N�stor Soriano wrote:
> > > 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 I 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.
Good. But will this z380 board allows anyone to write a new bios and
replace the original
(like the IDE with his flashrom)? A nice thing would be modify the old
basic so it could run
inside of this z380 board, so people could run their old basic programs
in high speed. This,
combined with new basic commands, would allow people to do heavy
programs in Basic!
that would be really nice. Is it possible?
> > 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.
Well suppose I write a wav,mp3,whatever, player for z380. In that case,
I would have
at least 1 megabyte of data to be loaded to z380 memory. Wouldn't that
be too slow
with only 1 kB of ram?
> > 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-)
Good. Please keep us informed. I believe this z380 board is a great
thing, but I keep asking
myself if it isn't something missing. It would be better if it has a new
advanced vdp (it doesn't need
to be compatible with the old v9958, because if you want to use it, you
have one in your own MSX)
inside of it, with DMA (like Ademir's Advram) so the z380 could write to
this vdp at full speed and,
being a new vdp, it would allow the development of great programs,
games, whatever. The MSX
would benefit too, because for the new graphic apps, it wouldn't need to
access the vdp, only the other
components, like PPI, FM, Moonsound, psg, etc...What do you (and Padial)
think about this?
[]s
Mauricio Braga.
****
MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
and put "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes) in
the body (not the subject) of the message.
Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
More information on MSX can be found in the following places:
The MSX faq: http://www.faq.msxnet.org/
The MSX newsgroup: comp.sys.msx
The MSX IRC channel: #MSX on Undernet
****
