Expander OS

[JGRAHAM2]

Has anyone seen/used this OS? It allows multiple RAM disks and the ability to boot from a RAM disk. How would this have been used? I used RAM disks to improve performance back in the 80s, but it was just as a second drive used for data reference files. I did find articles referring to the OS. It was on one of my 800XLs stacked on the original ROM.

 

https://www.atarimagazines.com/atariclassics/v2n4/moonlight_workshop.php?fbclid=IwAR2Eo1qz5gvfEF4b8U6moM4C3E3GQHgdz0E5Rik4nEeiZp4NynpuNYu_2W0
 

https://www.atarimagazines.com/v6n11/empowering8bit.html?fbclid=IwAR0jXsuE8yEUY7PzQgClXUZwrWx7nAvXnYrTEZc7ZpNpNx-__CMAy51cmC0
 

 

 

 

[Rybags]

Most likely usage case - have a hotkey that can do a coldstart without clearing extended Ram, then boot your favourite Dos from the Ramdisk.

Initial startup of course would see you needing to populate the Ramdisk with the bootable image which would be slower than a normal boot but in theory you could work all day without need for slow Dos startups.  And in theory play normal disk bootable games and still have your Ramdisk images intact.

[E474]

Hi,

 

   Has anyone tried flashing this to a SysCheck 2 - it looks like a useful combo, though adding in @HiassofT's HSIO code would be a pretty good extension? 

 

   My systems are boxed up at the moment, so can't test this myself.

[+Nezgar]

Is a ROM dump available somewhere?

 

Edit: @JGRAHAM2 Since you mentioned this is installed in one of your 800XL's, here is a BASIC utility that will dump the OS ROM to a disk file:

https://www.wudsn.com/productions/atari800/atariromchecker/help/AtariROMChecker.html

[doctor_x]

BBS operations????

[JGRAHAM2]

On 1/6/2021 at 9:29 PM, Nezgar said:

Is a ROM dump available somewhere?

 

Edit: @JGRAHAM2 Since you mentioned this is installed in one of your 800XL's, here is a BASIC utility that will dump the OS ROM to a disk file:

https://www.wudsn.com/productions/atari800/atariromchecker/help/AtariROMChecker.html

I’ll try to get that this weekend.

[JGRAHAM2]

On 1/8/2021 at 7:55 AM, JGRAHAM2 said:

I’ll try to get that this weekend.

Here is the OS ROM for “The EXPANDERS RAM-DRIVE PROGRAM “. 

ExpanderOS.ROM

[JGRAHAM2]

Just a note that you hold select when you boot up to get to the menu. It doesn’t load from disk unless you go through this menu. To load from a disk drive instead of the RAM disks, just hit return and answer with the drive number you want to load from. It will then load normally.

[JGRAHAM2]

On 1/6/2021 at 11:22 PM, doctor_x said:

BBS operations????

Could be. I got the computer in a lot from someone who inherited it from his father. It included a Happy modified 1050.

[1050]

A quick look tells me this is an 800 rom layout with typical values for same at the last three vectors of the file. Which is a quandary due to ram disk involvement which typically works port b on XL/XE only, unless everything here is using an axlon ramdisk? At any rate, the dump is highly appreciated here as it can serve as an interesting disassembly with unique treatments of ramdisk operations - and I just LOVE that stuff. Thanks so much.

 

So the self test data section is all zeros, it might be that they are actually written into the ROM as zeros. Which means it could be a toss up to burn this, pop it into an XL/XE and have it work right. Also unknown is if special disks bring in other code that needs this code to work, there seems to be an error message in atascii that complains of bad data on a disk - so there could be missing code for this toy on a disk somewhere. All I have at the moment and it was a hurried look thru it.

[JGRAHAM2]

I found a 130XE from the same lot with this OS and 512GB of RAM, switchable down to 128. 

[JGRAHAM2]

9 hours ago, JGRAHAM2 said:

I found a 130XE from the same lot with this OS and 512GB of RAM, switchable down to 128. 
 

512GB ? I wish! 512K of course

 

[_The Doctor__]

seems pretty straight forward as it says you need 512 to use it, load it on a 512k machine and have at it.

[+Nezgar]

Well I must say -- this OS is really obtuse. Without documentation, after trying a bunch of "What ifs..." in Altirra when trying for hidden options in the SELECT+RESET menu and mashing every key on the keyboard, I can't figure out how to access the mini-dos in this OS... it's evident that it's THERE in the OS dump when looking at it in a hex editor, but haven't found the magic action to invoke it yet:

000008F0                                         28 43 29               (C)
00000900  31 39 38 36 20 42 79 20 52 2E 47 2E 54 2E 9B 9B  1986 By R.G.T.››
00000910  20 44 31 3A 4F 46 46 20 44 32 3A 4F 46 46 20 44   D1:OFF D2:OFF D
00000920  33 3A 4F 46 46 20 44 34 3A 4F 46 46 20 44 35 3A  3:OFF D4:OFF D5:
00000930  4F 46 46 9B 9B 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 41 2E 20  OFF››        A. 
00000940  46 4F 52 4D 41 54 20 41 20 44 52 49 56 45 9B 20  FORMAT A DRIVE› 
00000950  20 20 20 20 20 20 20 42 2E 20 43 4F 50 59 20 57         B. COPY W
00000960  48 4F 4C 45 20 44 49 53 4B 9B 20 20 20 20 20 20  HOLE DISK›      
00000970  20 20 43 2E 20 45 58 49 54 20 54 4F 20 53 59 53    C. EXIT TO SYS
00000980  54 45 4D 9B 9B 9B 4D 41 4B 45 20 53 45 4C 45 43  TEM›››MAKE SELEC
00000990  54 49 4F 4E 20 4F 52 20 48 49 54 20 D2 C5 D4 D5  TION OR HIT ÒÅÔÕ
000009A0  D2 CE 20 46 4F 52 20 4D 45 4E 55 9B D3 CE C7 C4  ÒÎ FOR MENU›ÓÎÇÄ
000009B0  C2 CC 44 52 49 56 45 20 23 20 54 4F 20 46 4F 52  ÂÌDRIVE # TO FOR
000009C0  4D 41 54 9B 4E 45 45 44 20 44 52 49 56 45 20 23  MAT›NEED DRIVE #
000009D0  31 2D 35 9B 53 4F 55 52 43 45 20 44 52 49 56 45  1-5›SOURCE DRIVE
000009E0  3A 9B 44 45 53 54 20 44 52 49 56 45 3A 9B 48 49  :›DEST DRIVE:›HI
000009F0  54 20 D2 C5 D4 D5 D2 CE 20 57 48 45 4E 20 52 45  T ÒÅÔÕÒÎ WHEN RE
00000A00  41 44 59                                         ADY

This seems critical in getting a disk copied into one of the RAM drives before swapping it do drive # 1... Otherwise you can swap one into drive 1 and attempt to boot it unsuccessfully from the SELECT+RESET menu.

 

Or maybe its a CTRL-SHIFT-# keyboard combination that I can't reproduce easily under emulation... May have to burn it to a PROM and try it in a real machine...

 

I was able to get it to not swap any drives, but set drive 2 as a boot drive. Booting a DOS 2.0S disk in D2: dropped into BASIC, but then when typing DOS it fails to load DUP as I guess it expects that on D1:

 

A few observations:

• As @1050 surmised, it does feel like a hacked 800 OS
• Immediately apparent: Ugly default GR.0/E: screen with dark blue border & black background
• typing "BYE" from BASIC puts you into MEMOPAD, but prints no text indicating it has done such.. You just notice that it no longer parses BASIC commands. Similarly, booting with OPTION pressed and no disk drive puts you in a blank GR.0/E: editor/memopad screen with no banner.
• The keyclick & Ctrl-2 bell sounds has been altered & shortened
• Key repeat delay has been shortened and repeat rate increased
• Instead of "BOOT ERROR" for a non bootable disk, it prints "ILLEDGIBLE DATA PLEASE INSERT DISK" (Yes, with illegible spelled incorrectly)
• Holding START does not invoke cassette boot. Attempting a CLOAD CSAVE will play the tones, then print ERROR 155 when return is pressed. So cassette routines appear to have been removed.

I found there was a review of this in Antic March '88, also not terribly favourable. ?

https://www.atarimagazines.com/v6n11/empowering8bit.html

 

Also, @hunmanik's FAQ only has a few lines about it: (so far!)

Expander, by Syngery Concepts, 1987
- XL OS with added Executive Program for managing up to four Port B banked
  memory RAM drives of up to 512KiB; boot from any RAM drive or any floppy
  disk drive; built-in mini-DOS

Some screenshots:

 

Curious what others can find... Especially how to get into the mini-DOS...

[JGRAHAM2]

I did burn this to an EPROM, but I haven’t tried to do anything useful with it. It seemed to work just like the original for what I did do. The lot I purchased had two highly used computers, a 800XL with 256K and a 130XE with 512K. It also came with 2 modified 1050s. He must have found something it was good for. Unfortunately, I don’t have any of his disks and his son really didn’t know much about it.