> > Say that Konamiman finished the version 3 for the Z380 BIOS (Eprom).
> > I just recorded the Eprom and tested it successfully.
> This is really interesting. What will exactly this z380 BIOS do? and
> where
> can
> find more information (specs) about that z380 board?
This BIOS enables you to :
- Access Z380 from a MSX program (for Z380 main memory data read or
write, or to make Z380 to execute a program previously load into its
memory), using a set of routines called ZBIOS.
- Access MSX hardware resources (MSX memory and ports, disk access, etc)
>from a Z380 program, using a "hardware server" mechanism (Z380 puts a
Z80 code in biport, MSX executes it, and writes any result also in
biport so Z380 can recover it). The user can either make Z80 to execute
its own code, or use a set of built-in routines included in EPROM (for
basic operations like byte read/write from/to MSX memory, same with
ports, block transfer between MSX and Z380, MSX routine execution, etc).
- Memory can be reserved for the user in the base frame (the first 64K
space on Z380 RAM), so standard programs will never access to any memory
reserved by other programs. Currently there is no way to permanently
reserve memory outside of the base frame; an external (loaded from disk
and not from EPROM) memory manager should be developped for this.
- User CALLs can be installed without limitation (well, the size of the
Z380 memory is the only limit). ZBIOS includes routines to easily
extract the input parameters (and set the output parameters) for these
CALLs.
- Also, new user ZBIOS commands can be added; note that ZBIOS commands
can be used both from a MSX program and from a Z380 program.
> You have to use this 1kB ram to exchange data with z80 and z380 right?
> Is
> there
> another way to exchange data (z80 can access the z380 ram)? If not, if
> you
> only
> access 1kB, wouldn't this slowed down too much when you transfer many
> bytes?
There is no way to communicate MSX with Z380 apart from the biport
memory, and yes: large block transfers must be done through several 1K
(actually about 900 bytes) size transfers. But normally you will not
transfer data between MSX and Z380 except for disk access or VRAM
transfers, so the speed of the transfer should not be critical.
> That's great. It would be nice to have some documentation about how to
> write
> software
> to this z380 board. Is there anyone available?
Wait a little please. Now that EPROM is definitively finished, I started
to write documentation and some samples. I'm writing it directly in
english to save translation time. 8-)
*** NEXT BARCELONA MSX USERS MEETING: DECEMBER 9TH ***
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Konami Man - AKA Nestor Soriano (^ ^)v
Itsumo MSX user
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://konamiman.msx.tni.nl
Difference between Windows and a virus is that virus never fails.
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