES PER 2K TRACK
    BSH_0:    .DB  3            ; BLOCK SHIFT FACTOR (SIZE OF ALLOCATION BLOCK)
    BLM_0:    .DB  7            ; PART OF THE ALLOCATION BLOCK SIZE MATH
    EXM_0:    .DB  0            ; DEFINES SIZE OF EXTENT (DIRECTORY INFO)
    DSM_0:    .DW  31            ; BLOCKSIZE [noparse][[/noparse]1024] * NUMBER OF BLOCKS + 1 = DRIVE SIZE
    DRM_0:    .DW  31            ; NUMBER OF DIRECTORY ENTRIES
    AL0_0:    .DB  10000000        ; BIT MAP OF SPACE ALLOCATED TO DIRECTORY
    AL1_0:    .DB  00000000        ; DIRECTORY CAN HAVE UP TO 16 BLOCKS ALLOCATED
    CKS_0:    .DW  0            ; SIZE OF DIRECTORY CHECK [noparse][[/noparse]0 IF NON REMOVEABLE]
    OFF_0:    .DW  5            ; FIRST 5 TRACKS TRACKS RESERVED (10K FOR SYSTEM)
                    ; SYSTEM IS ROM LOADER, CCP, BDOS, CBIOS, AND MONITOR
                    ; 
                    ; IMPORTANT NOTE: TRACKS $00 - $04 OF 2K BYTES
                    ; EACH ARE MARKED WITH THE OFF_0 SET TO 5 AS 
                    ; SYSTEM TRACKS. USABLE ROM DRIVE SPACE
                    ; STARTING AFTER THE FIFTH TRACK (IE, TRACK $05)
                    ; MOST LIKELY FIX TO THIS IS PLACING A DUMMY
                    ; FIRST 10K ROM CONTAINS THE ROM LOADER, MONITOR,
                    ; CCP, BDOS, BIOS, ETC (5 TRACKS * 2K EACH)
    
    DPBLK1:                ; DISK PARAMETER BLOCK (RAMDISK 512K, 448K usable)
    SPT_1:    .DW  256        ; 256 SECTORS OF 128 BYTES PER 32K TRACK
    BSH_1:    .DB  4            ; BLOCK SHIFT FACTOR (SIZE OF ALLOCATION BLOCK)
    BLM_1:    .DB  15            ; PART OF THE ALLOCATION BLOCK SIZE MATH
    EXM_1:    .DB  1            ; DEFINES SIZE OF EXTENT (DIRECTORY INFO)
    DSM_1:    .DW  225        ; BLOCKSIZE [noparse][[/noparse]2048] * NUMBER OF BLOCKS + 1 = DRIVE SIZE
    DRM_1:    .DW  255        ; NUMBER OF DIRECTORY ENTRIES
    AL0_1:    .DB  11110000        ; BIT MAP OF SPACE ALLOCATED TO DIRECTORY
    AL1_1:    .DB  00000000        ; DIRECTORY CAN HAVE UP TO 16 BLOCKS ALLOCATED
    CKS_1:    .DW  0            ; SIZE OF DIRECTORY CHECK [noparse][[/noparse]0 IF NON REMOVEABLE]
    OFF_1:    .DW  1            ; 1 TRACK RESERVED [noparse][[/noparse]FIRST 32K OF RAM]
    
    DPBLK2:                ; DISK PARAMETER BLOCK (IDE HARD DISK 8MB)
    SPT_2:    .DW  256        ; 256 SECTORS OF 128 BYTES PER 32K TRACK
    BSH_2:    .DB  5            ; BLOCK SHIFT FACTOR (SIZE OF ALLOCATION BLOCK)
    BLM_2:    .DB  31            ; PART OF THE ALLOCATION BLOCK SIZE MATH
    EXM_2:    .DB  1            ; DEFINES SIZE OF EXTENT (DIRECTORY INFO)
    DSM_2:    .DW  2017        ; BLOCKSIZE [noparse][[/noparse]4096] * NUMBER OF BLOCKS + 1 = DRIVE SIZE
                    ; HD PARTITION 2 IS 16128 SECTORS LONG
                    ; AT 512 BYTES EACH WHICH IS 
                    ; 2016 BLOCKS AT 4096 BYTES A PIECE.
    DRM_2:    .DW  511        ; NUMBER OF DIRECTORY ENTRIES
    AL0_2:    .DB  11110000        ; BIT MAP OF SPACE ALLOCATED TO DIRECTORY
    AL1_2:    .DB  00000000        ; DIRECTORY CAN HAVE UP TO 16 BLOCKS ALLOCATED
    CKS_2:    .DW  0            ; SIZE OF DIRECTORY CHECK [noparse][[/noparse]0 IF NON REMOVEABLE]
    OFF_2:    .DW  1            ; 1 TRACK (32K) RESERVED FOR SYSTEM
    
    DPBLK3:                ; DISK PARAMETER BLOCK (IDE HARD DISK 8MB)
    SPT_3:    .DW  256        ; 256 SECTORS OF 128 BYTES PER 32K TRACK
    BSH_3:    .DB  5            ; BLOCK SHIFT FACTOR (SIZE OF ALLOCATION BLOCK)
    BLM_3:    .DB  31            ; PART OF THE ALLOCATION BLOCK SIZE MATH
    EXM_3:    .DB  1            ; DEFINES SIZE OF EXTENT (DIRECTORY INFO)
    DSM_3:    .DW  2017        ; BLOCKSIZE [noparse][[/noparse]4096] * NUMBER OF BLOCKS + 1 = DRIVE SIZE
                    ; HD PARTITION 3 IS 16128 SECTORS LONG
                    ; AT 512 BYTES EACH WHICH IS 
                    ; 2016 BLOCKS AT 4096 BYTES A PIECE.
    DRM_3:    .DW  511        ; NUMBER OF DIRECTORY ENTRIES
    AL0_3:    .DB  11110000        ; BIT MAP OF SPACE ALLOCATED TO DIRECTORY
    AL1_3:    .DB  00000000        ; DIRECTORY CAN HAVE UP TO 16 BLOCKS ALLOCATED
    CKS_3:    .DW  0            ; SIZE OF DIRECTORY CHECK [noparse][[/noparse]0 IF NON REMOVEABLE]
    OFF_3:    .DW  1            ; 1 TRACK (32K) RESERVED FOR SYSTEM
    
    DPBLK4:                ; DISK PARAMETER BLOCK (IDE HARD DISK 1024K)
    SPT_4:    .DW  256        ; 256 SECTORS OF 128 BYTES PER 32K TRACK
    BSH_4:    .DB  4            ; BLOCK SHIFT FACTOR (SIZE OF ALLOCATION BLOCK)
    BLM_4:    .DB  15            ; PART OF THE ALLOCATION BLOCK SIZE MATH
    EXM_4:    .DB  0            ; DEFINES SIZE OF EXTENT (DIRECTORY INFO)
    DSM_4:    .DW  497        ; BLOCKSIZE [noparse][[/noparse]2048] * NUMBER OF BLOCKS + 1 = DRIVE SIZE
                    ; HD PARTITION 4 IS 4032 SECTORS LONG
                    ; AT 512 BYTES EACH WHICH IS 
                    ; 1008 BLOCKS AT 2048 BYTES A PIECE.
                    ; NOT USING ALL OF THE AVAILABLE SECTORS SINCE THIS
                    ; DRIVE IS INTENDED TO EMULATE A ROM DRIVE AND COPIED
                    ; INTO A ROM IN THE FUTURE.
    DRM_4:    .DW  255        ; NUMBER OF DIRECTORY ENTRIES
    AL0_4:    .DB  11110000        ; BIT MAP OF SPACE ALLOCATED TO DIRECTORY
    AL1_4:    .DB  00000000        ; DIRECTORY CAN HAVE UP TO 16 BLOCKS ALLOCATED
    CKS_4:    .DW  0            ; SIZE OF DIRECTORY CHECK [noparse][[/noparse]0 IF NON REMOVEABLE]
    OFF_4:    .DW  1            ; 1 TRACK RESERVED [noparse][[/noparse]FIRST 32K OF PARTITION]
    
    



    This is my altair simh 'super cp/m computer' that I use for testing. Seems the same one as for the zicog. Drive I is correctly reporting 8mb with dirx. Just need to find the block parameters and port that over to the zicog??

    d tracks[noparse][[/noparse]0-7] 254
    attach dsk cpm2.dsk
    attach dsk1 basic.dsk
    attach dsk2 games.dsk
    attach dsk3 sbasic.dsk
    attach dsk4 supercalc.dsk
    attach dsk5 tools.dsk
    attach dsk6 wordstar.dsk
    attach hdsk i.dsk
    set cpu 64k
    set cpu noitrap
    set cpu z80
    set cpu altairrom
    set cpu nonbanked
    reset cpu
    set sio ansi
    set sio nosleep
    boot dsk
    bye
    
    



    and a printout of it running:
    
    C:\N8VEM\AltairSIMH>altairz80 all
    
    Altair 8800 (Z80) simulator V3.7-3 build 1016 (scp created Apr 20 2008 at 13:01:
    09 with gcc 4.2.3)
    
    64K CP/M Version 2.2 (SIMH ALTAIR 8800, BIOS V1.25, 2 HD, 15-Jan-07)
    
    A>dirx
    Name    Ext Bytes   Name    Ext Bytes   Name    Ext Bytes   Name    Ext Bytes
    ASM     COM    8K ! EXZ80DOCCOM   12K ! SID     COM    8K ! UNLOAD  COM    2K
    BOOT    COM    2K ! FORMAT  COM    2K ! SPEED   COM    2K ! USQ     COM    2K
    BOOTGEN COM    2K ! HALT    COM    2K ! STAT    COM    6K ! W       COM    4K
    CCPZ    TXT   40K ! HDIR    COM    2K ! SUBMIT  COM    2K ! WS      COM    8K
    COPY    COM    2K ! L80     COM   12K ! SUPERSUBCOM    4K ! WS      OVR   52K
    CPU     COM    2K ! LOAD    COM    2K ! SURVEY  COM    2K ! WSMSGS  OVR   14K
    DDT     COM    6K ! M80     COM   20K ! SYSCOPY COM    2K ! XFORMAT COM    4K
    DDTZ    COM   10K ! MBASIC  COM   24K ! SYSCPM2 SUB    2K ! XSUB    COM    2K
    DIRX    COM    4K ! PACMAN95COM   18K ! SYSCPM2ZSUB    2K ! ZASM    SUB    2K
    DUMP    COM    2K ! PIP     COM    8K ! TIMER   COM    2K ! ZSID    COM   10K
    ED      COM    8K ! R       COM    4K ! TS      SUB    2K ! ZTRAN4  COM    4K
    EX8080  COM   12K ! RSETSIMHCOM    2K ! UNCR    COM    8K
    EXZ80ALLCOM   12K ! SHOWSEC COM    4K ! UNERA   COM    2K
    50 File(s), occupying 370K of 984K total capacity
    198 directory entries and 614K bytes remain on A:
    A>i:
    I>dirx
    Name    Ext Bytes   Name    Ext Bytes   Name    Ext Bytes   Name    Ext Bytes
    CP409DOCARK   68K ! K1KERM11LBR   16K ! ZORK1   COM   12K ! ZORK2   DAT   92K
    CP411HEXARK  156K ! LU      COM   20K ! ZORK1   DAT   84K ! ZORK3   COM   12K
    CP411SRCARK  436K ! UNARC   COM    8K ! ZORK2   COM   12K ! ZORK3   DAT   92K
    12 File(s), occupying 1008K of 8136K total capacity
    987 directory entries and 7128K bytes remain on I:
    I>
    
    
  • heaterheater Posts: 3,370
    edited 2009-08-17 11:38
    Cluso:

    I think 32Mb hard drives will be fine at least for now, perhaps forever,
    we don't have to hack any CP/M driver parameters to do that.

    We already discussed the "Virtual DMA" for hard drives, as usual I will have to try to remind my self of what we concluded[noparse]:)[/noparse]
    Thing is for floppy drives each byte in/out goes through a Z80 IN/OUT opcode emulation and hence through all the
    Spin code that traps and performs that so even when the the complete sector buffer is sitting in HUB (which it is anyway) that is a lot of overhead.
    I would think that there must be away to blit the entire sector buffer from HUB to CP/M space in external RAM in one hit whilst the actual Z80 emulation is
    stopped waiting for completion. In fact I though you had already attempted to do that. I will have to look again.

    Dr_A:

    We can't just make the floppies bigger with bigger image files. The floppy geometry is fixed in the CBIOS.
    The SIMHH BIOS can be built with a configurable number of floppies, can save CP/M memory by using fewer. Max is 8 so that is what is in the Spin emulation.

    For drive I and up SIMH has totally different driver code in the BIOS. For floppies it is Altair floppy compatible. For hard drives it has variable size/geometry disks
    where the geometry descriptor blocks are fetched by the CBIOS from the hd emulator at run time. So to change hd disk size/geometry it is a Spin cnage

    When you say "Drive I is correctly reporting 8mb with dirx. Just need to find the block parameters and port that over to the zicog?? "
    That is correct and it is ALREADY in the ZiCog spin code.

    Don't forget I have been aiming for SIMH compatibility all along.

    I try and have more time for this later today.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    For me, the past is not over yet.
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,066
    edited 2009-08-17 12:03
    James: Here is v094. Could you please check it before I post at the top of this thread.(it is untested)

    You will need to uncomment the·#define CPU_Z80 line in ZiCog009_rr090 (bst would not otherwise zip the project).
    I have added· #define·addLF which outputs a LF following CR in·the FDX object (new mode).

    If all is ok, please uncomment the 4·lines from ZiCog009_demo_rr094 before the #endif as shown (careful of indents)
    PRI WriteSRAMblock | i, r, mask, in
      r := tbp2.start
      check_error(r)
    #ifdef diskboot
      'clears ram $0000-$EFFF, loads $FF00-$FFFF, loads sram disk above
      'remember we are reading 8KB blocks, so clear the seven blocks and 8KB-128B of eighth block
      if blockno < 8
        'TV.dec(blockno)
        if blockno == 7
          repeat i from 0 to count-1 -(256)                 'clear below $FF00
            buff[noparse][[/noparse]i] := 0                                    'clear the buffer
        else
          repeat i from 0 to count-1
            buff[noparse][[/noparse]i] := 0                                    'clear the buffer
          if blockno == 0
            buff[noparse][[/noparse]0] := $C3                                  'force jmp to $FF00 (faster)
            buff[noparse][[/noparse]1] := $00
            buff[noparse][[/noparse]2] := $FF
    #endif
    
     
    

    This should improve the boot speed - causes a direct jump to the disk boot code $FF00


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    Links to other interesting threads:

    · Home of the MultiBladeProps: TriBladeProp, RamBlade, TwinBlade,·SixBlade, website
    · Single Board Computer:·3 Propeller ICs·and a·TriBladeProp board (ZiCog Z80 Emulator)
    · Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)
    · Emulators: Micros eg Altair, and Terminals eg VT100 (Index) ZiCog (Z80), MoCog (6809)
    · Search the Propeller forums (via Google)
    My cruising website is: ·www.bluemagic.biz·· MultiBladeProp is: www.bluemagic.biz/cluso.htm
  • Dr_AculaDr_Acula Posts: 5,484
    edited 2009-08-17 12:47
    Close but getting a hang after this (doesn't give the A> prompt)

    ZiCog v0.009 on the TriBladeProp v0.09x
    8 bit, parity=None, 1 stop bit, Flow control=None
    
    Starting disks...
    A:DRIVE__A.DSK
    B:DRIVE__B.DSK
    C:DRIVE__C.DSK
    D:DRIVE__D.DSK
    E:DRIVE__E.DSK
    F:DRIVE__F.DSK
    G:DRVCPM_2.DSK
    H:DRVCPM_3.DSK
    Loading SRAM...
    ................................................................................
    ................................................Loaded
    Starting TriBladeProp driver ...
     Passed, please wait...
    Starting Z80 emulation... Passed, please wait...
    
    
    64K CP/M Version 2.2 (SIMH ALTAIR 8800, BIOS V1.25, 2 HD, 15-Jan-07)
    
    Unknown console status write with byte &H03
    
    



    More experiments, random key presses eventually brings up the A> prompt but none of the characters are echoed.

    More more experiments, going back to the serial object v002, that gets to the A prompt but the characters on the keyboard are coming back as different characters eg i came back as a u.

    What changed from this version (see attached)

    Post Edited (Dr_Acula) : 8/17/2009 1:08:41 PM GMT
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,066
    edited 2009-08-17 13:46
    James: Should just have been a tidyup. Have you #define hdskenable uncommented? Hard disk is not working on the TriBlade yet - this could be getting into an incorrectly handled error.·Did you have Drive I enabled?

    There are a few extra lines·you put in for debugging.

    Do you have WinDiff ?

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Links to other interesting threads:

    · Home of the MultiBladeProps: TriBladeProp, RamBlade, TwinBlade,·SixBlade, website
    · Single Board Computer:·3 Propeller ICs·and a·TriBladeProp board (ZiCog Z80 Emulator)
    · Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)
    · Emulators: Micros eg Altair, and Terminals eg VT100 (Index) ZiCog (Z80), MoCog (6809)
    · Search the Propeller forums (via Google)
    My cruising website is: ·www.bluemagic.biz·· MultiBladeProp is: www.bluemagic.biz/cluso.htm
  • KyeKye Posts: 2,200
    edited 2009-08-17 13:53
    Ah, not quite cluso. The whole reseaon I used 256 byte buffers is to exploit the fact that a while using a byte head and tail pointer they have automatic wrap arround.

    return ((inputHead - inputTail) & $FF)

    Is actually the simpliest way to calculate amount of stuff in the FIFO buffer. Great ain't it? It's also more usefull than just know if there is stuff or isn't stuff because it allows you to know the amount in the buffer.

    ...

    Well, unless anyone has any results on my driver working now or not I'll be moving on to other things.
    Cluso99 said...
    James: It was a 5 second mod to add the call names like Kye's. You are reading way too much complexity into all this tongue.gif
    Granted that Kye's code let you look for the actual problem.

    Kye: Thanks for your code - it helped solve the real bug of dropping characters.
    I think there is a bug in the·rxavail call.

    PUB rxavail '' 3 Stack Longs
    '' &#9484;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9488;
    '' &#9474; Returns the number of characters in the receiver buffer.                                                                 &#9474;
    '' &#9492;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9496;
      return ((inputHead - inputTail) & $FF)
    
    
    

    ·Should be...
    PUB rxavail '' 3??? Stack Longs
    '' &#9484;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9488;
    '' &#9474; Returns the number of characters in the receiver buffer.                                                                 &#9474;
    '' &#9492;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9496;
      if inputHead >= inputTail
        return ((inputHead - inputTail) & $FF)
      else
        return ((inputHead + $FF - inputTail)) & $FF)
    
    

    Is it necessary to know the number of received characters in the buffer? If not, then this may be simpler..
    PUB rxavail : truefalse
    '' Check if byte(s) available
    '' returns true (-1) if bytes available
      truefalse := rx_tail <> rx_head
    
    

    BTW can you use a constant to define the length of the buffers like I did with the recent posting of the modified FDX for James·(also pasm needs to use the constant also)

    CON
      bufsiz = 256 '16              'buffer size (16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512) must be factor of 2, max is 512
      bufmsk = bufsiz - 1           'buffer mask used for wrap-around ($00F, $01F, $03F, $07F, $0FF, $1FF)
    

    VAR
      byte  rx_buffer[noparse][[/noparse]bufsiz]           'transmit and receive buffers
      byte  tx_buffer[noparse][[/noparse]bufsiz]
    

      rx_tail := (rx_tail + 1) & bufmsk  'example of use
    

    Kye, we should probably continue this under your SerialEngine post as there may be input from others. I also have some other ideas for you.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Nyamekye,
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,066
    edited 2009-08-17 14:04
    Kye: I am quite familiar with the wrap-around technique. I suggested using a constant so that the buffer size can be changed easily, instead of looking for all the hard-coded literals.

    Now, won't ((inputHead - inputTail) & $FF) give an incorrect result when the inputHead is near the beginning of the buffer and inputTail is near the end of the buffer? That is, the inputHead has just wrapped around to the beginning. In this instance you will get a negative answer and you cannot just·& of the upper bits?? That is why I checked for this condition and added the buffer length to it to get the correct length - Ah, but I should have added $100 (bufsiz), not $FF (bufmsk) !!
    Just thinking about it, you should call it rxcount or rxnumber (like you did before)·as rxavail tends to imply a true/false answer.

    PUB rxcount
    if inputHead >= inputTail
    return ((inputHead - inputTail) & $FF)
    else
    return ((inputHead + $100 - inputTail)) & $FF) '<==fix

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Links to other interesting threads:

    · Home of the MultiBladeProps: TriBladeProp, RamBlade, TwinBlade,·SixBlade, website
    · Single Board Computer:·3 Propeller ICs·and a·TriBladeProp board (ZiCog Z80 Emulator)
    · Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)
    · Emulators: Micros eg Altair, and Terminals eg VT100 (Index) ZiCog (Z80), MoCog (6809)
    · Search the Propeller forums (via Google)
    My cruising website is: ·www.bluemagic.biz·· MultiBladeProp is: www.bluemagic.biz/cluso.htm

    Post Edited (Cluso99) : 8/17/2009 2:12:34 PM GMT
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,066
    edited 2009-08-17 14:15
    Heater & Dr_Acula: For testing the hard disk, if we change the hard disk parameters to be the same as a floppy we can substitute a floppy file for initial testing. Once running we can adjust the size.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Links to other interesting threads:

    · Home of the MultiBladeProps: TriBladeProp, RamBlade, TwinBlade,·SixBlade, website
    · Single Board Computer:·3 Propeller ICs·and a·TriBladeProp board (ZiCog Z80 Emulator)
    · Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)
    · Emulators: Micros eg Altair, and Terminals eg VT100 (Index) ZiCog (Z80), MoCog (6809)
    · Search the Propeller forums (via Google)
    My cruising website is: ·www.bluemagic.biz·· MultiBladeProp is: www.bluemagic.biz/cluso.htm
  • heaterheater Posts: 3,370
    edited 2009-08-17 14:29
    I have a hard disk image that I have used for testing on the demo board.

    Basically I copied a bunch of files from A: to I: under SIMH and dropped the resulting file into ZiCog.

    I have successfully read directories and read/written to it. I'll dig it out in a couple of hours.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    For me, the past is not over yet.
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,066
    edited 2009-08-17 14:51
    James: Apologies, my error - in translating from rxnumber to rxavail the test was reversed - fixed.

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    Links to other interesting threads:

    · Home of the MultiBladeProps: TriBladeProp, RamBlade, TwinBlade,·SixBlade, website
    · Single Board Computer:·3 Propeller ICs·and a·TriBladeProp board (ZiCog Z80 Emulator)
    · Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)
    · Emulators: Micros eg Altair, and Terminals eg VT100 (Index) ZiCog (Z80), MoCog (6809)
    · Search the Propeller forums (via Google)
    My cruising website is: ·www.bluemagic.biz·· MultiBladeProp is: www.bluemagic.biz/cluso.htm
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,066
    edited 2009-08-17 15:44
    v096 attached· - a little more tidyup and a little more (hopefully) to get hdisk closer. Writes are disabled until reads work correctly.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Links to other interesting threads:

    · Home of the MultiBladeProps: TriBladeProp, RamBlade, TwinBlade,·SixBlade, website
    · Single Board Computer:·3 Propeller ICs·and a·TriBladeProp board (ZiCog Z80 Emulator)
    · Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)
    · Emulators: Micros eg Altair, and Terminals eg VT100 (Index) ZiCog (Z80), MoCog (6809)
    · Search the Propeller forums (via Google)
    My cruising website is: ·www.bluemagic.biz·· MultiBladeProp is: www.bluemagic.biz/cluso.htm
  • KyeKye Posts: 2,200
    edited 2009-08-17 15:58
    This tread goes fast!!!

    Cluso99:

    If you feel more comfortable with that way then go ahead and do it! smile.gif

    I've very sure my technique works however, I been testing it without flaws for a while now.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Nyamekye,

    Post Edited (Kye) : 8/17/2009 8:16:29 PM GMT
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,066
    edited 2009-08-18 02:33
    @Kye: My apologies - there is no bug in your ReceiveNumber code (called rxnum below).

    Currently lacking hardware at the moment, I was not able to see my flaw. Since I had to go through examples to prove it,·I thought I would post what I did for others to see... The cyclic buffer method is used in other·code such as FullDuplexSerial.

    Here is an example. Lets say for simplicity, the buffer is 256 bytes in length and begins at hub $1000.

    Head points to the relative position in the buffer where the next byte will be stored. Tail points to the relative position in the buffer where the last character was obtained from. When head == tail there is no data available in the buffer. Head increments each time a byte is placed into the buffer and Tail increments when a byte is taken from the buffer. Both wrap-around at the end of the buffer to the beginning of the buffer by ANDING the result with the buffer length - 1. A 256 byte buffer is ANDED with $FF. If more bytes than the buffer length are added into the buffer before they are taken, then depending on the code, either a block of bytes are lost (equal to the buffer size and the oldest) or the new bytes are lost until space is available.

    When empty the head and tail point to 0 (which is $1000 + 0). Fine.

    When 10 bytes have been input, the header = 10 and tail = 0. rxnum = (head - tail) & $FF·= (10 - 0) & $FF·= 10. So correct.

    When 257 bytes have been input and 254 bytes taken, header = (0 + 257) & $FF = 01, tail = (0 + 254) & $FF = 254
    So rxnum = head - tail = (1 - 254)· & $FF = -253 & $FF = $FFFF_FF03 & $FF = 3. So you are correct and my apologies.

    Note: 10 = $0A, 254 = $FE, 257 = $101.

    @OBC: You are welcome to add·this to your Tips and Traps :-)

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    Links to other interesting threads:

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    · Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)
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    · Search the Propeller forums (via Google)
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  • Dr_AculaDr_Acula Posts: 5,484
    edited 2009-08-18 03:05
    Sorry for the delay.

    Good and bad news.
    Ok, good news is that the past post by Cluso works and I think we are now getting back to a common file between us!
    Even better news, the bst compiler doesn't give any warnings. (suggestion, maybe include bst.bat and bstc.exe in the package - only adds a tiny bit to the storage on the forum)

    The bad news is that the carriage return/line feed is still a muddle. It went from overprinting with no line feeds to now putting in two line feeds!

    I found the reason - not in the main program but in the fullduplexserial object.
    ' Optionally add LF after CR
    
      if rxtx_mode &%10000 and txbyte == CR 
        repeat until (tx_tail <> (tx_head + 1) & bufmsk)
        tx_buffer[noparse][[/noparse]tx_head] := LF
        tx_head := (tx_head + 1) & bufmsk
    
        if rxtx_mode & %1000
          rx
    
    



    I think I can see the reason you have put it there, because CP/M outputs CRLF after each line and I think the terminal program you are using treats CR as if it is CRLF. Or something like that - I'm not sure why you are not getting double spacing either.

    Anyway, I'm preferring to stay with standard terminal programs like Hyperterm and Teraterm and remote Telnet and also down the track, the PockeTerm (see attached). I wonder if the terminal you are using could be edited?

    CP/M outputs 13 then 10 after each line. The bootup sends just 13, and 10 if you want to add it.

    The idea I have is to leave out the ifdefs, delete all references to CR, even delete CR and LF as definitions in the main program. Just a philosophical thing too, but a uart object really should just be sending and receiving bytes, not modifying those bytes.

    All the bootup lines have crlf as the next line eg
      UART.str(string("ZiCog v0.009 on the TriBladeProp v0.09x"))
      crlf
      UART.str(string("8 bit, parity=None, 1 stop bit, Flow control=None"))
      crlf   
    
    




    And then you just change this line here and comment out the LF if you don't want it. So it becomes one line to change which is as simple as an ifdef. (you could even add that deletion as an ifdef if required)
    PRI crlf
      UART.tx(13)
      UART.tx(10)
    
    



    Attached zip of code with crlf added and a photo of it running on the PockeTerm

    Addit: tried re including these lines but didn't make any difference to the speed:
    '<== probably can speedup by enabling this
         if blockno == 0
           buff[noparse][[/noparse]0] := $C3                                  'force jmp to $FF00 (faster)
           buff := $00
           buff := $FF
    
    

    Post Edited (Dr_Acula) : 8/18/2009 3:36:12 AM GMT
    1280 x 960 - 295K
  • Dr_AculaDr_Acula Posts: 5,484
    edited 2009-08-18 03:29
    Ok, major housekeeping. What I was debugging the program looking for the missing characters I went through and commented out lots of lines eg tv.hex and tv.dec because these did not exist in the serial driver. Those changes have ended up being left in, so time to fix them up.

    All tv.hex changed to UART.hex and uncommented
    All tv.dec changed to UART.dec and uncommented
    All commented out instances of CR uncommented, and replaced with crlf
    Many messages now included again, especially hard drive messages. While it is being debugged etc, better to have these messages. They can always be commented out again later.

    I hope this is all ok, but it was kind of my fault this highly commented out version is persisting.
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,066
    edited 2009-08-18 06:38
    Thanks James. I will grab it later tonight smile.gif
    Sorry, I didn't understand that CPM output CR+LF whereas ZiCog demo was not.

    re bst - you must have warnings turned off as there sould be 3 warnings about # missing in jmps.

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    Links to other interesting threads:

    · Home of the MultiBladeProps: TriBladeProp, RamBlade, TwinBlade,·SixBlade, website
    · Single Board Computer:·3 Propeller ICs·and a·TriBladeProp board (ZiCog Z80 Emulator)
    · Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)
    · Emulators: Micros eg Altair, and Terminals eg VT100 (Index) ZiCog (Z80), MoCog (6809)
    · Search the Propeller forums (via Google)
    My cruising website is: ·www.bluemagic.biz·· MultiBladeProp is: www.bluemagic.biz/cluso.htm
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,066
    edited 2009-08-18 11:27
  • Dr_AculaDr_Acula Posts: 5,484
    edited 2009-08-18 13:42
    That works. Looking at a common file we can work on, can you pls re-release that with the baud rate at 115k, and try the LF commented out.

    I'll change those two things on my working file (and hopefully remember to change them if I upload a new package).

    Then you can use the terminal you are using. (my inability to go above 38k baud speed is due to the long serial cable. 38k is more than fast enough for me!)

    I must say that is is amazing watching xmodem work. Also, I know I said those 4 lines
    '<== probably can speedup by enabling this
         if blockno == 0
           buff[noparse][[/noparse]0] := $C3                                  'force jmp to $FF00 (faster)
           buff := $00
           buff := $FF
    
    


    didn't make a difference to the boot speed. They don't, but something has dramatically increased the speed of file writes when doing an xmodem file transfer.

    All looking good!

    So - on to the next phase. I've pondered all sorts of ways to get the bigger disk images, but keep coming back to heater's comment that it is best to keep this as a simh simulation. Use the simh standards. I was tempted at one stage earlier today to get into the cbios settings and make the floppy drives bigger, but I think heater is right. Keep the first 8 drives as 1mb, and then the next 4 as 8mb. Down the track, maybe we can get a link to the zicog on the simh site (as the N8VEM managed to do once it was stable).

    Heater, I spent 4 months procrastinating building a triblade. Cluso was very patient, and he even sent me a freebie sd socket at one stage. So I know the board can be a bit daunting, but are you stuck with one particular part missing, or is the build a bit confusing? I know this might be a bit odd to hassle you like this, but I feel like a smoker who has just quit and now has gone all evangelical about it. The triblade is great!!! If you need a ram chip or something, pls let me know so I can send you one.

    Was there a thought at one stage of using faster sd access code? Is this possible (it would be great if it is!)
  • heaterheater Posts: 3,370
    edited 2009-08-18 14:35
    Dr_A: Only just today I managed to find time to sit down with ZiCog and find out what you guys are up to.
    Looks like you have been doing great. I have just now managed to download your latest files and get them running on my Demo Board.

    Re: Hard Disks. I just noticed a comment in zicog_demo under the HD descriptors that the sector size can be increased
    from 128 bytes BUT NOT for CP/M 2 only CP/M 3. I don't know if that is a limitation of CP/M 2 or just the CBIOSX we are using with it.
    It occurs to me that as we are 512 byte SD card blocks to hold 128/137 byte sectors, which is waste full anyway, we would get a 4 times
    speed up of disk access using 512 byte sectors on hard disks under CP/M 3 !!! Not to mention the speed gain we get by using "virtual" DMA
    instead of the byte at a time transfers of the floppy disks.

    So we should aim to
    1) Get hard disks working
    2) Get CP/3 in general use
    3) Increase the sector size to 512
    4) Add more tracks etc.

    Re: My TriBlade, The major problem is the lack of time. But given my list of objectives above I really should try harder to get on to it.
    If you have a spare RAM chip that would be great [noparse]:)[/noparse]

    For the rest of today I am going to try and recreate the experiments I did with the hard disk driver emulation.
    I feel sure that it pretty much works. Just need to demonstrate it to you guys.

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    For me, the past is not over yet.

    Post Edited (heater) : 8/18/2009 2:44:20 PM GMT
  • heaterheater Posts: 3,370
    edited 2009-08-18 14:41
    Dr_A: Just noticed in that screen shot above here that your BIOS is v1.25 from 15-JAN-2007.
    I'm using (SIMH ALTAIR 8800, BIOS V1.27, 1 HD, 02-May-2009).

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    For me, the past is not over yet.
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,066
    edited 2009-08-18 14:48
    James: Those lines will not increase the speed after boot.
    However, I increased the FDX buffer size to 256 (previously 16) and this could account for speed improvement. You can make it 512 if you like - just edit the CON section in FDX.
    OK with the baudrate. I will not re-release just for that - I can that change easily. Heater is looking at the hard drive tonight so may have some fixes. I think we may need a N8VEM #define at some time, so could adj baudrate in there.
    Heater and I emailed today and we are both going to use FDX (provided he has no problems tonight).
    I am unable to try LF at the moment - no hardware :-(

    re Heater's TriBlade - I think he has just been flat out with other things. I took photos and wrote instructions when I built my second TriBlade a week or so ago. However, I only built Blade #2 and the power & USB so far. Thats all I needed for running ZiCog. James, be careful about the ram chips. Heater may want to use them in something else LOL.

    I cannot play with the faster fsrw SD code. I have been having a look though. Should pretty much drop in.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Links to other interesting threads:

    · Home of the MultiBladeProps: TriBladeProp, RamBlade, TwinBlade,·SixBlade, website
    · Single Board Computer:·3 Propeller ICs·and a·TriBladeProp board (ZiCog Z80 Emulator)
    · Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)
    · Emulators: Micros eg Altair, and Terminals eg VT100 (Index) ZiCog (Z80), MoCog (6809)
    · Search the Propeller forums (via Google)
    My cruising website is: ·www.bluemagic.biz·· MultiBladeProp is: www.bluemagic.biz/cluso.htm
  • heaterheater Posts: 3,370
    edited 2009-08-18 15:02
    Just to whet your appetite...

    With no fuss at all I have hard drive I: working. At least for reads.

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    For me, the past is not over yet.
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