spinnaker15136 Posted April 29, 2019 Share Posted April 29, 2019 Was wondering if someone could point me to a SIO disk emulator project with source code comments in English? The piece I am mainly interested in right now is just the part that emulates the various Atari drives when it comes to the Atari talking to the disk dive. I think I found the source code for SDDRive max but I am having difficulty figuring ou the part of the code that emulates the disk drive communication and does the work of processing the various command from the host. https://github.com/kbr-net/sdrive-max p Can anyone help? The simpler the better as long as it is working. Later I would like the code to read and write ATR files but for now I would be happy with just emulating a disk drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spinnaker15136 Posted April 29, 2019 Author Share Posted April 29, 2019 Also I have tge OS manual but if there is a good tutorial on host to drive communication over the SIO then that would be very helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E474 Posted April 29, 2019 Share Posted April 29, 2019 (edited) Hi, Nick Kennedy: http://pages.suddenlink.net/wa5bdu/sio2pc.htm Hias's: https://www.horus.com/~hias/atari/ and The Montezuma's: Sio2bsd https://github.com/TheMontezuma/SIO2BSD And check out the RespeQt thread. Edited April 29, 2019 by E474 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted April 29, 2019 Share Posted April 29, 2019 and APE and Critical connection (s-100, CP/M 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urchlay Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 and APE and Critical connection (s-100, CP/M OP was looking for source code... APE hasn't become open source, hasit? (That would be news worthy of notice) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 OP was looking for source code... APE hasn't become open source, has it? (That would be news worthy of notice) yep you are right, I didn't even see the part about he wanted the source code. WOW. I can't even blame it on the time of day either Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricortes Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 I found the Atari Technical Reference manual to be invaluable for is kind of stuff. http://www.atarimania.com/documents/atari-800-technical-reference-notes.pdf The SIO stuff starts around page 40+ It is that literal. I've hung a serial monitor on the lines and absolutely no surprises. IIRC, computer wakes up, sends a couple of STATUS commands down the line in the format listed in the manual, if a device is there, it responds to the STATUS command and they start talking. There's some other hand shaking that goes on like device only get 100 msecs to respond or the computer moves on, that is that groaning buzz you hear when you start up an Atari w/o anything attached. Happens to fast for human intervention in real time. By that I mean if you run something like SIO2PC or APE that monitor the communication things change in the display so fast you can't tell anything other then the last command. Just a wag, I found the TRM a fascinating read, couldn't put it down. I am a little weird that way. If you are kind of weird that way too or at least obsessive to the point where you will do anything to get the job done, the TRM is your best bet. Helps to speak a little 6502 assembly language too as there is a listing for the OS that lets you really get into the nuts and bolts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spinnaker15136 Posted April 30, 2019 Author Share Posted April 30, 2019 I found the Atari Technical Reference manual to be invaluable for is kind of stuff. http://www.atarimania.com/documents/atari-800-technical-reference-notes.pdf The SIO stuff starts around page 40+ It is that literal. I've hung a serial monitor on the lines and absolutely no surprises. IIRC, computer wakes up, sends a couple of STATUS commands down the line in the format listed in the manual, if a device is there, it responds to the STATUS command and they start talking. There's some other hand shaking that goes on like device only get 100 msecs to respond or the computer moves on, that is that groaning buzz you hear when you start up an Atari w/o anything attached. Happens to fast for human intervention in real time. By that I mean if you run something like SIO2PC or APE that monitor the communication things change in the display so fast you can't tell anything other then the last command. Just a wag, I found the TRM a fascinating read, couldn't put it down. I am a little weird that way. If you are kind of weird that way too or at least obsessive to the point where you will do anything to get the job done, the TRM is your best bet. Helps to speak a little 6502 assembly language too as there is a listing for the OS that lets you really get into the nuts and bolts. Looks like the hard copy I have from years gone by. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoSch Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 (edited) There is also RespeQt. The newest version is in https://github.com/ebiguy/RespeQt in the branch "develop". Edited May 1, 2019 by JoSch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricortes Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 Soap box attack warning! I've been a pretty vocal advocate for structured and clearly written source code since maybe the 80s? Ditto for some things like tools should be obvious and easy to use. Just look at the C code threads in the programming section. Takes people longer to get the tools running then it does to learn the language. Ditto for some of the great hacks we've seen. Not knocking things like Nick's SIO2PC, just that all you have to do is learn 8086 assembly language to understand the code. Some people don't seem to get what I am talking about. I've heard some people like Willy Mays make lousy coaches. What happens is they take for granted their skills and can't conceive of someone not having the same level of understanding i.e. Just go to the plate and swing the bat! Presto! Home run! It is a moving target. Best to keep it updated with current tools and conventions. I think Hias wrote some good C code for Linux or BSD that was pretty obvious and simple to understand. Since then the price of entry to figuring out SIO communication is anything but obvious or simple given the software and price of entry like build a Linux box and learn GNU C. Some of us had heroes like Bill Wilkinson. It wasn't because he threw a touchdown in Super Bowl XIV. It was because as brilliant as he was, he could still teach people and convey knowledge in an easily understood manner. He understood his audience and was more about inviting people to the club of understanding then showing off his ability to write obtuse code. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiassofT Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 I'd also recommend reading through the Serial Input/Output Interface User's manual, it contains lots of interesting info and details eg http://ftp.pigwa.net/stuff/collections/nir_dary_cds/Tech%20Info/SIOSPECS.PDF so long, Hias 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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