Sinclair 16K RAM pack instructions

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Lardo Boffin
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Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2016 2:42 am

Sinclair 16K RAM pack instructions

Post by Lardo Boffin »

Hello all

Does someone have a PDF of the Sinclair single page instructions for the 16K RAM pack please?

Many thanks!

Lardo
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Moggy
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Re: Sinclair 16K RAM pack instructions

Post by Moggy »

Here you go, not a PDF sadly but should suffice, also a text file should you want to print your own.

(Still no clickys?)

EDIT.

Link to PDF.

http://www.retro8bitcomputers.co.uk/Con ... ctions.pdf
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Lardo Boffin
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Re: Sinclair 16K RAM pack instructions

Post by Lardo Boffin »

Thanks Moggy, and no sign of clickies sadly.
ZX80
ZX81 iss 1 (bugged ROM, kludge fix, normal, rebuilt)
TS 1000 iss 3, ZXPand AY and +, ZX8-CCB, ZX-KDLX & ChromaSCART
Tatung 81 + Wespi
TS 1500 & 2000
Spectrum 16k (iss 1 s/n 862)
Spectrum 48ks plus a DIVMMC future and SPECTRA
David G
Posts: 387
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2014 7:58 am
Location: 21 North, 156 West

Re: Sinclair 16K RAM pack instructions

Post by David G »

Interesting. It puts the machine language program at 18000 -- not in a REM or any other traditional location. 18000 is between the end of the program and E_LINE

Would this work on a no-RAM Pack machine? Which only has RAM from 16384 to 17408
ZX 16K RAM Pack – Instructions for use

This RAM Pack will expand the memory capacity of your Sinclair Personal Computer to 16K bytes (1K byte = 1024 units of storage, i.e. 1024 characters) – which is the maximum it can handle. The ZX 16K RAM is not expandable in stages and so is supplied with the 16K of memory built in. All you have to do is plug it onto the expansion edge connector at the back of your computer. It will take its power from the existing power supply.

IMPORTANT – Make sure that the computer is switched off before plugging or unplugging the memory. Otherwise you may damage the RAM pack or computer – also the computer’s operation will be interrupted for a short while and it may get stuck in a ‘non communicative’ state. You will then need to switch off and on again anyway. Any program that was in the computer will certainly be lost; so if you think a particular program may need a lot of memory, it is wise to plug on the RAM pack before entering it. As a guide, the computer’s internal memory can handle 30-60 lines of program, but things like large arrays or a lot of data can cut this down considerably.

A little mental arithmetic should show that the computer can theoretically handle up to 960 program lines when fitted with the expansion pack. In practice, no program is likely to need this much (no prizes for trying!) except programs with a lot of data. In fact, the only evidence the user sees of the RAM pack’s operation – apart from almost never running out of memory – is that the inverse ‘K’ takes a little longer to appear after switching on. This is because the computer tests the memory after switch on to see how much there is. The results of the test aren’t directly available, but a simple machine code program can be used to reassure the operator that he or she really has got the memory available:

MEMORY TEST PROGRAM

Code: Select all

   1 POKE 18000,33
   2 POKE 18001,11
   3 POKE 18002,0
   4 POKE 18003,57
   5 POKE 18004,68
   6 POKE 18005,77
   7 POKE 18006,201
   8 PRINT (USR (18000)-16373)/1024;"K"
If run on your computer without the RAM pack the answer will be 1K – the amount of memory present in the system. With the 16K RAM pack, however, the answer will be 16K. Note that this program does not say how many bytes are free for a program, only how many are available to the computer, which will use some of them for the display file stack, etc.
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1024MAK
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Re: Sinclair 16K RAM pack instructions

Post by 1024MAK »

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David G
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Re: Sinclair 16K RAM pack instructions

Post by David G »

That's funny

It takes the machine stack pointer (SP) and adds 11 to it, then returns this value back to BASIC (in register BC)

it requires machine code to get SP
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