What was the 1050 Kiwi chip for 1050?

[BillC]

The extra space left over is probably because the original firmware for a stock/USD 1050 is only 4KB, a labeled 1050 firmware EPROM is a 2732.

[Tickled_Pink]

What's hilarious, is the kiwi fruit over here, my 10 year old nephew laughs his ass off, because they look like a hairy ball-bag to him. He lets us know it too.

I swear that if you add a pinch of salt, they taste like it too.

[+Stephen]

I swear that if you add a pinch of salt, they taste like it too.

I am not even going to ask.

[HiassofT]

The extra space left over is probably because the original firmware for a stock/USD 1050 is only 4KB, a labeled 1050 firmware EPROM is a 2732.

Not quite - the supermax (or whatever it's called) only uses 4k of ROM and you use a switch to toggle between the upper and lower 4k half of the 2764. The lower 4k half supports ultra speed at divisor 10 and DD, the upper half seems to be some kind of "stock 1050" mode. But it's quite puzzling that only about 3k of the ROM seems to be actually used (and even more strange, the second, "slow" ROM, uses more code).

 

I checked the circuit and ROM dump and must say this has to be the weirdest upgrade I've seen so far.

 

The 6810 is removed from the 1050 - so you have no RAM in the first half of the zero page and stack page - and 1k of RAM is banked in at $800-$BFF. The LS42 controls CS of the RAM and is also used to disable mirroring of the RIOT in the $A00-$BFF area (this is what the "inverted A10" output going to the 1050 is for).

 

But, with this method mirroring of the FDC to $C00-$FFF can't be disabled, so only half of the 2k SRAM can be used.

 

And, well, the code is assembled for $5xxx - most other upgrades were assembled to $Fxxx (not that it matters, the 6507 doesn't have the highest address lines anyway).

 

Now for some questions:

 

It would be interesting to have some other ROM dumps so we can check if Guus' dump is correct.

 

Was there any supporting software available, like a diagnostic tool or some archiver/backup software?

 

Does this upgrade provide any custom SIO commands, like for example the possibility to upload code to the SRAM?

 

so long & thanks in advance for any further info,

 

Hias

[sup8pdct]

Now for some questions:

 

It would be interesting to have some other ROM dumps so we can check if Guus' dump is correct.

 

Was there any supporting software available, like a diagnostic tool or some archiver/backup software?

 

Does this upgrade provide any custom SIO commands, like for example the possibility to upload code to the SRAM?

 

so long & thanks in advance for any further info,

 

Hias

1) it is correct

2) Supermax required Superdos for best use. Back in the day, getting anything from over seas cost $$$$ this was a much cheaper local product.

3) Only extra commands are ' g = reset fdc: h= return ack only,: i is superdos skew format command single or double only.

I personally added the USD compatiable format command and one to read 256 bytes from anywhere in memory.

 

James

Edited July 18, 2014 by sup8pdct

[re-atari]

One small problem, I can't read the Eprom properly with my new Eprom burner. (The Eprom is a NEC D2764 and I guess it's too slow)

Strange, your All-07 should be able to read a 2764 without any problem. In my experience NEC eproms are very reliable and troublefree.

Maybe the hot weather over here in NL is bugging your efforts to read the eprom

 

re-atari

Edited July 18, 2014 by re-atari

[guus.assmann]

Ok, I should clarify this.

I can use 2 Hi-Lo programmer devices.

There's an ALL 100. This one is new and belongs to my employer. As it's newer and " hands on ready", this is the first one I use. (USB)

The older ALL 07 is mine. (Paralelle printer port)

What happened is, that I tried to read the Eprom with the ALL 100. And it seemed to work.

But the Eprom Content didn't work in the new device that's in development.

 

So next, I started the ALL 07 and read the Eprom. I copied it into a TI 2764 and tried it on the original Supermax in the 1050 drive. This worked.

Next I read the TI Eprom in the ALL100 programmer. It differed from the first attempt.

But still I didn't trust it.

So I put the program into a AMD 29F010, using the ALL07.

Then I read the 29F010 in the ALL 100 and compared it with the file from the TI 2764. Different again.

But the file from the 29F010 is correct and does also work in the new speeder.

 

So my conclusion is that the ALL 100 is not reliable for older Eproms. Most likely the reading speed is too high.

The first part seems ok, but the higher the address, the more error it gets. (Very fast looking over the file)

It doesn't have anything to doo with temperature. (Hi-Lo is in Taiwan and most likely also warm.... )

 

BR/

Guus

[HiassofT]

Hi James!

 

1) it is correct

2) Supermax required Superdos for best use. Back in the day, getting anything from over seas cost $$$$ this was a much cheaper local product.

3) Only extra commands are ' g = reset fdc: h= return ack only,: i is superdos skew format command single or double only.

I personally added the USD compatiable format command and one to read 256 bytes from anywhere in memory.

Thanks a lot for the info, this really helped a lot!

 

In the meanwhile I had a closer look at the code, AFAICT it uses only 256 bytes of the 6116. And the 'h command just sends an ACK - as you wrote. Yery strange, even immediate commands expect an ACK+COMPLETE...

 

so long,

 

Hias

[+Larry]

I was looking for docs and or software for the 1050 Supermax drive and was linked to this older thread. Read through it, but am unclear on a couple of things:

 

Is there any docs and specialized software for the Supermax or did it use use Happy software or something else? Or is it basically a "speeder" that does not have any specialized copy functions like the Happy or Archiver series? From above, this looks to be the case -- it's a speeder and anything extra was included in SuperDos. (?)

 

-Larry

[ijor]

Interesting thread ...

 

 

I have a "real" 1050 Happy Archiver disk, and it is very heavily copy-protected. The big difference between the Kiwi conversion (on a Happy 1050) and the real 1050 Happy Archiver is that the Happy Archiver software is built right into the conversion process (1 disk only).

Are you sure? I have an original Scan It (AFAIR that's how CSS named the Archiver emulator for Happy 1050) disk and it doesn't contain the actual Super Archiver software. That's on a separate disk, even when both disks were included in the product. My disks are original B&C, not actual CSS branded.

 

Are yours CSS branded disks? Can you make raw dumps (Super Copier or Kryoflux) of them?

[+Larry]

Hi Ijor-

 

Pretty darned sure. The "Scan It" 1050 Happy Archiver boots to the original Archiver (not the Super Archiver). Then, if desired, the Super Archiver can be booted (with most SA functions available).

 

The Kiwi does the Happy to Archiver conversion. Then the user must boot another Archiver disk, and in this case, I always boot to the Super Archiver software.

 

Are you saying that when you boot the Scan It disk, that you don't boot to the menu screen I show? Yes, all my disks were from Puff with the Super Archiver mods or from B&C for the Scan It 1050 HA.

 

Sorry, no working bit copier for my PC, and my original Scan It disks went bad long ago. I still have one of the two original disks, but it definitely will not load properly.

 

BTW, my Kiwi disk would not function properly with the MegaSpeedy version Happy (H1). It does not convert properly, so then the SA will not come up.

 

-Larry

[ijor]

Pretty darned sure. The "Scan It" 1050 Happy Archiver boots to the original Archiver (not the Super Archiver). Then, if desired, the Super Archiver can be booted (with most SA functions available).

 

Ah, yes, I forgot that doesn't include SA, but it does include the old original Archiver software.

 

I need to check, but I believe the menu on my SA disk was slightly different. I seem to remember mine included an Archiver version for Enhanced Density ??

[+Larry]

Yes, two versions. That's v3.03 (ed). This is 3.02 (sd).

[sup8pdct]

Superdos is the matching software. 4.3 and earlier was supermax exclusive. 5.1 included format routines to support USD format commands.

SuperMax is a USD clone but it doesent support the USD format command. It came with an 8k rom, 1/2 had a std 1050 rom to support copy protected disks as some wouldn't load with supermax rom.

 

When i got the rights to the 8bit line of super products, 1st thing i did was dissemble supermax and add in a USD format command, Added a small delay that fixed the protected software issue (USD had it, SuperMax didn't) and added a download command to read memory from anywhere in the memory map.

I was thinking of adding a smart buffer read VTOC and directory sectors depending on the dos. but didn't get there.

 

James

I was looking for docs and or software for the 1050 Supermax drive and was linked to this older thread. Read through it, but am unclear on a couple of things:

 

Is there any docs and specialized software for the Supermax or did it use use Happy software or something else? Or is it basically a "speeder" that does not have any specialized copy functions like the Happy or Archiver series? From above, this looks to be the case -- it's a speeder and anything extra was included in SuperDos. (?)

 

-Larry

[+Larry]

Thanks, James. That's a nice explanation!

 

Edit: Just out of curiosity, did you get the rights to any other Super products besides the Supermax and SuperDos?

 

Larry

[+Larry]

I manually turned the 1050 Happy Archiver disk in its jacket -- yuck! The disk has a number of really ugly spots where the binder appears to have failed. It's no wonder that the disk died long ago. I might add that these two disks have always been stored inside my house, so there have been no extremes of heat or humidity. Better quality disks would have been really nice. These were heavily protected, and could not be copied with Happy or Super Archiver.

 

-Larry

[ijor]

the 1050 Happy Archiver disk ... These were heavily protected, and could not be copied with Happy or Super Archiver.

 

Read my note about the SA protection: http://vapi.fxatari.com/docs/sa.html

[sup8pdct]

All 8 bit ones. superram, supermon, printmon , superled. across all 8bit platforms except XEGS and whatever wasn't available in australia. nothing for the 810.

Only received source for superdos.none of the others. I have sereral most of the boards.

Will visser kept the st ones namely supermon cart and ram upgrades.

I also have roms for the Hackers delight (John Nicholls) monitor and 1 board. It is 800 only. It has built in eprom burner software used with a burner kit done by an electronics mag in early 80's

 

James

Thanks, James. That's a nice explanation!

 

Edit: Just out of curiosity, did you get the rights to any other Super products besides the Supermax and SuperDos?

 

Larry