Larry

I'm trying to create a flash cart image that will properly load and execute TBXL and the Compiler. Unfortunately, the EXE loader used for the flash images causes the programs to freeze during load or run. So my next idea is to find an EXE loader that will properly load both programs from disk, then to try put the disk image in the cart. I've tried this with several of my old EXE loaders, but thus far none work. (Interesting -- these programs load fine from DUP.SYS, but won't load from an EXE loader.) But all of my loaders are primarily from the pre-XL/XE days, so memory management may be the issue. (?) Can anyone suggest a few loaders for me to try, or is there an archive of loaders. (Can't find one thus far.) Or perhaps someone has already done all or part of this exercise? Thanks, Larry

Here's another possibility -- I think that I'll piggyback the 2732 with another + switch so that Synchromesh or UltraSpeed can be selected. By flipping the switch to Synchromesh, I can format disks to use with Ultraspeed. But I need to check that. Regular Synchromesh formats with a skew of 6. I think Super Synchromesh uses a skew of 5 (same as UltraSpeed) but it may be 4. And it's a good use for those 2732's I've collected out of old boards all these years! -Larry

I have not seen this particular board before, but it looks to have the correct number of chips to be a "Happy 1050" clone. -Larry

Hi Carsten- OK, you got me curious enough to get out my old "Starting Forth" (Leo Brodie) book. You've used "C!" several times, and according to SF, that means "store an 8-bit value to memory" while [email protected] means "fetch an 8-bit value from memory." Do you have a list available of the standard words used in VolksForth? (Or do they pretty much follow the Brodie book model?) FWIW: In addition to the RPN, many/most Forth words lack any degree of intuitiveness, and there are a bunch of them. Not the end of the world, but certainly an impediment to learning. Does Forth have any pre-processors as are available in C, or are there Forth dialects that would have more intuitive words? For instance, instead of "C!" why not "STOR8" for example? A related question -- is Forth (in general) tokenized internally for quicker processing? -Larry

Hi JR- SmartDos and 2.6x may have a common ancestor, but 2.6f predates SmartDos by several years. 2.6f was also known as "Black Dos" for obvious reason. It is nothing special (IMO). I always hated the hard-to-read black screen, so I made mine blue. Perhaps the best and earliest Dos hack was David Young's "Super Dup" version of Dos 2.0s. For a short period, it allowed copying games that could not be copied from regular Dos. Ah, those were the days... -Larry

Sweet Sixteen is fairly simple, like a couple of gates and the 65816. The clocks need to be skewed properly in order for it to be stable in all Atari 8-bits, but it works well in most machines. The 65816 in native mode is identical to the 6502. Same number of execution cycles, same bugs, even. (resolving branch addresses accross page boundaries doesn't work right, just like a 6502. The 65802 is NOT identical) The upgrade doesn't do anything to improve the operation of the 8-bit; it just allows you to play with 65816 coding. Yes, it's a drop-in. Why? Do you want one? Bob Yes, I'd like one, or even just the plan/schematic to build one. Do you know of any reason that it would not work with the 65816 OS (http://drac030.krap.pl/en-specyfikacja.php)? Or for that matter, the Turbo-816 OS? I'm not asking if it will work, just do you know of any reason that it may not. Thanks, Larry

Hi- I reprogrammed the 2732 today with your revised file. On a short-term test basis, my Indus recognizes and operates fine at UltraSpeed. It reads and writes well, but as you indicate, will only format with low speed skew. I never use ED, so that is a non-issue with me. Would be nice to have in the final version of this, but not essential to me. Thanks for the very useful revisions. -Larry

Hi Carsten- Thanks for the additional documentation -- it is very helpful. -Larry

I remember reading that frequently you can just piggyback a new memory chip on top of the old (friction fit). This allows quick testing and many times will work when the bad chip is "piggybacked." I've never had need to do this -- has anyone here done it? Might be a Q&D way to find your bad chip (unless you already know which it is). -Larry

What did you understand from the Forth code presented? What does this line do? SWAP $10 * + ROT DUP + AUDBASE + ROT OVER C! 1+ C!; I gleaned that loops are inverted, as pretty much everything in Forth is in RPN. I certainly laud Carsten's efforts, but unless one already *knew* Forth, I really doubt that the above line means much of anything. -Larry

The Sweet-16 I'm referring to is the 65816 replacement cpu that was sold briefly. Here's what I think I remember: It was sold briefly, and generally worked, but had some issues in some computers. It was supposedly quite simple (and not much bigger than the dip-40 IC). It was primarily developed by someone other than FTE. It needed some additional work, but AFAIK, the project died. No details ever released (that I am aware of). What's right; what's wrong, what's missing in the above? Why did it die? 65816's are cheap and readily available. This seems like a logical and pretty straight-forward improvement for our machines. -Larry

I don't know the details, but someone was supposedly working on putting "the Atari on an FPGA." He had supposedly made some progress. Perhaps someone is aware of some more details? -Larry I did find the person's "handle" -- "Mach Micro". That's pretty much all I know about it. I also would pose a question/comment about the basic accelerator design. Yes, Antic/GTIA?Pokey would be very nice, but I would much rather have an accelerator that would run Gr. 0 (or equivalent) and the Atari's languages at 8 MHz (or whatever) than never being able to achieve *any improvement* due to the Antic/GTIA constraints. I would think that would simply things quite a bit. (?) In this case, a half-loaf would be very welcome (to me). As regards Integer operations, there is a program in the Analog Extra (1987) that replaced Atari Basic's FP use with an Integer math-pack. It works with 8K Basic, but would not work with Basic XL. -Larry

There were several upgrades for the 800 that went into the 3rd memory slot. one was an 80 coloum card from Bit3 I think there was some sort of storage card as well. saw an add in an early mag but not much else about it. With one memory slot taken, one of the other 2 had to have 32K. the Middle ram slot was capable of handling 32k with a 16K board in the first slot. also, the atari 400 could also take the 32K card with no mods. The 800 by design can only have 48K of ram normally but there are mods to get around this limit. James I'm looking at the packaging/docs from one of these right now... In addition to James' excellent answer, early 800's were sold with only 16K, and I've heard that early, early models came with 8K. So you could upgrade as ram became cheaper by adding 2, 16K boards or 1, 32K board. 32K boards in general were cheaper than 2, 16K boards, had less RFI, and supposedly ran cooler. (?) For sure, heat was an issue if you had 3 ram boards + the OS board in the RFI shields/covers. The premier memory upgrade was of course the Axlon Ramdisk 128K board. Probably second was the Mosaic 64K board. There were a bunch of 32K boards from 3rd party suppliers. -Larry

This is a very nice hack, and one I'm planning to try this winter (my "slow season" away from my garden). Has anyone else successfully done this -or- plans on trying to duplicate it? Thinking ahead, an issue I see is that the TBXL + Compiler eprom would probably be better replaced (and project simplified?) by one with TBXL, only or TBXL + something else. Reason? The linker to make stand-alone .exe complied files would be nicer, I believe. Any thoughts would be appreciated, and if anyone wants to jump on-board on this project, that would be great. -Larry

Do you have pics available of your interfaces inside their enclosures?

Congratulations! A very nice hack! I've put testing this on my "must-do" list for next week. (It was that -or- paint the kitchen.) Could you tell us a little about how involved/difficult this was? I presume that even with the issue with ED (>$2D0), that it currently works with DD? -Larry

I don't know the details, but someone was supposedly working on putting "the Atari on an FPGA." He had supposedly made some progress. Perhaps someone is aware of some more details? -Larry

I have found it difficult to get a mouse to track very well with an Atari 8-bit, unless the computer is doing little else. However, that said, there is a pretty good mouse program that I believe came from the UK. IIRC, it was published in Page 6 in the early 1990's. I don't remember its name, but as I recall, it was not named "mouse". I also know that I have it, but so far, can't find it. Perhaps someone else remembers it, or you can find it at the Page 6 archive. It may also have been published in Atari Classics. (?) -Larry

Hi Beetle- What is TurboDup? Is this the the DUP.SYS package for Dos XF? -Larry

My memory of 800's is pretty rusty - IIRC, the 800 roms came in a pair + a math rom? If that is correct then the board can hold two OS plus the math rom that would be used with both? Interesting item. -Larry

It looks to be a stock 2 X 2764 type cart. My guess would be that the switch allows shutting off the cart so that only the ram underneath is seen by the computer. Would work the same way as the OSS files SCOFF and SCON. The wires all appear to be attached to the component side of the pcb. -Larry

An additional TBXL "version" is the cartridge from Video 61. It is a nice product that works well on my system. I presume that this is the regular 1.5 TBXL version. A nice feature is that you can return to your TBXL program intact by using the "M" (run at address) command at $2080. The only conflict that I have found with MyDos 4.50 using this "feature" is that if you have selected a new subdirectory (the R prompt), the system reverts to the drive-only default (D1:, D2:, etc.) as soon as you return to TBXL. I don't know about other Dos versions. -Larry

The linker can be found on Holmes CD#2. Look in Programming/Turbo Basic/TB_XL.ARC. I have used it several times, and thus far, it works perfectly.

Please do let us know! I'm always interested in "what works" with the MIO. -Larry

In addition to the differences mentioned, there was another change for NTSC computers. The splash screen still on mine says 1.5, but the "READY" prompt is changed to "TURBO". This version has the 50 Hz timing changed to 60 HZ so that TIME and related functions are correct on NTSC machines. I think this is the most common version distributed in the US. Also, various other example/utility programs were released with some distributions. One of the best was Ron Fetzer's full English documentation + examples which I believe was serialized in the Old Hackers' Newsletters. Another good disk release was the MWPD series which has several additional nice utility/demo programs. There are surely still others, but I'm not aware of any additional good Turbo Basic collections. Afterthought -- the TBXL Compiler/linker program is also outstanding, making stand-alone .EXE files that can be directly loaded from Dos. -Larry