Paul Westphal Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 I sent this off to get fixed and had a US Doubler put in. How do I get the extra speed out of this thing? DosXL doesn't seem to load anything faster. I do have Spartados 3.3c on cart. Do I have to re-copy my files to a faster disk format? What are my options? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Use SpartaDOS-X, SpartaDOS 3.2d, f, g or any of the highspeed ones. There is about a 3x speed increase if used with the proper DOS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 There are quite a few high-speed SIO drivers. Some are "in the Dos" and some are stand-alone. Probably the most flexible is Hias "HSIO series." Check his web site. Some use RAM OS and most are "rom-able." (Patched OS put into eprom.) But yes, a crucial step for all (when used with real drives as opposed to APE, etc.) is that the disk must be formatted with high-speed skew. In other words, the pattern of sectors on the disk is changed from the regular format so that the Doubler can access them at high speed. So you need to use a high-speed format routine and then re-copy any files you want to load/write at Ultra Speed. If you don't have one that you like, ask -- there are quite a few available. This is where the 1050 Happy shines -- its track buffer can load at high speed regardless of the sector layout. -Larry 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Westphal Posted January 7, 2014 Author Share Posted January 7, 2014 Probably should have gone with the Happy. Oh well...Maybe I'll Happy my 810. I'll try Sparta 3.3 and Mydos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+CharlieChaplin Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 (edited) Well, I do not have a US-Doubler, but here are some tools for this enhancement... - Super DOS 5.x: has a built-in ultraspeed-driver that also supports USD and formats SD and DD with the required USD skew (won`t do ED with USD skew) - EDformat: will format an ED/130k disk with USD skew - Mycopyr: a Sectorcopy program for 90k/130k/180k disks, it will read/write/format in ultraspeed and generate USD skew when formatting (ED/130k format is always read in two passes, no matter how much memory you have) - SIOSPD1/2: will install an ultraspeed driver into the RAM under the OS that can be used with Happy, Speedy, USD and other ultraspeed floppy drives to load with highest possible speed; one version is for disk-files and/or DOS versions that do not have a built-in ultraspeed-driver (e.g. Atari DOS 2.5, do not use it with Super-DOS 5.x !) the other version is for bootdisks.. - some more files, of which I do not know much about Since I do not have a US-doubler I could not test most of these files (okay, I use Mycopyr and SIOSPD from time to time with my Hyper-XF drive), so I do not know if they work alright with a US-Doubler. -Andreas Koch. P.S.: MyDOS does not have any ultraspeed-drivers, simply use SIOSPD1/2 (the one for disk-files) for that and rename it to Autorun.SYS for MyDOS versions older than 4.53 and/or to *.ARx (e.g. *.AR0 for the 1st file, *.AR1 for the 2nd file) for versions 4.53 and newer... NOTE: If you also want to load the Ramdisk-driver, rename it to *.AR0 and then rename the SIOSPD driver to *.AR1; TB XL and all other programs that use RAM under the OS or "play" with $D301 will not work with SIOSPD at all or have to be loaded prior to loading SIOSPD... usd_tools.zip Edited January 7, 2014 by CharlieChaplin 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1050 Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Probably should have gone with the Happy. Oh well...Maybe I'll Happy my 810. I'll try Sparta 3.3 and Mydos. Not necessarily, the US Doubler is perhaps the MOST capable DD upgrade you can do and still retain loading capabilities of EA games for example. If you don't have a US Doubler in your stack of drives, you aren't quite up to speed yet as far as my opinion goes, hands down the most stable and capable drive possible. A 1050 Happy is nice to have no doubt, but they bring their own troubles with them, no EA games and other one off loading problems, special mode needed with disk based Sparta writes, just two that come to mind right off. Happy Read is fine with disk Sparta but a write will munge the third byte of every sector written unless you turn off Happy mode and then what did you get the Happy for if you can't use it? It needs a special driver to avoid the issue and I've never bothered with finding it or using it. For high speed with the US Doubler you'll have to format the disk with ultra-speed sector skew and from then on it will work with your version of Sparta, but MyDOS won't do high speed unless you go way out of your way and force the issue with special RAM OS instead of stock and/or the use of the US+ OS which has some high speed skews of itself going on too. Or any another method of using high speed altered SIO routines and then use special formatting software not native to MyDOS itself in addition. When you go to format a disk with XINIT running Sparta you will get an extra question to answer since the program will query the drive as to if it's skew capable, and the question will be if you want to use high speed skew with the format? Answer no and you get regular access speed, answer yes and all disk in and out will be in high speed from then on, but only to that disk. So you will have to re-write all your files in order to get it, plus formatting the disk first too. Since I have a Black Box, I've never felt the need to go there. But it would have been real nice if somebody else had formatted all my disks for me in high speed to start with and MyDOS could use it easily. Just like you said already, Oh well... And I assume you sent it to Paul Alhart? I remember his disk drive repair ads in AIM magazine back in the days when we actually still went to Atari club meetings. Nice to know he is still hammering away on them, by now he should be getting pretty darn good at it too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 This got me thinking... Didn't someone successfully write a DD rom that doesn't require the extra RAM? Does anyone have a link to it? How USD compatible is it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Westphal Posted January 7, 2014 Author Share Posted January 7, 2014 1050....Thanks for the info. YEP, Paul Alhart does all the rebuilds for me.He is a good dude and does great work. The toughest job I gave him yet was a Percom AT-88spd drive that was bad. Bryan- Paul Alhart told me there is a ROM chip that replaces the self-test in xl/xe that enables high speed transfer all the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillC Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Not necessarily, the US Doubler is perhaps the MOST capable DD upgrade you can do and still retain loading capabilities of EA games for example. Won't the Happy 1050 drive load the EA games if set to Unhappy mode first? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMartian Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Another plus for 1050 style ultraspeed is that I'm trying to add it to every drive I can! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Bryan- Paul Alhart told me there is a ROM chip that replaces the self-test in xl/xe that enables high speed transfer all the time. Sorry, I meant a 1050 ROM that doesn't require the extra RAM chip from the USD upgrade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 You need the RAM chip in the 1050 to hold the data from the DD sector. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 You need the RAM chip in the 1050 to hold the data from the DD sector. Yes, I know. Someone wrote a ROM which did it without any extra RAM. It used only the existing 256 bytes in the 1050. All other variables were cleverly preserved by other means. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 I have heard of it, but never tried it. It doesn't sound like it would be very good. That RAM chip is cheap and easy to stack onto the existing one. I have done many of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mathy Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Hello guys The unmodified 1050 only has 128 bytes of RAM inside. That's enough for an SD or ED sector, but DD needs 256 bytes per sector. So you have to add at least 128 extra bytes. Sincerely Mathy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMartian Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Actually, it has 256 bytes... 128 bytes in the 6532 RIOT, and 128 in a 6810. Not all that unique though, as the XF551 has only 256 bytes of RAM as well... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 (edited) Disclaimer: I am NOT good at ASCII (or any) Art, so I'll attach a pic. Proceed at your own risk Take a 6810 RAM. trim off the skinny part of pins 10 and 14. Stack and solder (carefully) all the pins that make contact (except 10 and 14) Using wire-wrap wire, jumper the the TOP pin 10 to the BOTTOM pin 14, and pin 12 of BOTH to TOP pin 14. Edited January 8, 2014 by Kyle22 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 The code in question used the stack for extra RAM as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 The code in question used the stack pointer for extra RAM as well. FTFY Yeah, I think there are some unneeded register bits in the support chips that can be used as well. I know it's not hard to solder more RAM in, but a ROM swap is easier and frankly, a cool hack. I'd just like to see how it's done. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 (edited) I would also like to know how it's done, but, I worry about compatibility problems. USD is kind of a standard. Also, I had a little trouble uploading the pics above. Can everyone see the full size version, and do they make sense? I tried to make it as easy as possible. One last point. There are versions on the net where you cut off pin 11 from the bottom chip. I can't ever remember doing this, and am not sure why anyone would leave /CS1 floating Edited January 8, 2014 by Kyle22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 If a DD sector can be successfully buffered and sent (or written), I don't see any reason it couldn't be 100% compatible if the rest of the code is written properly. I agree. Don't float inputs inless you want a flaky upgrade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1050 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Won't the Happy 1050 drive load the EA games if set to Unhappy mode first? It just might, I didn't know one could unhappy the thing when I ran head first into it. This was before internet, I may not have even been doing BBS yet and no real info on the Happy was at my fingertips. Returned the borrowed game disks long ago, so I still don't know for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
re-atari Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 (edited) Actually, it has 256 bytes... 128 bytes in the 6532 RIOT, and 128 in a 6810.Correct. To add to the discussion, the 6532's 128 bytes ram cannot be used as a sectorbuffer. They are needed for the CPU's zero page. AFAIK only Bernard Engl found a way around this in his '1050 Turbo' enhancement, this is the only speeder with DD capabilities without the need to add extra ram to 1050. It is a small piggyback PCB with just an eprom and logic chip. re-atari Edited January 8, 2014 by re-atari 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Correct. To add to the discussion, the 6532's 128 bytes ram cannot be used as a sectorbuffer. They are needed for the CPU's zero page. AFAIK only Bernard Engl found a way around this in his '1050 Turbo' enhancement, this is the only speeder with DD capabilities without the need to add extra ram to 1050. It is a small piggyback PCB with just an eprom and logic chip. re-atari Why can't zero page be used as a sector buffer? It's still just RAM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMartian Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Why can't zero page be used as a sector buffer? It's still just RAM. True.. Basically, there is no stack, and you can't use ZP-indirect addressing... Keep state in registers and go to it! Definitely the hard way to go around it, but no hardware mods are the way to go if you can! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.