AZMIC ROM

[chernandezba]

Hi

On Linux you can try ZEsarUX
http://sourceforge.net/projects/zesarux/

It supports AZMIC ROM, the only you have to do is to "duplicate" the 4k ROM to behave as a 8 KB ROM with:

cp azmic.rom azmic8k.rom
cat azmic.rom >> azmic8k.rom

And then read the ROM within the menu, on Hardware->Custom Machine

Then you must also enable Display->Real Video

Cheers
Cesar

[stefano]

> How hard would it be to recompile AZSMSZMIK to run out of RAM at 8K? Quite hard I imagine.
Its relocation could be possible only if the display code is derived by the IX pointed one used by the ROM.. so probably it is not only a matter of relocating it: a replacement compatible display driver should be written. Also the working storage (system variables, etc) will probably give headaches.

> Also - why does it require its own display routine?
1) more columns, perhaps useful for the user interface
2) a replacement ROM has to provide the display code in any case

[sirmorris]

Oh - more columns? I didn't know that Well that would explain it

[stefano]

Referring to the manual

"We follow ZILOG conventions by allowing you to terminate a statement with a semicolon
and then fill up the rest of the line with commentary. Unfortunately the
screen can only have 36 characters on a line (32 for the printer) so that by the
time you have allowed 16 positions for location and code in an assembly listing
you are liable to lose long arguments from the program statement, never mind
comments tagged onto the end. They are still useful in the source code (sorry,
source code is the name for the programs you input to the Assembler). Option
bit 5 will remove the truncation effect, and also set the printer in fine
pitch mode to give you up to 64 characters per line."

..so both the SkyWave Forth and the ASZMIC ROMs were not just "software".
They both improved the display, tape and printer capabilities the Skywave Forth supported serial and parallel ports, and the ASZMIC.. :

"In the beginning ASZMIC had a super fast cassette interface with parity
checking and lots of goodies, plus an offset ASCII character set and an
RS232 style printer interface. We changed it all to give you Sinclair
compatibility on characters, printer & cassette so we hope that someone
does make use of this, otherwise it was all wasted."

[Moggy]

..so both the SkyWave Forth and the ASZMIC ROMs were not just "software".
They both improved the display, tape and printer capabilities the Skywave Forth supported serial and parallel ports, and the ASZMIC.. :

I wouldn't say the Skywave rom improved the general screen layout at all as we have discussed in another thread ,although admittedly the screen sectioning routines I've found to be very useful , and the tape routine it uses whilst much faster than the standard ROM routine my experience with it shows it to be less reliable and I have got into the habit of saving things at least three times with the hope of getting one good save out of the three.

[stefano]

Well the screen splitting and the ASCII font are improvements, aren't they ?
The problem with many "SAVE" routines is the encoding scheme, chosen to save memory in the LOAD/SAVE routines. The Musamy routines in example are both faster and more reliable.

[olofsen]

Here is a test version running from RAM at 2f00-4000. The ZX81's INT routine is quite compatible, but not with the 255x144 hires example; and gives 34 chars. The NMI routine is not compatible, so GO does not work. Breakpoint uses RST 00, so... Not tested with a real ZX81, nor printing/loading/saving data. This is an example showing the character set (hash is pound):

Code: Select all

#A
 ORG :7000
NRM2=:37FA
START LD A,0
LOOP CALL NRM2
 INC A
 AND :3F
 JR NZ,LOOP
 LD A,:76
 JP NRM2
#

[Crayon21]

How do I assemble source? There is no ability to do so listed in the documentation. Can someone help me?

[xubuntu]

One way is to asseble it with TASM. I can help you. Where did you find the source code ? Please share.

[xubuntu]

What is this little character appearing when aszmic loads? It seems like the 186 character of extented ascii table but that is impossible isn't it?

It's like 2 parallel lines ||

How is aszmic generating this character when it has no character set?

I thought that it could be PIXELS but the high res mode is not enable.

So it ain't pixels, it's a character. Which character? How is aszmic generating this character?!