Recent Posts

91

Amstrad CPC hardware / Re: Dead CPC464

« Last post by Bryce on 10:30, 19 February 19 »

The upper 64K in a 6128 are no longer used when one of these are connected. At the bottom of the article you'll see a section about switching one to "silicon disc mode" which really just mapped the RAM to banks 4 to 7. With both connected and converted to 256K (with one changed to silicon disc mode) you then have the base 64K plus 512K externally, but the upper internal 64K is then disabled.

Bryce.

92

Anwendungen / Re: Handbuch für FutureOS jetzt auch im PDF, Word und Notepad format.

« Last post by LambdaMikel on 09:59, 19 February 19 »

Da Deutsch die Sprache der Wissenschaft ist und einfach schön deskriptiv (sagen meine Ami-Freunde), habe ich damit angefangen.

Ach nee, neulich sagtest Du noch Bayerisch 

93

NC100, NC200, PCW, PDA600 - the rest of the Family! / Re: PcW16...

« Last post by JohnElliott on 09:51, 19 February 19 »

The port addresses are given in ANNEASIC.RTF:

Code: [Select]

Z-80 Address    S-IO Address    Comment
00-07           000-007         Nothing selected       
08-0F           1F0-1F7         IDE CS0
10-17           200-207         Games port at 201       
18-1F           3F0-3F7         FDC and IDE CS1
20-27           3E8-3EF         Serial Port 2 (IRQ3)   
28-2F           3F8-3FF         Serial Port 1 (IRQ4)   
30-37           368-36F         Nothing selected       
38-3F           378-37F         Parallel Printer 378-37A   

ANNE emulates the colour capability and fully-populated memory (2Mb flash, 2Mb RAM) but not IDE.

94

Amstrad CPC hardware / Re: Dead CPC464

« Last post by JonB on 09:46, 19 February 19 »

That's pretty cool, Bryce..!

Your description says that as a 256K expansion it is mapped to banks 0-3, but what happens to the internal RAM (which I assume starts at Bank 0)? Is it lost?

I've just opened mine again to look at the bank select options. They're both wired the same so both are vanilla 64K expansions. No idea why there are two of them with one machine.

95

Games / Re: Repoker de Ases ( game pack by 4Mhz )

« Last post by XeNoMoRPH on 09:20, 19 February 19 »

96

Amstrad CPC hardware / Re: Dead CPC464

« Last post by Bryce on 09:17, 19 February 19 »

There are two 64k expansions and they came joined together. These are dk'Tronics  branded, so they might behave differently to Amstrad RAM packs (in terms of address decoding). I've opened them up and they look like 256k RAM boards (PCBs labelled "464 256" and "DK 256"), but populated with 8 64Kx1 bit chips. There are also two missing ICs, so it is conceivable that they could be upgraded, if the PAL is universal.

Getting a bit ahead of ourselves here - still need to fix the main board!

I did an article here explaining how to upgrade these to 256K if you want. Easy project if you have basic soldering skills: http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Upgrading_a_Dk%27tronics_RAM_Expansion

Bryce.

97

NC100, NC200, PCW, PDA600 - the rest of the Family! / Re: PcW16...

« Last post by JonB on 08:55, 19 February 19 »

I see no good picture of its main board anywhere, but there is a WinBond chip in the middle of the board. I'll wager this provides floppy, serial, parallel and IDE ports. Take a look at this picture: http://www.habisoft.com/pcwwiki/lib/exe/detail.php?id=en%3Ahardware%3Aplacas&media=hardware:placas:pcw16:PcW16_3501-001P-3_PCB_Top.jpg. You can see the Winbond chip with traces leading off to all the ports. There is a 40 way connector pad too (is this IDE?) as well as what looks like space to expand the flash memory and RAM. The board also hints at colour capabilities (see the connector with power and video - has blue and red lines unconnected) and has a provision for a VGA socket.

It's intriguing, but to John's point, I'm guessing that the Winbond chip is a commodity piece and so it should be reasonably easy to write drivers for it. Not that I have time right now.. but it is even easier to write IDE drivers, if the hardware could be reverse engineered so as to derive the port addresses.

So, a native CP/M BIOS is required.. http://www.gaby.de/cpm/manuals/archive/cpm22htm/ch6.htm

98

Amstrad CPC hardware / Re: Dead CPC464

« Last post by JonB on 08:20, 19 February 19 »

There are two 64k expansions and they came joined together. These are dk'Tronics  branded, so they might behave differently to Amstrad RAM packs (in terms of address decoding). I've opened them up and they look like 256k RAM boards (PCBs labelled "464 256" and "DK 256"), but populated with 8 64Kx1 bit chips. There are also two missing ICs, so it is conceivable that they could be upgraded, if the PAL is universal.

Getting a bit ahead of ourselves here - still need to fix the main board!

99

Games / Re: Repoker de Ases ( game pack by 4Mhz )

« Last post by robcfg on 07:36, 19 February 19 »

4Mhz games are quite recent, but they are good games and is also a way to promoting the use of the DanDanator CPC cartridge as a cost-effective way of distributing new games.

100

Games / Re: Repoker de Ases ( game pack by 4Mhz )

« Last post by LambdaMikel on 06:22, 19 February 19 »

So that pack contains only games from the company 4 Mhz?
I must say I never heard or played any of these games... were they very popular in Spain?
Sorry for my ignorance - great ad campaign though, very professional! Good luck with the project!