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PNW - TI-99/4A Fest West 2016 - April 30th


Omega-TI

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey everyone, as you know, Ksarul has donated the GRAND PRIZE for TI-Fest West this year... and it's a beautiful piece of art in it's own right. Anyway, since I could not help myself and decided to take a peek, I figured I might as well share the view. ;-)

 

Thanks Jim, who ever wins this thing is gonna love it!

 

 

FRONT VIEW :lust:

gallery_35324_1027_2550399.jpg

 

BACK VIEW

gallery_35324_1027_310822.jpg

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One note, this iteration of the layout will only work in 1MB mode.

 

I think that's an issue anyone would be happy to work with! Sure a heck of a lot better than 32K. Once you start cranking these babies out, it'll be nice to see some of the more recent programs adopt some sort of test to determine if one is installed and possibly use it's memory.

 

I have no problems envisioning programs like Stuart's Browser or TIMXT having massive scroll back buffers, or maybe someday in the future Tursi or someone might make a F18A & SAMS capable GIF or JPG viewer or finally having the space for a GUI shell, a whole new class of games, or .... or .... or ... The future is looking bright.

 

I have what is probably a silly question, I really have no clue, but could MDOS be tweaked to work on a TI that has an F18A and a SAMS card or is that totally out of the realm of possibility? It's probably not due to the different systems architecture, but I thought it never hurts to ask the experts here.

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One note, this iteration of the layout will only work in 1MB mode. I have to make some changes to the inputs of the memory mapper chip to make the expansion work as a 4MB board.

Without to much trouble I can modify RXB to work with a 4 Meg SAMS board.

Here is the RXB SAMS documents:

                                                              PAGE AMS1
                              AMS MAPPER
     ******************************************************************
        The AMS card has tons of documents as to its function and use.
       So to re-explain these docs would be pointless. Read the docs or
       find some, sorry but the RXB package is already huge.
 
     In PASS mode the mapper register setup is equivalent to:
 
     mapper address  mapper  page num            address range
     --------------  ------  --------            -------------
      HEX     Dec            HEX  Dec             memory area
      ---     ---            ---  ---             -----------
     >4004 = 16388 is MR02 = >02 = 02 points to >2000 - >2FFF range
     >4006 = 16390 is MR03 = >03 = 03 points to >3000 - >3FFF range
 
     >4014 = 16404 is MR10 = >0A = 10 points to >A000 - >AFFF range
     >4016 = 16406 is MR11 = >0B = 11 points to >B000 - >BFFF range
     >4018 = 16408 is MR12 = >0C = 12 points to >C000 - >CFFF range
     >401A = 16410 is MR13 = >0D = 13 points to >D000 - >DFFF range
     >401C = 16412 is MR14 = >0E = 14 points to >E000 - >EFFF range
     >401E = 16414 is MR15 = >0F = 15 points to >F000 - >FFFF range
 
     (MR=Mapper Register)
 
     In MAP mode the mapper register setup is equivalent to: EXAMPLE1
 
     mapper address  mapper  page num            address range
     --------------  ------  --------            -------------
      HEX     Dec            HEX  Dec             memory area
      ---     ---            ---  ---             -----------
     >4004 = 16388 is MR02 = >10 = 16 points to >2000 - >2FFF range
     >4006 = 16390 is MR03 = >11 = 17 points to >3000 - >3FFF range
 
     >4014 = 16404 is MR10 = >12 = 18 points to >A000 - >AFFF range
     >4016 = 16406 is MR11 = >13 = 19 points to >B000 - >BFFF range
     >4018 = 16408 is MR12 = >14 = 20 points to >C000 - >CFFF range
     >401A = 16410 is MR13 = >15 = 21 points to >D000 - >DFFF range
     >401C = 16412 is MR14 = >16 = 22 points to >E000 - >EFFF range
     >401E = 16414 is MR15 = >17 = 23 points to >F000 - >FFFF range
 
     (MR=Mapper Register)




                                                             PAGE AMS2
     
     In MAP mode the mapper register setup is equivalent to: 
     EXAMPLE2
 
     mapper address  mapper  page num            address range
     --------------  ------  --------            -------------
      HEX     Dec            HEX  Dec             memory area
      ---     ---            ---  ---             -----------
     >4004 = 16388 is MR02 = >19 = 31 points to >2000 - >2FFF range
     >4006 = 16390 is MR03 = >01 = 01 points to >3000 - >3FFF range
 
     >4014 = 16404 is MR10 = >09 = 09 points to >A000 - >AFFF range
     >4016 = 16406 is MR11 = >00 = 00 points to >B000 - >BFFF range
     >4018 = 16408 is MR12 = >07 = 07 points to >C000 - >CFFF range
     >401A = 16410 is MR13 = >18 = 30 points to >D000 - >DFFF range
     >401C = 16412 is MR14 = >05 = 05 points to >E000 - >EFFF range
     >401E = 16414 is MR15 = >04 = 04 points to >F000 - >FFFF range
 
     (MR=Mapper Register)
                                                                
       As you can see you can switch pages around all you want.
 
       Each 4K page of the AMS memory can be engaged even into every
      4K section of the 32K at once. Thus giving multiple copies of
      the same 4K in every 4K chunk. Doing this has few uses but
      it demonstrates the flexibility of the AMS mapper.
       RXB uses AMS memory like this:
 
      1. 32K is used for pass mode. Think of it like a normal TI.
         24K for XB programs and variables, and lower 8K assembly
         support.
 
      2. 32K is used for future use. Stashed away for RXB future use.
         Pages 0,1,4,5,6,7,8,9 are for future use.         
 
      3. 4K pages of the rest of the AMS are for AMSBANK, a RXB
         routine that needs two (2) 4K pages of the AMS for the
         lower 8K of Assembly support. Pages 16 to 255 AMSBANK.
 
      4. If a 256K AMS is used by RXB then 32K PASS mode, 32K future
         use, and the rest for AMSBANK. So 32+32=64 and 256-64=192
         then 192K of AMS 4K pages would be 192/4=48 or 48 pages of
         AMSBANK. Now the lower 8K needs two 4K pages because of
         course 8/4=2 so 48/2=24 and that means 24  8K assembly
         support routines from one XB program.
                                                           PAGE AMS3

       5. BSAVE and BLOAD in RXB are subroutines to save or load the
          lower 8K as Program Image files. 33 sectors in length they
          are only used by BSAVE or BLOAD. The reasons for BSAVE is
          to save the lower 8K in one easy to load chunk. ALSAVE
          that creates hidden loaders has one huge disadvantage.
          ALSAVE can only save one assembly support program at a
          time. Also it can't load more than one support routine and
          XB program to run it. BLOAD can load many support routines
          into the AMS and control them from one XB program.
          BLOAD and BSAVE can do what ALSAVE can't. Also up to 1Meg
          can be loaded into the AMS from one XB program and the
          same program run the assembly support routines.
 
       6. ISR (Interrupt Service Routine) hooks are used by many XB
          programs so CALL ISROFF and CALL ISRON are for RXB to
          control the problems created by them. Also compatibility
          between software packages is ensured.

       7. AMSBANK is the primary way RXB manages memory. 
          pages 16 to 255 are numbers in AMSBANK as 0 to 240 so
          pages 2,3,10,11,12,13,14,15 are for pass mode and
          pages 0,1,4,5,6,7,8,9 are unused for future use.
          Thus 240*4=960K of AMS is in AMSBANK.
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One note, this iteration of the layout will only work in 1MB mode. I have to make some changes to the inputs of the memory mapper chip to make the expansion work as a 4MB board.

 

As things get off the ground, it would be nice to see a list of programs that take advantage of SAMS. schmitzi?!? ;)

 

Rich - does B. Snyder's XB Packer work with RXB? If you update RXB, do you want to take a stab at updating XB Packer? I believe I have all of the source code from him tucked away.

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As things get off the ground, it would be nice to see a list of programs that take advantage of SAMS. schmitzi?!? ;)

 

Rich - does B. Snyder's XB Packer work with RXB? If you update RXB, do you want to take a stab at updating XB Packer? I believe I have all of the source code from him tucked away.

I could do that I guess but I am not that great at Assembly vs others. And I think XB Packer was Assembly with a little GPL thrown in.

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I could do that I guess but I am not that great at Assembly vs others. And I think XB Packer was Assembly with a little GPL thrown in.

When/if someone starts a SAMS/AMS thread, I can re-upload the source there. It isn't clear to me if this is the final release source code; I couldn't find my XB Packer program disks to compare.

XBPacker AMS SAMS 12 SourcePC99.DSK

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Uh, you're scaring off us newbies.

 

Scaring off might be a little strong for me, but yes, I know I will struggle to add much to the many conversations to be had. I will have to keep it to the basics; "I like parsec", "them stock joystick sure are stiff and unresponsive", or "I would love to find a PEB for a decent price".

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Scaring off might be a little strong for me, but yes, I know I will struggle to add much to the many conversations to be had. I will have to keep it to the basics; "I like parsec", "them stock joystick sure are stiff and unresponsive", or "I would love to find a PEB for a decent price".

 

I wouldn't worry too much about the heavy duty programming stuff... until or if you are ever ready to tackle it. Many of these guys have been doing that sort of stuff for 30+ years and probably know their TI's more intimately than their own wives I'm sure! ;) A lot of us here have eyeballs that glaze over when we see E/A code, I'm one of those guys. Truth is, everyone here has different talents, interests and motivations. Everyone is welcome. Many of us returning guys took a while to get our feet wet again.

 

Really, if you have a TI or even run emulation only you're still welcome. When I got back into the TI is was due to Tursi's Classic99 emulator. I had forgotten so much over the years it was not funny, but it was fun! Then I met up with a TI user about 50 miles north of me who got me into real iron... oh boy... it's all his fault! :D

 

Over time you'll pick up more knowledge, try new things, get more goodies and will probably be helping out one of the next batch of newbies.

 

Now since you are coming to Fest West, you just might get that PEB you are looking for!

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Probably need to let us know what you need repaired so we can be prepared to make it repaired

 

Greg

I have a beige non QI system that powers up with a black screen. Case in great shape. This is an extra unit of mine so not the end of the world if it would be a pain to fix.

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I have a beige non QI system that powers up with a black screen. Case in great shape. This is an extra unit of mine so not the end of the world if it would be a pain to fix.

 

Have you opened it up? Checked for power voltages? I can bring a internal power supply and possibly a vdp. It usually is one of those.

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