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ZXmore
User Manual
29 pgs1.74 Mb0

Ginger Electronic ZXmore, ZXmaster User Manual

ZXmore & ZXmaster
User manual
designed by ginger-electronic.com
V1.9 - 06/2016 ZXmore & ZXmaster – user manual page 1 from 29
Contents
ZXmore & ZXmaster.......................................................................................................1
Description:...................................................................................................................3
First steps with ZXmore:.................................................................................................6
Debug functions:..........................................................................................................10
Test mode (DS-T).................................................................................................10
USB load test (DS-L).............................................................................................10
Update function:..........................................................................................................11
Update USB firmware............................................................................................11
Update ZXmaster through external update utility......................................................12
Recover of broken ZXmaster instance (emergency update)........................................13
Changes in release 1.7:.................................................................................................14
Speed optimization...............................................................................................14
ASCII mode / 128 char display mode......................................................................14
Load utility (load via USB).....................................................................................15
Debug monitor (DS-D)..........................................................................................16
Changes in release 1.8:.................................................................................................17
Configuration of instances......................................................................................17
Tools (load, save, debug)......................................................................................18
Changes in release 1.9:.................................................................................................19
Multitasking Mode.................................................................................................19
Extended SAVE.....................................................................................................20
System backup and restore....................................................................................20
VDRIVE interface..................................................................................................20
Appendix.....................................................................................................................22
Technical data ZXmore (hardware).........................................................................22
Features ZXmaster firmware..................................................................................22
Hardware concept of ZXmore.................................................................................23
Hints for programming the latches..........................................................................27
Legal notices........................................................................................................29
Disclaimer...........................................................................................................29
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Description:
This manual describes the operation of ZXmore with the supplied firmware ZXmaster.
ZXmore is an 8 bit computer system which is compatible to many systems based on the Z80 processor, especially to the Sinclair systems ZX80, ZX81 and ZX Spectrum plus the CP/M system developed Digital Research (*). Programs and data can be stored on and read from a simple USB flash medium (USB drive).
It is possible to use a serial terminal via an optional USB/RS232 adapter or just use the inbuild keyboard and connected monitor or TV to the video connector in 40 char mode. An USB flash medium will also be used as disk drive to store and read data via CP/M.
The ZXmore is equipped with an inbuild keyboard with 40 keys, a video (RCA) connector for use with monitors or a TV (composite video monochrome) and 2 USB host ports for connection of USB mass storage devices and other peripherals. Original hardware modules for ZX80 or ZX81 can be used via the build-in expansion port (slot edge connector).
The ZXmore has 512k flash ROM and 512k RAM which is divided into eight separate instances with 64k ROM and 64k RAM which overlaps in the 64k address room. The border between ROM and RAM can be moved in steps of 4k in any direction. The first instance (0) maintains all other instances and deals with additional hardware like USB peripherals, video output and keyboard input.
The other seven instances can be configured with different options and different operating systems (firmware ROMs) which can be operated in parallel changed by keypress or even in multitasking mode. Several systems or firmware ROMs can be used concurrently without starting them new when they are switched. The memory layout can be configured individually per instance and any additional driver can be loaded during startup.
The firmware ZXmaster handles the configuration and operation of all instances or operating systems. The available ROM images to be used with the ZXmore are published under GPL or CC (creative commons) and may be used freely by the user. These additional firmware ROMs are not part of ZXmaster and ZXmaster is not based on these ROMs. ZXmaster can clone any Z80 system and is not fixed on some special ROM as long as hardware drivers for dealing with video display and keyboard are available or adapted.
More technical information on ZXmore, ZXmaster and available firmware ROMs to use or supported are available in the appendix.
The manual refers to the first release 0.9 of ZXmaster with basic functionality which will be improved with newer versions from time to time.
(*) The current available release 0.9 of ZXmaster supports only programs for the systems ZX81 and ZX80 and loading programs from a USB flash medium. Further releases support saving program and data on USB as well as support of ZX Spectrum with monochrome display and use of CP/M.
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Connectors:
In the picture below you will find all connectors of ZXmore:
Reset allows reset of the current instance and return to the ZXmaster control software.
Power is a 3.5mm audio jack for connection of a power supply with 9V DC, 250mA.
Polarity is plus at the tip and minus at the ring of the plug. Alternatively the ZXmore can be supplied with power with a USB power supply (5V).
USB represents two host ports and can be used to connect flash drives or other peripherals
Video is a RCA jack for connecting a monitor or TV as display with corresponding input.
The signal is of type composite video monochrome.
EAR is used to connect an audio cassette recorder to load a program from an original ZX80 or
ZX81 cassette (for compatibility). Optional for ZXmore V2.
MIC is used to save programs or data to an audio cassette with audio signals instead of USB.
Optional for ZXmore V2.
Slot edge connector is the expansion port for using ZX80 oder ZX81 hardware add-on's.
ROM Switch can be used to switch the instances manually in
position 1-7 or by control of the ZXmaster software in position 0. Positions 1-7 can be used with ZX80 or ZX81 only (corresponding firmware ROM programmed in flash ROM assumed) due to a suitable default configuration. ZXmaster can configure the ZXmore for some more firmware ROMs like for ZX Spectrum or CP/M. Optional for ZXmore V2.
J12 can be used to choose a base i/o address for the additional
hardware features provided. Default address to be used should be 0x7C up to 0x7F but may be changed by the user when additional hardware requires this address. More information on usage of i/o addresses can be found in the appendix of this manual.
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Keyboard:
The ZXmore is equipped with a keyboard with 40 keys in a matrix of 4 x 10 keys. The allocation with keywords and functions differs from the chosen ROM in the instance (for example ZX80 or ZX81) und is only for the letters, numbers and some special chars identical. During construction of ZXmore you have to decide whether to use the ZX80 or ZX81 keyboard layout.
The firmware ZXmaster allows translation of one keyboard layout into another to use the same layout for different ROMs. Loading and starting programs do not require special keywords. LOAD and RUN are identical for both layouts. Different layout is a matter only during active programming.
Layout ZX80:
Layout ZX81:
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First steps with ZXmore:
The ZXmore can be operated as desired with manual switching of the ROMs or alternatively with soft switching via the keyboard with ZXmaster.
ROM Switch
Position 1-7 choose a specific ROM firmware which must have been programmed before in the flash ROM. Only 8 positions are used from that switch, 8-F have the same function as 0-7. Position 0 selects the ZXmaster control software which allows soft switching and even multitasking on request.
Position 1-7 are useful only for ZX80 and ZX81 compatible ROMs because of a default setup after switch on for RAM and ROM size and position and some other control signals. Manual programming of the internal registers is described in the appendix.
A colored LED (rgb) shows the active instance with a different color regardless if the instance is running from the manual switch or from ZXmaster control software:
0 = dark/off 1 = blue 2 = green 3 = cyan 4 = red 5 = violet 6 = yellow 7 = white
Manual switching has the highest compatibility because the ZXmaster control routines are not used and can not disturb any unknown program with some maybe hidden feature / hardware control. But some functions are not available in manual operation liek change of keyboard, switching of instances, USB drivers for loading/saving data and some special display modes are maybe not available.
Additionally the parallel operation of several instances is not available and after every switch the system is reset and does a new power-up (clear of RAM, etc.).
Reset switch
The reset switch functions different depending on the context used. In manual operation (position 1-7) the switch does a cold start of the running instance. When pressing in position 0 the ZXmaster switches back to instance 0 and does a warm start only. In this context the instance information, status, RAM contents, etc. are not destroyed and can be continued when switching back to these instances later. The last running program will be continued.
It is possible and likely that the last running instance where reset was pressed is lost or crashed as the last status could not be catched by the ZXmaster firmware and a restart may fail. But all other instances are „frozen“ and can be continued after switch back safely. Due to the concept with own and dedicated RAM areas the other instances can not be disturbed under normal circumstances.
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Handling with double-shift (DS)
After switching on you should be welcomed with the start screen:
All control commands of ZXmaster function with a double-shift key (DS shortened in the manual) by shortly pressing the shift key twice consecutively and a second key after (showed invers in the start screen.
The key have to be pressed short and fast – the maximum timeout between two keys may not exceed 1 second for save detection. The reason for this control keys is that the normal ROMs like ZX80 or ZX81 wouldn't influenced with this key combination (double-shift has no special meaning).
All double-shift keys are processed from the ZXmaster only and not detected by the running instance.
Switch to instance (DS-0 to DS-7)
With DS and 0 to 7 you can switch to the desired instance. If the instance is first used it will be automatically initialized and a second call will just continue the program in the instance. The firmware ZXmaster saves the information for all instances and stores all registers in memory and the instruction pointer.
Instances can be interrupted any time by switching to another instance and are continued after switching back. Technical the switching is based on NMI which are catched automatically from instance 0 which handels all necessary action. Even the keyboard processing is done by instance 0 only and will be injected to the current instance.
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Reset, warm boot, cold boot (DS-R)
Additionally to the reset switch it is possible to perform a reset by software through pressing DS-R key combination. Used in instance 1-7 the current instance will be restarted. Pressing the reset switch will do a change to instance 0 but only with a warm boot. There are circumstances where a cold start is required which can be forced by pressing DS-R in instance 0 which will reset all other instances as well.
A short interrupt of the power supply results in a warm start only. There maybe situations where an instance may hang or crashed and pressing DS-R for a single instance won't work because the display file is corrupt for example. In this case the instance 0 doesn't get control back and all double-shift commands won't work anymore. It is recommended to press the reset key followed by a DS-R combination in instance 0 to solve this.
Power Mode (DS-P)
The default clock speed is 3.25 MHz for ZX80 or ZX81 hardware.
The effective clock speed is much lower with approx. 0.81 MHz because the display routines require much time of the cpu and the user program is interrupted many times.
The ZXmore can compensate this disadvantage by doubling the clock speed outside the video routines to 6.5 MHz. The resulting speed increases a bit more than double due to some more hardware optimizations.
The imaged screenshot shows the unofficial benchmark for ZX81 systems and the speed increase with ZXmaster in version 0.9
Sometimes a program may not work correctly or maybe too fast. If this annoying the speed can be changed to 3.25 MHz only which is handled per instance. It is possible to active a fast and a slow instance for example. Every DS-P key combination changes speed in current instance from low to fast or fast to low consecutively.
Compatibility mode (DS-C)
The firmware ZXmaster supports the smooth operation of ZX81 instances. There may be situations where a program used with ZX81 does not behave in the same way as on real hardware. The compatibility mode may be chosen by the user in these cases to get a most compatible environment by the price of losing control through ZXmaster which can be reactivated by pressing the reset switch when needed. Especially HRG programs executed in version 0.9 may not display an image as the video handling is different.
Whenever programs do crash or not behave in the same way as expected there may be a good choice for the compatibility mode for these programs to run better. If the speed should be decreased or a program loaded via USB flash disk this can be done first and then pressing DS-C after.
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LOAD via USB (DS-L)
The USB loader can be started with DS-L from any instance (in version 0.9 only for ZX81).
The loader message appears with its version and the name of the desired program can be typed in. In the current release the loader works only for files in the root system and 8.3 format file names (no LFN support in this release).
The loading speed is about 150kByte / second and due to technical reasons in FAST mode only. So the screen may flicker shortly when loading data or programs. The USB flash medium should be formatted with FAT32 and file names my entered with chars, digits and the point separator for file names only.
Even long programs should be loaded instantly or at least with a delay of a few hundred milliseconds only because programs normally should be smaller than 16kByte. So loading will be finished in pretty less than a second. The very first acces on a new inserted USB flash medium/drive may have a bit more latency.
If the requested file could not be found the error code 65535 will appear (maybe just a typo). If the USB medium/drive is not inserted or maybe wrong formatted, the error code 65534 is displayed. The loading can be aborted by pressing DS-L again in the enter mode. The displayed error has to be confirmed by pressing any key.
If the instance 0 is called after loading data in another instance there may be displayed some status information like the loaded filesize.
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