Using CMOS on the MTXplus

Modern, Memotech inspired, hardware projects
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Martin A
Posts: 797
Joined: 09 Nov 2013 21:03

Using CMOS on the MTXplus

Post by Martin A »

The MTXplus includes a Real time clock with a small amount of battery backed ram.

At the moment of the 114 or so free bytes in the RTC we're using 4.

Thanks to Tony's versatile CPU clock design the are 16 different CPU speeds available, that's one byte.

Another determines which of the 4 available partitions the SDX rom will boot from.

The final 2 set the default screen colour in basic and panel, but only in the hacked 80 column basic.

So, there's another 110 bytes - any idea's ???
The current boot screen
The current boot screen
CMOS.jpg (28.18 KiB) Viewed 7912 times
More relaing colours in panel
More relaing colours in panel
panel+.jpg (27.62 KiB) Viewed 7912 times
Martin A
Posts: 797
Joined: 09 Nov 2013 21:03

Re: Using CMOS on the MTXplus

Post by Martin A »

The latest rom build for the MTXplus

Not much new on the boot screen, the confirmation of the VDP output mode is about it.
The current boot screen
The current boot screen
boot2.jpg (52.73 KiB) Viewed 7854 times
Inside the setup screen has lots of options.
There's 3 built in base setups, for the most common scenarios.

From there the screen colours in Basic, Panel and Mono CPM can be selected.
The Date and time can be set, as can the boot drive for the SDX, the VDP output mode.
For fine tuning, the amount of memory seen by basic (0-13 32k pages + the base 32k) and the CPU speed can be tweaked (there's 16 steps from 4mhz to 16mhz).
All the extra's mean that the CMOS usage has doubled, but there's still over 100 bytes free.
The setup screen
The setup screen
setup screen.jpg (55.39 KiB) Viewed 7854 times
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Dave
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Re: Using CMOS on the MTXplus

Post by Dave »

Martin

awesome as ever! You've really done some sterling work with the MTXPlus+ ROM . . . .

folks won't know how impressive it is until they try it - I really need to make those PCBs available soon!


regards
Dave
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1024MAK
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Joined: 24 Dec 2012 03:01
Location: Looking forward to summer, in Somerset, UK

Re: Using CMOS on the MTXplus

Post by 1024MAK »

8-) 8-) 8-)

If you'll after something that will eat up a bit more CMOS SRAM space, how about user selectable custom boot screen colours, option of a Z80 inside logo, and maybe owners name / nick name and phone number? In case of theft...

Anyway, keep up the good work :D

Mark
:!: Standby alert :!:
“There are four lights!”
Step up to red alert. Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb :!:
Looking forward to summer in Somerset later in the year :D

Not as many MTXs as Dave! :lol:
Martin A
Posts: 797
Joined: 09 Nov 2013 21:03

Re: Using CMOS on the MTXplus

Post by Martin A »

The user's name - interesting idea. I wonder what BASIC would think of "USER USER" as a command to print the name....

The boot screen colours follow the ones for Basic, so they're semi definable.

Z80 inside logo wouldn't have been possible with the 40 column screen. As the character definitions and the screen map overlap and any logo has to be defined as characters as this is text mode. With ASCII taking up 96 characters and the cursor another, there were only 31 left to construct the current logo.

Now we're running in 80 columns, the characters from 128 and up are available for additional designs.

If you're wondering how we get more than 2 colours on the text screen, lets just say, you need to flash very slowly.
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