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#41
There is no practical difference between a substitution cipher and a character encoding. Other than that a character encoding is public and therefore not attempting to obscure the underlying text.
#42
If ZOSCII is a cipher then so is ASCII.
If ZOSCII is a cipher so is any address table.
The definition you gave makes ciphering concept pointless. Its like me saying every human language novel is sourcecode which obviously it is as I already created a compiler (actually transpiler) from human text to z80 as a proof, it works 100%. So I guess that also makes every data an executable too. My compiler compiles test to jumps forward by how many characters each word is. Practical no... but it proved the point when someone argued otherwise. Like your ZOSCII is a cipher. But in reality for practical purposes human language isn't usually considered sourcecode and neither is ASCII or address tables usually considered a cipher.
If ZOSCII is a cipher so is any address table.
The definition you gave makes ciphering concept pointless. Its like me saying every human language novel is sourcecode which obviously it is as I already created a compiler (actually transpiler) from human text to z80 as a proof, it works 100%. So I guess that also makes every data an executable too. My compiler compiles test to jumps forward by how many characters each word is. Practical no... but it proved the point when someone argued otherwise. Like your ZOSCII is a cipher. But in reality for practical purposes human language isn't usually considered sourcecode and neither is ASCII or address tables usually considered a cipher.
#43
G
Applications (CPC and CPC-related) / Re: Pixsaur - Online tool
Last post by gurneyh - 20:15, 13 September 25Quote from: ZorrO on 15:00, 13 September 25One picture from PLUS and few from Matrix.Dithertron is a tool with a similar scope to Pixsaur, but it targets several retro computers. I don't know how Pixsaur compares to this tool in terms of the quality of conversions produced for the CPC.It's look really good.
Do you know any equally easy to use online converter for C64?
As for Pixsaur, support for the Plus is coming very soon.
edit:
I have just tested Dithertron. In terms of image quality produced for the CPC, the results appear to be equivalent.
However, in terms of responsiveness, Dithertron is significantly better. This is precisely an area I am currently working on.
#44
Ah damn... Here's hoping that in a year or two you'll be here again asking to buy some...
#46
C
Technical Support - General / Re: Yet another attempt at a R...
Last post by Canou1967 - 17:05, 13 September 25Hi,
From what I have seen on other projects PS-RAM is not suitable
because the response time is too low even if the bandwidth is high.
SRAM is more suitable.
Regards
Canou
#47
Okay, where do I start?
Most people want to see photos, so I've taken a load and uploaded to here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yi67vok26ppshv18k5d8c/AMnnvtQ6x96FbGWGxB1KaAo?rlkey=kdkcdetmao8n23jjghf79g74i&st=8m1s60sy&dl=0
I confess I haven't turned these devices on in about 18-24 months, prior to that, I was actually using them on a weekly basis, I just haven't been able to use them and as with all things, they may need a little bit of TLC to spring them all back into life.
Amstrad Colour monitor
Amstrad CPC 464 - I believe one is totally standard
Amstrad CPC 464 - with the audio enhancement to plug into external 3.5mm jack to load games from devices
Amstrad CPC 6128 - seems to be okay, internal 3" drive gives error, but used to work, could just be the drive band?
A bag of spare drive bands
2 x external 3" disc drives, both working as they should
a couple of spare drives
Amstrad CPC 6128 - a bit of a Frankenstein this one
it was a 6128 that I hacked together from spare parts, it is missing the black plastic bottom to the casing, it's super fragile but it did work with both internal and external 3" drives, used to boot into CPM and normal, probably just needs a sanity check that I don't have to debug through
2 x LCD screens that I used as monitors (SCART?) for the machines as per the photos
Amstrad PCW 8512 - with dual disc drives, printer, keyboard etc... and software
Lots of 3" discs with random stuff on them - all the power supplies, cables for monitors included
A bunch of plug in devices for the Amstrad CPCs:
Dandinator CPC
Dandinatore mini dual
ArduiTape
M4 board
UL.I.FAC
a couple of custom boards for connecting to do external IO things like turning LEDs on and off - documented on the wiki, I believe
Amstrad PC 1640 x 2 - I believe they were both working okay, one has minor pixel corrosion in the corner of the LCD screen, don't believe it makes a difference though
and basically, anything else I can find that is useful / Amstrad related will get added! It's all got to go, else it'll get put into land-fill
as shown in photo's there is also an Amstrad Pen Pad in its box adding to the mix too - and it has not gone all sticky and it has the stylus too!
I will also include, more for decoration, the Amstrad phone with screen - cannot be used anymore, but a nostalgic dust collector
Now, the tricky part. Price? Well, you have me at a disadvantage here, I have no idea, make me an offer.
Unfortunately, due to the amount of stuff, the weight and delicacy of the items, it will have to be a PICKUP ONLY from Wiltshire / Somerset border in the UK. Also, I still travel for work, so I won't be back to the house until Sept 26th-ish. PM me for more details if you are seriously interested.
I was going to go the eBay route, however, there is a lot of things here that I'd prefer to go to the CPC community and if possible for the stuff to then get divided up and sold between you rather than to the highest / lowest bidder on eBay.
Genuine reason for sale - divorce & house sale / downsizing - so cannot keep any toys any more
and yes, to those who have long memories, I do seem to do this once a decade! 
Most people want to see photos, so I've taken a load and uploaded to here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yi67vok26ppshv18k5d8c/AMnnvtQ6x96FbGWGxB1KaAo?rlkey=kdkcdetmao8n23jjghf79g74i&st=8m1s60sy&dl=0
I confess I haven't turned these devices on in about 18-24 months, prior to that, I was actually using them on a weekly basis, I just haven't been able to use them and as with all things, they may need a little bit of TLC to spring them all back into life.
Amstrad Colour monitor
Amstrad CPC 464 - I believe one is totally standard
Amstrad CPC 464 - with the audio enhancement to plug into external 3.5mm jack to load games from devices
Amstrad CPC 6128 - seems to be okay, internal 3" drive gives error, but used to work, could just be the drive band?
A bag of spare drive bands
2 x external 3" disc drives, both working as they should
a couple of spare drives
Amstrad CPC 6128 - a bit of a Frankenstein this one
it was a 6128 that I hacked together from spare parts, it is missing the black plastic bottom to the casing, it's super fragile but it did work with both internal and external 3" drives, used to boot into CPM and normal, probably just needs a sanity check that I don't have to debug through2 x LCD screens that I used as monitors (SCART?) for the machines as per the photos
Amstrad PCW 8512 - with dual disc drives, printer, keyboard etc... and software
Lots of 3" discs with random stuff on them - all the power supplies, cables for monitors included
A bunch of plug in devices for the Amstrad CPCs:
Dandinator CPC
Dandinatore mini dual
ArduiTape
M4 board
UL.I.FAC
a couple of custom boards for connecting to do external IO things like turning LEDs on and off - documented on the wiki, I believe
Amstrad PC 1640 x 2 - I believe they were both working okay, one has minor pixel corrosion in the corner of the LCD screen, don't believe it makes a difference though
and basically, anything else I can find that is useful / Amstrad related will get added! It's all got to go, else it'll get put into land-fill
as shown in photo's there is also an Amstrad Pen Pad in its box adding to the mix too - and it has not gone all sticky and it has the stylus too!
I will also include, more for decoration, the Amstrad phone with screen - cannot be used anymore, but a nostalgic dust collector
Now, the tricky part. Price? Well, you have me at a disadvantage here, I have no idea, make me an offer.
Unfortunately, due to the amount of stuff, the weight and delicacy of the items, it will have to be a PICKUP ONLY from Wiltshire / Somerset border in the UK. Also, I still travel for work, so I won't be back to the house until Sept 26th-ish. PM me for more details if you are seriously interested.
I was going to go the eBay route, however, there is a lot of things here that I'd prefer to go to the CPC community and if possible for the stuff to then get divided up and sold between you rather than to the highest / lowest bidder on eBay.
Genuine reason for sale - divorce & house sale / downsizing - so cannot keep any toys any more
and yes, to those who have long memories, I do seem to do this once a decade! #48
B
Technical Support - General / Re: Yet another attempt at a R...
Last post by Brocky - 16:24, 13 September 25ive come up with the idea of using QSPI (quad spi) instead of SPI to deal with the inter-mcu communication and pin count, the stm32 is gone,rpi picos are in!.. using QSPI allows 4x the data bandwidth so its much faster, should be under 100ns
the other thing i found is that using PIO enhanced UART i can send small packets of serial data between 2 picos very fast just with 2 pins! (3 for even more speed!)
my new latest ideas are looking at 3 mcu boards... with lots of PSRAM and flash, wifi, sdcard, usb host (for keybaords and mice) maybe even camera digitizer with like psudo DMA where it writes directly to the emulated ram banks...i want to add math coprocessor features via a rom and rsx interface eventually too..
picos could even handle rom and ram emulation on their own
The architecture chains Pico1 (address/control decoder) → PIO UART (2 pins, up to 62.5 Mbps) → Pico2 (data/I-O aggregator) → QSPI (6 pins, 10 MHz) → ESP32-S3 (emulation core)...
CPC 50-pin Edge Connector
├── Pins 1-8: D0-D7 ───┬─── Pico2 GP0-7 (Data Bus, bidir w/ 10k series R if noisy)
│ │
│ ├── /RD (Pin 42) ─── Pico2 GP10
│ └── /WR (Pin 43) ─── Pico2 GP11
│
├── Pins 10-25: A0-A15 ─── Pico1 GP0-15 (Address Bus)
│
├── /MREQ (Pin 30) ─── Pico1 GP16
├── /IORQ (Pin 31) ─── Pico1 GP17
├── /ROMEN (Pin 50) ─── Pico1 GP18
│
├── +5V (Pin 18) ───Pico1 VSYS
│ ├───── Pico2 VSYS
│ └───── ESP32 VIN (onboard regs)
│
└── GND (Multiple) ─── Shared GND Plane
│
├── /RAMDIS: Pico1 GP19 ─── CPC Pin 49 (w/ 4.7k pull-up to +5V)
│
├── PIO UART (2 wires):
│ ├── Pico1 GP20 (TX) ─── 10k Pull-up ─── Pico2 GP8 (RX)
│ └── Pico1 GP21 (RX) ─── 10k Pull-up ─── Pico2 GP9 (TX)
│
└── QSPI (6 wires):
├── Pico2 GP12 (CS) ─── ESP32 GPIO1
├── Pico2 GP13 (SCK) ─── ESP32 GPIO2
├── Pico2 GP14 (IO0) ─── ESP32 GPIO3
├── Pico2 GP15 (IO1) ─── ESP32 GPIO4
├── Pico2 GP16 (IO2) ─── ESP32 GPIO5
└── Pico2 GP17 (IO3) ─── ESP32 GPIO6
...i just gotta get my shit sorted so i can sit down n build it.. i finally have everything to prototype a card! (veroboard and dual row right angle pins,already have plenty mcus!)
edit: the esp32 runs a RTOS so it doesnt have as much overhead as linux on a rpi zero or full rpi so can respond much faster within cpcs timings but that limits me in ways.. (not hdmi only VGA on esp32)
the other thing i found is that using PIO enhanced UART i can send small packets of serial data between 2 picos very fast just with 2 pins! (3 for even more speed!)
my new latest ideas are looking at 3 mcu boards... with lots of PSRAM and flash, wifi, sdcard, usb host (for keybaords and mice) maybe even camera digitizer with like psudo DMA where it writes directly to the emulated ram banks...i want to add math coprocessor features via a rom and rsx interface eventually too..
picos could even handle rom and ram emulation on their own
The architecture chains Pico1 (address/control decoder) → PIO UART (2 pins, up to 62.5 Mbps) → Pico2 (data/I-O aggregator) → QSPI (6 pins, 10 MHz) → ESP32-S3 (emulation core)...
CPC 50-pin Edge Connector
├── Pins 1-8: D0-D7 ───┬─── Pico2 GP0-7 (Data Bus, bidir w/ 10k series R if noisy)
│ │
│ ├── /RD (Pin 42) ─── Pico2 GP10
│ └── /WR (Pin 43) ─── Pico2 GP11
│
├── Pins 10-25: A0-A15 ─── Pico1 GP0-15 (Address Bus)
│
├── /MREQ (Pin 30) ─── Pico1 GP16
├── /IORQ (Pin 31) ─── Pico1 GP17
├── /ROMEN (Pin 50) ─── Pico1 GP18
│
├── +5V (Pin 18) ───Pico1 VSYS
│ ├───── Pico2 VSYS
│ └───── ESP32 VIN (onboard regs)
│
└── GND (Multiple) ─── Shared GND Plane
│
├── /RAMDIS: Pico1 GP19 ─── CPC Pin 49 (w/ 4.7k pull-up to +5V)
│
├── PIO UART (2 wires):
│ ├── Pico1 GP20 (TX) ─── 10k Pull-up ─── Pico2 GP8 (RX)
│ └── Pico1 GP21 (RX) ─── 10k Pull-up ─── Pico2 GP9 (TX)
│
└── QSPI (6 wires):
├── Pico2 GP12 (CS) ─── ESP32 GPIO1
├── Pico2 GP13 (SCK) ─── ESP32 GPIO2
├── Pico2 GP14 (IO0) ─── ESP32 GPIO3
├── Pico2 GP15 (IO1) ─── ESP32 GPIO4
├── Pico2 GP16 (IO2) ─── ESP32 GPIO5
└── Pico2 GP17 (IO3) ─── ESP32 GPIO6
...i just gotta get my shit sorted so i can sit down n build it.. i finally have everything to prototype a card! (veroboard and dual row right angle pins,already have plenty mcus!)
edit: the esp32 runs a RTOS so it doesnt have as much overhead as linux on a rpi zero or full rpi so can respond much faster within cpcs timings but that limits me in ways.. (not hdmi only VGA on esp32)
#49
Applications (CPC and CPC-related) / Re: New Text Editor for CPC
Last post by cpcitor - 15:44, 13 September 25Quote from: GUNHED on 11:44, 12 September 25Well, AMSDOS can only handle files up to 64 KB. But FutureTex now can use files up to 3.5 MB (depends on your RAM expansion). The M4 SD-card can hold files of such nice lenght for example. Therefore FutureOS is needed.
You can download everything at www.FutureOS.de (click at downloads at the left side of the homepage please).
Ah, I wanted just something simple to view and edit files on a CPC464+DDI1 or CPC6128.
My real CPCs have only 64k or 128k, no RAM or ROM expansion so no FutureOS. (To me, software written "for the CPC" means you take any original machine from the era with a configuration widely available at that time, which means 64k or 128k and tape or one disc drive, and the software will just work. It can accept extensions like SSA1 but not require them. If I need a powerful machine I take a modern PC.)
I might give another try at FutureOS one day. Last time I tried (a few years ago on an emulator) I chose some disk images and it didn't work, but that's not the topic here, things must have changed since the years. Keep up the good work!
#50
Updated README.md visible at https://github.com/cpcitor/cpcec from http://cngsoft.no-ip.org/cpcec.htm