Morning Peter, All!
Basically, you can have Minerva in the first 48 KB and TK2 in the
following 16 KB. Resulting in a 64 KB binary stored in EPROM. However, the
Minerva binary has to be "padded" up to exact 48 KB length, so TK2 is
properly aligned. Please note that you need a ROM version for TK2, not a
disk version.
I discovered it tonight. Already built the adapter board and it is
working...Thanks anyway!
By the way, it is not always clever to have TK2 in ROM. For example, if
you have a fast mass storage device. In this case, it is more important to
have the drivers for the storage device in ROM, so the QL can boot from
that device. TK2 can always be loaded later on. Provided you have enough
RAM - but you won't get far without memory extension anyway.
This is something I didn't know :( Anyway, there is a switch to use the
external rom card (MICE) or internal rom (TKII), so I can play with that
while I don't have anything to save/load from (yes, I don't have any
microdrive cartridges beyond the original QL pack which I don't want to
erase, and they need some fixing anyway). This week I'll try to build a 512K
internal SRAM extension, so I think I'll have enough free memory :o)
It might be of relevance for you that the first QL-SD devices are being
built here in Germany while we write. QL-SD provides an SDHC card
interface for the QL, combined with the Minerva OS in EPROM. The QL-SD
design was given to the QL community for free, so it's not a product with
commercial support. After testing is completed, the source code will be
freely available.
So I'll be able to build mine here, at home? Sorry for being so cheap,
but I don't know if you know how expensive is to import things from abroad
here in Brazil :o(
Thanks for advice!
Alexandre :o)
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