Fun with the Ultimate 1MB Upgrade

[AGiambra]

I purchased the Ultimate 1MB Upgrade recently and have been having a lot of fun with it.  One thing I really wanted to do was take advantage of all that extra memory.  I had written some programs that copied sectors from one disk to another and because of Atari's limited memory, they had to make several passes in order to copy an entire disk.

 

So I went back and rewrote my sector copiers, allowing them to use bank switched memory to do the copy.  Now when they run, they suck an entire single or double density into memory before beginning to write out the copy.  It only takes one pass.  It is so cool to watch it run.

 

Both programs will automatically detect the density of the drives.  Both programs will now also automatically detect and copy an Atari 2.5 disk.  SECTCOPY will copy all 1040 sectors.  SECTVTOC will copy only used sectors. 

 

It is no longer necessary to insert a double density drive in drive 1 before you load the sector copy programs.  You can now boot from a single density drive with Sector Copy on it and run it.  Then insert a double density source drive and press START.  The program will detect the density of the source disk and copy it correctly.

 

Both programs will also automatically detect how much memory you have in your Atari.  If you 320 Rambo, 576 CompyShop or a full 1 MB of RAM, the programs will detect and use it.  If you have STOCK memory installed, it will also be detected.

 

IMPORTANT:  These programs were written for the Ultimate 1 MB upgrade.  Atari 130XE machines also have extended memory but these programs should not be used on an Atari 130XE.  The memory on these machines is handled differently.

 

Have fun!

 

I've attached an ATR with the programs.  They are:

 

SECTCOPY - This will copy all 720 sectors from one disk to another.

 

SECTVTOC - This will examine the VTOC and only copy used sectors from one disk to another.

 

 

I hope someone has some fun with these.

 

 

 

 

 

SC130XE.atr

Sectcopy.atr

Edited October 21, 2023 by AGiambra

[Beeblebrox]

Nice - thanks

[erichenneke]

Very cool. 

[+scorpio_ny]

Thank you!!!

[TGB1718]

I wrote one bitd that used 130XE extra memory, single/enhanced density in one pass, DD in 2 passes.

It also skipped empty sectors (as an option) also format was an option too.

 

1 hour ago, AGiambra said:

SECTVTOC - This will examine the VTOC and only copy used sectors from one disk to another.

If it's doing this, which DOS's is it compatible with ?

Edited November 10, 2022 by TGB1718

[AGiambra]

It's compatible with standard Atari DOS.  This includes DOSXL.  I have not tested it with other forms of DOS.  I'm sure it won't work on Atari DOS 2.5 since this uses more than 720 sectors.

[Peri Noid]

1 hour ago, AGiambra said:

 

So I went back and rewrote my sector copiers, allowing them to use bank switched memory to do the copy.  Now when they run, they suck an entire single or double density into memory before beginning to write out the copy.  It only takes one pass.  It is so cool to watch it run.

 

Is it possible to expand this software to copy DSDD (360KB) disks? Or maybe even 720KB? It's still within the capacity of U1MB-equipped machine. And will it run inder SDX? It seems obvious since it's a "default" DOS when you have a U1MB.

[AGiambra]

My apologies!  I made some changes to the programs at the last minute and did not do a thorough job of testing.  I said that the programs were smart.  But I discovered that if you run them with no extended memory available, they did not work because of those last minute changes I made.

 

Attached is an ATR with the corrected versions of the programs.  These will run correctly whether there is extended memory available or not.

 

Sorry about that.....

Sector Copier.atr

[BillC]

23 hours ago, AGiambra said:

So I went back and rewrote my sector copiers, allowing them to use bank switched memory to do the copy.  Now when they run, they suck an entire single or double density into memory before beginning to write out the copy.  It only takes one pass.  It is so cool to watch it run.

There were sector copiers BITD that would do similar, as long as the computer had at least 256K(800XL) or 320K(130XE) they would copy up to a 180K DSDD floppy in a single pass.

 

An interesting copier is the version by HAPPY for 1050s with their upgrade, I don't believe it would do single pass but would read from a source HAPPY drive and then write to multiple destination HAPPY drives at the same time. This was very useful for those who needed to make many copies of the same disk but it requires multiple HAPPY upgraded 1050 drives.

[+Stephen]

47 minutes ago, BillC said:

There were sector copiers BITD that would do similar, as long as the computer had at least 256K(800XL) or 320K(130XE) they would copy up to a 180K DSDD floppy in a single pass.

 

An interesting copier is the version by HAPPY for 1050s with their upgrade, I don't believe it would do single pass but would read from a source HAPPY drive and then write to multiple destination HAPPY drives at the same time. This was very useful for those who needed to make many copies of the same disk but it requires multiple HAPPY upgraded 1050 drives.

The coolest copier I ever got to use, is in my Mega Speedy 1050.  There is a version that will read an entire disk into internal drive RAM, and blast copies out faster than a normal format takes.  It's crazy cool - it only reads the source file once, and can keep cranking out copies from the internal RAM.

 

[bfollowell]

27 minutes ago, Stephen said:

The coolest copier I ever got to use, is in my Mega Speedy 1050.  There is a version that will read an entire disk into internal drive RAM, and blast copies out faster than a normal format takes.  It's crazy cool - it only reads the source file once, and can keep cranking out copies from the internal RAM.

 

That is insane! I would have loved to have had that BITD. When I think of all the hours I spent copying disks; all the hours of my life I'll never get back. I had a blast though.

 

[+CharlieChaplin]

1 hour ago, Stephen said:

The coolest copier I ever got to use, is in my Mega Speedy 1050.  There is a version that will read an entire disk into internal drive RAM, and blast copies out faster than a normal format takes.  It's crazy cool - it only reads the source file once, and can keep cranking out copies from the internal RAM.

 

 

And if you just want that super fast speeder (floppy enhancement) and do not need a track display and dozens of other speeders - the Mini Super Speedy by tf_hh is the thing you are looking for.   https://www.van-radecke.de/STUFF/tfhh_HW_info.pdf

[AGiambra]

Stephen mentioned the Happy Drive that would write to multiple destinations.  Here's a video of it is use:

 

 

Which leads to Confessions Of A Nerd:  I saw this video about a year ago and the nerd inside me just could not stand it.  I already had two 1050 drives with the Happy enhancement.  I went out to Ebay and bought two more 1050s.  Then I bought two Happy enhancements and installed them, so now I had four 1050s with the Happy enhancement.  And all so that I could perform the multiple copy just like the guy in the video.  I cannot explain it but this Atari stuff makes people crazy!

[BillC]

3 hours ago, AGiambra said:

Stephen mentioned the Happy Drive that would write to multiple destinations.  Here's a video of it is use:

 

Which leads to Confessions Of A Nerd:  I saw this video about a year ago and the nerd inside me just could not stand it.  I already had two 1050 drives with the Happy enhancement.  I went out to Ebay and bought two more 1050s.  Then I bought two Happy enhancements and installed them, so now I had four 1050s with the Happy enhancement.  And all so that I could perform the multiple copy just like the guy in the video.  I cannot explain it but this Atari stuff makes people crazy!

The Happy 1050 upgrade and V7.0 software has also been around for over 35 years, pretty capable for such old hardware/software.

[Mathy]

Hello guys

 

Now all we ned is somebody to extend this so we could use eight diskdrives at a time.  And maybe incorporate this feature into the Super- and MegaSpeedy.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

[AGiambra]

I've come back to this project to improve these programs.  I rewrote all of them so that the programs will automatically sense whether the drives are single or double density.  In addition, all of the programs will automatically sense whether the Ultimate 1MB is installed and extra memory is available.  If so, the programs will use it.

 

The only requirement is that the source and destination drives must be the same density.

 

The new versions of the programs are:

 

SECTCOPY - The program will copy all sectors from the source drive to the destination.

SECTVTOC - This program will copy only used sectors from the source to the destination.

 

 

 

Edited October 2, 2023 by AGiambra

[AGiambra]

Well, as usual I got a little ahead of myself.  I noticed that when the program is run it displays SECTOR COPY DD indicating that this is a double density operation.  It displays this even though a single density disk is inserted.

 

My apologies.  Attached is a new ATR with corrected copies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 2, 2023 by AGiambra

[macsonny]

On 11/12/2022 at 9:25 AM, Stephen said:

The coolest copier I ever got to use, is in my Mega Speedy 1050.  There is a version that will read an entire disk into internal drive RAM, and blast copies out faster than a normal format takes.  It's crazy cool - it only reads the source file once, and can keep cranking out copies from the internal RAM.

 

Hey, could I ask a favor. Can you please take a close up photo of the controller board for your MegaSpeedy? I have reproduced these boards and mostly got them working but I can't seem to get the controller boards working right. If you could take some close-up detailed photos of both sides of the controller board it would really help. Hope that's ok.

[AGiambra]

I discovered some bugs in my Sector Copy programs when it comes to copying double density disks.  I am sorry that I did not test these thoroughly enough.

 

I have fixed the bugs and thoroughly tested each one of the programs.  They are now working correctly.  Attached is a new copy.  Throw away your earlier ones and replace them with these.

 

Thanks for your patience with me.  Hah!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 2, 2023 by AGiambra

[ivop]

You might want to send a message to Albert and get permission to edit the first post of this thread. That way you can attach the latest version(s) there.

[AGiambra]

Thanks IVOP.  I did contact Albert and I have successfully edited all the attachments on this post with the latest versions.  Good advice!

 

I wanted also to point out the correct way to use the sector copier when copying double density disks.  The proper procedure is to boot your Atari from the double density disk you wish to copy (or from any double density disk).  Insert the Sector copier disk is Drive 2.  Execute the program using D2:COPY NAME where copy name is SECTVTOC or SECTCPY3 or any of the copier programs.

 

Now insert the double density disk in drive 1 and a blank formatted double density disk in Drive 2 and press START.

 

The reason you must do it this way is because when you start the sector copy program the first thing it does is check Drive 1 to discover the density of the disk there.  So a double density disk must be in Drive 1 so that the program knows that this is a DD copy.

Edited September 21, 2023 by AGiambra

[AGiambra]

I've made improvements to two of the Sector Copy programs.  Features of the two programs are:

 

Both programs will automatically detect the density of the drives.  Both programs will now also automatically detect and copy an Atari 2.5 disk.  SECTCOPY will copy all 1040 sectors.  SECTVTOC will copy only used sectors. 

 

It is no longer necessary to insert a double density drive in drive 1 before you load the sector copy programs.  You can now boot from a single density drive with Sector Copy on it and run it.  Then insert a double density source drive and press START.  The program will detect the density of the source disk and copy it correctly.

 

Both programs will also automatically detect how much memory you have in your Atari.  If you 320 Rambo, 576 CompyShop or a full 1 MB of RAM, the programs will detect and use it.  If you have STOCK memory installed, it will also be detected.

 

IMPORTANT:  These programs were written for the Ultimate 1 MB upgrade.  Atari 130XE machines also have extended memory but these programs should not be used on an Atari 130XE.  The memory on these machines is handled differently.

 

Have fun!

 

 

Sectcopy.atr

[+Larry]

Hi Angelo-

"IMPORTANT:  These programs were written for the Ultimate 1 MB upgrade.  Atari 130XE machines also have extended memory but these programs should not be used on an Atari 130XE.  The memory on these machines is handled differently."

 

Can you explain the difference(s)?

 

Thanks!

[pirx]

If anyone finds it interesting here are sources of our similar software: https://github.com/pkali/omc65/blob/master/test/MK720.S65

It detects various PORTB-based memory expansions and can copy disks up to 720KiB and sectors up to 512 bytes. I doubt it'd see 1MiB of RAM, possibly the largest memory we heard of in 1992 was 256KiB. 

Oh yes, I just checked the code, 256 KiB is the max, but as far as I can see adding detection of additional memory sizes is easy.

 

It can also work with VTOC for SD, ED (1040 sectors) DD, DOS 2.5 / DOS XL, and derivatives, and work with different skews.

 

@AGiambra I was driving yesterday via Largo, who could guess a crazy 1050 stack is living there

[Peri Noid]

1 hour ago, Larry said:

 Can you explain the difference(s)?

Look here:

Then difference is in the Port-B bits that are used. There's one more difference which is concurrent access to expanded memory by Antic, which is possible in Compyshop case and not available in Rambo case. 

Edited September 25, 2023 by Peri Noid