VBXE + Banked card

[Heaven/TQA]

can say Atarimax or SIC! cart used in combination with VBXE?

 

I am asking because when using the VBXE and it's capabilities... I don't want to feed the data through SIO into the 16k banked window of the VBXE. (think of (packed) gfx).

 

so... could be a flashcard be used say to bank in $8000-$bfff and I copy data from there $8000 to $4000 into the VBXE ram window?

 

I would avoid loading all data... I need my VBXE enhanced stuff on "cart" for faster loading times...

 

 

 

 

[Rybags]

I don't think there's any cartridge type that can't be used with VBXE.

 

The thing to remember of course is that cartridge addresses that are signified as being present by means of the RD5 and RD6 lines will always take precedence.

So the trick is, if doing a cartridge application for VBXE avoid using that range for VBXE memory windows.

 

And of course remember any data transfer to VBXE Ram can only be done by the CPU.

[Heaven/TQA]

Ok. And how? Just want to use the cart as "hdd"?

[Heaven/TQA]

I might recall that the window of VBXE can be configured to avoid 4000?

[Heaven/TQA]

Ah memac a instead b.... nice

[Rybags]

Yep, the non movable Memac is barely worth bothering with.

The cart can be used as a large data store but you still need to shovel the data around with the CPU. At least with VBXE you can turn off the Antic display to free up CPU cycles and have VBXE provide a loading screen during that time.

[Heaven/TQA]

Tried setting up memac a... but somehow it did not work...

 

Dok 1.24 seems not clear enough.

 

Rybags any advice?

 

Want to have an 1k window and not 16k.

 

Memac b works though at 4000ff

[Rybags]

There's only window sizes of 4, 8, 16 or 32K.

 

The 2 registers important for MEMAC_A -

 

MEMAC_CONTROL - bits 7-4 control where the window appears in the CPU/Antic address space, 16 possible addresses on $1000 boundaries.

bits 3-2 control if memory within the window is seen by CPU and Antic.

bits 1-0 control what the window size is.

 

MEMAC_BANK_SEL - bit 7 is global control of the MEMAC_A access, must be 1 for VBXE VRam to be able to override normal addresses.

bits 6-0 select which part of the VRAM is seen within the MEMAC_A window. Low bits are ignored in >= *K window size, ie the VRAM page will always be a multiple of the window size.

[Heaven/TQA]

But which adress? D65x?

[Rybags]

+5E is control, +5F is bank # according to the doc.

 

A good idea is to print out the manual, I did that and inserted into a transparent sheet book, then print the register map and have it as the front cover.

[pps]

Hi Heaven,

 

do you know about v1.26 of VBXE? Maybe the newer programmers guide might help you.

http://spiflash.org/node/10