Last modified on 14 July 2018, at 11:55

SYMBiFACE II:RAM Expansion

The RAM selection is made by writing a byte (with bit 7 and 6 set to 1) to port 7fxx. The Symbiface 2 decodes the upper 8-bits of the I/O port completely and responds to 01111111xxxxxxxx. It accepts all RAM selections from c0-ff to access a full 512KB of extra RAM.

All selections except "c3" (RAM selection & 7 = 3) work as expected.

On a 6128 or 6128Plus with internal memory expansion, "C3" works as expected. The PAL inside the 6128 performs the remapping of &c000 to &4000.

&0000-&3fff: Main ram &0000-&3fff
&4000-&7fff: Main ram &c000-&ffff
&8000-&bfff: Main ram &8000-&bfff
&c000-&ffff: Extra ram page (same ram page selected with 'C7')

On a 464/664/464Plus the result is different because it doesn't have the PAL memory mapping IC (in the case of 464Plus or Costdown 464 the PAL is not activated).

&0000-&3fff: Main ram &0000-&3fff
&4000-&7fff: Main ram &4000-&7fff
&8000-&bfff: Main ram &8000-&bfff
&c000-&ffff: Extra ram page (same ram page selected with 'C7')

C3 therefore looks the same as C1. On fully compatible Dk'tronics ram expansions, A15 is forced to 1 to remap &c000-&4000 but the Symbiface 2 doesn't do this so this is why it works differently on a 464 compared to a 6128.