+- Discussion Forum for all things Microbee (https://microbeetechnology.com.au/forum)
+-- Forum: Microbee Forum (https://microbeetechnology.com.au/forum/forum-1.html)
+--- Forum: Microbee Hardware (https://microbeetechnology.com.au/forum/forum-6.html)
+--- Thread: PC85 SuperPAK coreboard (/thread-745.html)
PC85 SuperPAK coreboard - ChickenMan - 09-12-2023
Thanks to our member Suzy for designing and making this new coreboard available. Suitable for both standard and premium PC85 Microbee. Basically it can now handle 128 PAK locations (0 to 127) compared to the original 16 only and now used 16 x 27512 eproms, so that means lots of games
My SRAM hasntt arrived yet, so I just used some old PC Cache ram that was physically the same size but larger capacity.Burnt out a couple of Basic 5.29e eproms as I'm using a Premium baseboard. Powered it up and bingo, boots to Basic
The board so far looks like
and when powered up, I get to Basic as no other EPROMS fitted yet, thats the next job to write up a Menu and start creating some Games roms.
RE: PC85 SuperPAK coreboard - someone - 10-12-2023
Yay Suzy!
RE: PC85 SuperPAK coreboard - ChickenMan - 18-12-2023
I have done the first page of my menu and have created all the roms for it, thats PAK C to PAK G, now starting on second page and its roms.
I have PAK A & B setup as Prem PC85. Turn the bee on and it boots to Basic. Enter PAK5 and Shell/Menu fires up with all the programs running as per an original Prem PC85. Jump to Basic and enter PAk6 and the menu above is presented.
RE: PC85 SuperPAK coreboard - MbeeTech - 20-12-2023
Hi Suzy.
Great work on the SuperPak coreboard, and the Bee compatible baseboard.
Just a reminder that the word 'Microbee' and the bee logo device are registered trademarks.
Please remove the text 'MICROBEE' from your coreboard PCB overlay if you plan to make any more of these
available to others.
It should be made clear that it is not an official Microbee product.
Thanks
RE: PC85 SuperPAK coreboard - ChickenMan - 20-12-2023
So in Basic I use OUT 10,x where x is the PAK that needs to be active, how do do you access the other 8k slots in the NET eprom. NET fires up TELCOM but NET 0 or 1 or.. just gives me SYNTAX ERROR as expected.
RE: PC85 SuperPAK coreboard - someone - 20-12-2023
(20-12-2023, 05:57 PM)ChickenMan Wrote: So in Basic I use OUT 10,x where x is the PAK that needs to be active, how do do you access the other 8k slots in the NET eprom. NET fires up TELCOM but NET 0 or 1 or.. just gives me SYNTAX ERROR as expected.
At a glance, someone thinks you'll need to execute an IN 0x0A instruction to select the desired NET ROM image.
From MWBASIC it'll probably be accomplishable using the USR() function.
At address XXXX poke:
79 ; ld a,c
DB 0A ; in A,(PORT0A)
C9 ; ret
A potential (UNTESTED) MWB example poked into the top of char ram.
POKE 67432,121
POKE 67433,219
POKE 67434,10
POKE 67435,209
A=USR(67432, <NETBANK_NUM>)
NET
There's probably much easier ways!
RE: PC85 SuperPAK coreboard - MbeeTech - 21-12-2023
As replied in your facebook post, they were re-registered in 2011, and again in 2021 - next expiration date 2031.
Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick (www.pof.com.au) handle my IP legal work.
Australian
Trade Mark
1434997
01 Jul 2031
MICROBEE in class 9
Australian
Trade Mark
1434998
01 Jul 2031
bee device in class 9
RE: PC85 SuperPAK coreboard - ChickenMan - 21-12-2023
Thanks "someone", will give it a go. I can poke that data into a REM xxxxxxx statement at the start on my Basic Menu.
@Suzy, sorry to see you have removed your posts from here.
RE: PC85 SuperPAK coreboard - ChickenMan - 29-12-2023
Well I wrote out PAK A to PAK J eproms after double checking them, but there is still bound to be some errors. The unit fires up as a Premium PC85 with a PAK 5 from Basic and my games Menu with a PAK 6. Just using the Mono output at the moment for testing.
I've run out of Eproms but have more on order. but can continue making the rest of the PAK's. Thanks to someone and suzy I worked out how to add extra games in the NET eprom. I then realized each of the 16 sections are only 4k rather than 8 as in the other PAK's. Telcom already takes 2 of them, but will fill it if only desperate . I cant fully check if all the games are working yet as my main memory still hasn't arrived as I'm using some old PC cache oversized memory at the moment that gives me 16k or less, enough for some of the smaller sized games to run.
RE: PC85 SuperPAK coreboard - ChickenMan - 31-12-2023
I will put my ROMs in the Repository when they have all been verified and working. But in the meantime if you want to make your own, and why not, here is a starting guide. I've made my PAK A and PAK B to have all the files of a Premium PC85 so when the SuperPak bee is first turned on, it boots to Basic. PAK 5 brings up the Premium PC85 opening menu and all options work as per an original Premium PC85. But PAK 6 brings up my 3 page Menu of all the games in the rest of the PAK's.
Basically, you need to add a header at the start of the game code to move it to its normal running location in memory. I use Cygnus Free Edition in Windows for all this work, but any Hex Editor will do. Basic programs all start at 08C0h with actual code from 0900h. Not all BEE files start at 0900h also, though its the default. You need to know where to load it to and what its start address is (which is not always its load addy). The Z80 also expects addresses to be in Low Byte first High byte second, so a jump to C003h looks like C3 03 C0. The first 3 bytes of your eprom MUST be a jump address else it wont be recognized at all. The 8k PAK alocated memory space is C000h to DFFFh in the Microbee's Memory Map. So, if you have an 8k (or less) Machine Code *.BEE program, then a header of 2 lines I use can look like this -
C3 03 C0 21 20 C0 11 00 09 01 E0 1F ED B0 C3 00
09 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
program code starts here
First 3 bytes jumps 3 bytes ahead
next 3 bytes is the start addy of the code to move
next 3 bytes is the load address your moving it to
next 3 bytes is the amount of bytes your wanting to move
next 2 bytes (LDIR) actually does the move
last 3 bytes jumps to the start address of the program you just moved
and in the 00's you can put the programs Name or your name or what ever, I just put my initials. If your game is a BASIC file, the load address is ALWAYS C0 08 (08C0h) and they all auto start at 1E 80 (801Eh).
If you if you have a 16k file, it needs to be spread across 2 x 8k PAK slots, so the header is a bit more complicated. Lets look at loading SCRAMBLER.BEE into PAKC rom which is PAK 16 to 23. it has load and start address of 768 (0300h). So it will fit into PAK 16 & PAK 17 as the game is 3F7Fh bytes long. We can use the code as above but then need to tell it to make PAK 17 visable and copy the 2nd part of code onto the end of the 1st part thats already been copied. So the header then becomes -
C3 03 C0 21 10 C0 11 F0 02 01 F0 1F ED B0 C3 F1
02 3E 11 D3 0A C3 00 C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
First 3 bytes jumps 3 bytes ahead
next 3 bytes is the start addy of the code to move (now also copies the 2nd line of this header)
next 3 bytes is the load address your moving it to (10h bytes lower to hold the 2nd line of header)
next 3 bytes is the amount of bytes your wanting to move
next 2 bytes (LDIR) actually does the move
next 3 bytes jumps to the 2nd line of header thats been copied
next 4 bytes makes PAK 17 (11h) active
last 3 bytes jumps to the start of code in PAK 17
program code starts here
Now an extra line of code needs to included at 2000h (start of PAK 17 code) which would be -
21 10 C0 11 22 E0 01 9F 1F ED B0 C3 00 03 00 00
First 3 bytes is the start addy of the code to move
next 3 bytes is the start address immediately after the 1st parts end thats already copied (made by adding 02F0h + 1FF0h from Header above)
next 3 bytes is the amount of the remainder of the code to be moved
next 2 bytes (LDIR) actually does the move
last 3 bytes jumps to the start address of the game
I fill on the unused space at the end of the code with 00's up to the start of 2000h so ready to add in the next game. If the games is only 10 or 11k long, for example, that means there is onlt 2 or 3k used in the second PAK location. Rather than waste the space, a smaller 4 to 6k game can be added in that space but you really need to make a Menu to access it.
The manual eprom_programmer_and_64k_rom_pak_instruction_manual.pdf explains it all more in technical terms, so grab it from the Repository as I'm sure it can help also.