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| ROVAC ZMAGAZINE |
| Issue #157 |
| May 16, 1989 |
|Copyright 1989, RII|
|This week in ZMagazine|
The 512K Atari 800XL/1200XL 1.1
Dan Schmidt
Comprehensive MACE Show Report
John Nagy
CompuServe New 8-bit Files
DataQue Software's Turbo-816
Z*Net Newswire 8-bit Edition
Harold Brewer
|THE 512K ATARI 800XL/1200XL V1.1|
|by Dan Schmidt|
CIS: 72347,354 GEnie: D.SCHMIDT4
An upgrade for the 800XL/1200XL
| computers that already have a 256K |
| RAMBO XL or Claus Buchholz upgrade |
installed
I've been using a RAMBO 256K XL for the
last year. It has served me well
without a hitch.
Lately, I have been thinking of setting
up a BBS. Between that and an unused
set of 8 256K RAMS, I decided to expand
to a half meg.
I proceeded by downloading all the
information I could find. Needless to
say, I found nothing that described
upgrading my trusty XL.
Finally, I decided to make my own
upgrade and here is what I came up
with:
>It uses 1 chip only (not including
the 8 RAMS)
>You can have access to the entire
448K of RAM disk, even when you are
in BASIC.
>No switches are needed.
>Diagnostic ROM is available at any
time, even though this upgrade uses
this line (PB7) to select the added
256K of RAM.
>The system remains 100% 130XE
compatible in CPU mode.
>Finally, I have included a patch file
for fellow SpartaDOS users, that
modifies RD.COM version 3.2 to
support this upgrade.
Unfortunately, for those without
SpartaDOS, you are on your own.
I'm sure that any RAMdisk handler
which uses a bank select table
could be modified without too much
trouble.
If you don't have a 256K XL yet, either
build Claus Buchholz's upgrade or buy a
RAMBO XL--they are identical.
For those 576K XE users that have made
it this far, by moving 2 wires in your
XE and using this patched RD.COM file,
you can also have all 512K of RAMdisk
available from BASIC. However, you
will have to use your little switch to
select 256K mode before attempting a
coldstart, or your machine will lock
up. This switch may be then placed
back in 512K mode as soon as the boot
load starts and left there until
diagnostics is required (i.e., BASIC's
BYE command).
For more information on RAMdisks and
their handlers, call the CHAOS BBS at
517-371-1106
Parts List
8 256K Dynamic RAMs--150ns
8 16 pin sockets
1 74S139--Dual 2 to 4 line multiplexer.
I have used a 74LS139 with some
success also, but I won't recommend
it as it is slower, less powerful and
may cause the system to lock-up.
1 33 ohm, 1/4 watt resistor,
Hookup wire
2pc 1- heat-shrink tubing
Hot-glue gun
Instructions
Open up the computer, disconnect the
keyboard and remove the RF shield. The
upper metal RF shield will no longer
fit with the top bank of RAMS in place.
It must either be cut to fit or
discarded.
Carefully remove the 8 old 256K RAMS
(U9 - U16) from their sockets.
Take the 8 new sockets and gently bend
pin 15 out on each of them.
Solder a socket to the top of each RAM
leaving a small gap for cooling between
the RAM and the socket. Solder each of
the socket's legs to the RAM below,
except for pin 15.
Take the hookup wire and run it from
pin 15 to pin 15 on all the sockets.
-Daisy chain- the 8 sockets together
leaving about 1 1/2- wire between each.
Replace the RAMs with the new sockets
soldered on top of them into their
sockets on the PC board.
Take the 74S139 and bend out all the
pins except for pin 8 and 16. Then
clip in half all the pins that you have
bent out.
Take the hookup wire and connect pins
2, 13 and 8 together.
Solder another piece of wire between
pins 3 and 12.
Take the 33 ohm resistor and clip it
leaving 1/4 inch of lead on either end.
Bend one end over sharply then solder
that end to pin 6.
Put the 74S139 aside for a moment.
Take the board and locate U23
(CO14795), the PIA. If yours is
socketed, you can pry it up and bend
out pin 17. If it is soldered in, you
can either have it unsoldered, or
simply cut the trace where it leaves
pin 17.
Locate R108, a 33 ohm resistor, one of
a pair, located immediately below the
row of RAMs on the board. Heat up the
innermost end and gently pry it up and
out. Straighten the resistor end.
I am not sure where this resistor is on
the 1200XL's, but it can be located by
following the trace leading from pin 15
on the existing RAMs back to it's
origin at the 33 ohm resistor.
Now take the 74S139 and solder pins 8
and 16 on the IC to pins 8 and 16 on
U28, a conveniently located chip.
Take a wire and solder one end to pin 1
on the 74S139. Attach the other end to
the pad where you just removed one lead
of R108.
Run a wire between pin 4 and the lifted
lead of R108, slipping a piece of the
heat-shrink tubing over the wire before
soldering it to the resistor.
Run another wire between the 33 ohm
resistor soldered to pin 6 and pin 15
on the newly added row of RAMs. Use
the other piece of tubing to insulate
this resistor also. Slide the tubing
over the resistors, making sure no wire
remains exposed and heat gently with a
lighter.
Run a wire from pin 11 on the 74S139 to
the MMU U3 (CO61618), pin 6 (U14 on the
1200XL)
Attach another wire between pin 15 of
the 74S139 and pin 17 that you lifted
on U23, the 40 pin PIA.
Now take a look at the 256K circuitry.
One of the chips is a 74LS153. On the
RAMBO XLs, they are labeled as IC2.
Solder a length of hookup wire between
pin 14 on IC2 and pin 14 on the 74S139.
Take the new 256K RAMs and insert them
into their sockets on top of U9 to U16.
If you had to remove the PC board from
the case, replace it now.
Leave the keyboard detached for the
present. Instead, connect up the power
and monitor and see if the computer
starts up. If it doesn't start up,
re-check your wiring job. Also make
sure none of the RAMs have bent legs
and that all are inserted properly.
Tack the wires down neatly with the hot
glue gun. They can easily be lifted
later by running a hot soldering gun
over them for a second.
Replace the keyboard and the modified
RF shield. Plug in the SIO line and
reboot.
Run the file PATCH_RD.BAS from BASIC.
Insert a disk containing SpartaDOS's
RD.COM on it into D1:. This file will
be modified into a file called
RDXL.COM. This is the 512K RAMdisk
handler program. Load this program as
you would RD.COM to give you 448K of
globally accessible RAMdisk.
Unfortunately RDXL.COM does not
recognize unmodified 128K XEs. Also,
320K XEs are treated as 192K XLs. This
RAMdisk handler is primarily for 512K
systems, fully supporting both the 512K
XL and the 576K XE.
The rest of this is for XE owners.
Those with 576k XEs who wish to use
RDXL.COM and retain their entire 1/2
meg RAMdisk even from BASIC should
remove U23 (CO14795) and bend out pin
17. Unsolder the wire attached to pin
11 and reattach it to pin 17.
Straighten out pin 11 and replace the
PIA in it's socket again.
Then, find U3 (CO61618), the MMU.
Remove the wire soldered to pin 18 and
re-attach it to pin 6 on the same chip.
When you reboot, you will have to
switch your system to 256K mode
momentarily as the OS accesses the
diagnostic ROM during bootup. As soon
as the drive kicks in, throw the switch
back again to 512K mode.
PORT B - Memory control register
Bit: 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
D a b E c d B R
D=0 enables diagnostic ROM and upper
256K RAM
B=0 enables BASIC ROM
R=1 enables OS ROM
E=0 enables extended RAM
abcd is the 4-bit extended RAM bank#
The new RAM is now controlled by bit 7,
but only when extended RAM is enabled.
Otherwise it controls diagnostic ROM.
Here are the bank control numbers in
hex, as used by RDXL.COM.
60,64,68,6C
20,24,28,2C
40,44,48,4C
E0,E4,E8,EC
A0,A4,A8,AC
C0,C4,C8,CC
80,84,88,8C
00,04,08,0C--This final set of banks
are only used by XE
systems.
SpartaDOS and RAMBO XL are trademarks
of ICD, Inc. 1220 Rock St. Rockford, IL
61101-1437, USA
Atari 130XE, 800XL and 1200XL are
trademarks of Atari, Corp.
Dan Schmidt
CIS: 72347,354 GEnie: D.SCHMIDT4
|COMPREHENSIVE MACE SHOW REPORT|
|by John Nagy|
Reprinted from ST-ZMagazine #20
Southern Michigan got barrel #1 of a
double shot of Atari shows on May 6 and
7, when the Detroit user group MACE
held the MICHIGAN ATARI COMPUTER EXPO.
Barrel #2 will be the WORLD OF ATARI
show, scheduled to be held only a few
miles from the same site on June 24-25.
Despite controversy and indecision on
the part of developers as to which show
(or both) to attend, the MACE show was
a pleasing success. No official
attendance count is as yet available,
but most estimates put the Saturday
gate near 1,000 and Sunday a slower 350
or so. Financial reports are also not
yet announced, to determine how much
(or if) the club profited by the show.
Atari did have two tables, contrary to
statements made by Sig Hartmann only
weeks earlier. Although no Atari USA
officials were present, Atari was
represented by Dave Horton of
Columbus-based INCOMM marketing and
distribution and Mike Groh, the midwest
MIDI distributer of Atari products. I
am told that some Atari Canada
officials were present at the show but
not in any representative capacity, as
they were outside their territory. The
booth featured a MEGA DTP system and a
1040 ST running the Planetarium and
other titles.
Vendors were universally happy with the
sales made during the show, which was
largely retailers. Attending were
SECTOR ONE, INNOVATIVE CONCEPTS, RITE
WAY, BASIC BITS 'N BITES, HURRICANE
SYSTEMS, all local to the Detroit area.
CAL COMM, JOPPA, ALPHA SYSTEMS, and
MARS MERCHANDISING rounded out the
general product dealers.
Software at remarkable prices was a
huge crowd pleaser, although several
local retailers objected to being
plunged into price wars with CAL COMM,
visiting from Maryland with a vengence.
They showed a wide selection of 8-bit
as well as ST software at below-mail
prices (Timeworks DTP for $69, etc.).
Other vendors joined in the price
cutting to the delight of the
product-starved midwest audience, in
their first feeding frenzy in the last
two years.
Developers present at the MACE show
included SOFTREK (Turbo ST), WORD
PERFECT, GRIBNIF (NeoDesk), CODEHEAD
(Multidesk, G+PLUS), ELECTRONICAL
SOFTWARE (YEMACYB), DATAQUE (Turbo-816
for the 8-bit), ICD, NICE AND SOFTWARE,
and MICHTRON.
Michtron did a good business, showing
FLEET STREET PUBLISHER running through
ULTRASCRIPT (a Postscript emulation)
into a HP Deskjet printer (in EPSON
emulation). This is a new bundled
package to be offered at quite a
discount over buying ULTRASCRIPT alone.
Existing owners of Fleet Street will be
able to upgrade to Ultrascript for well
under $100.
Nice and Software of Ontario Canada
showed a very complete point-of-sale
and inventory system integrating bar
codes for the ST. CRICIT will run a
cash drawer through the MIDI port.
Check it out at (519) 744-7380.
A unique and constantly upgraded
product for the 8-bit Atari is YEMACYB,
a strange name but a competent full
color print program using several
passes in different ribbon colors on
almost any standard printer. $29.95
($2 handling). Electronical Software,
Box 1106, Taylor, MI 48180.
Codehead and Gribnif both sold their
products at a good clip, rivaling the
sales at the World of Atari show in
Anaheim last month. Similarly, Softrek
had lots of attention, doing a couple
seminars to boot.
Other seminars included a popular one
by Darek Mihocka who introduced his
latest version of the ST XFORMER 8-bit
emulator for the ST. This one, V 2.4,
is faster and more versatile than those
before it, running at about 1/2 the
full speed of a real 8-bit computer,
and handling more software. Chuck
Steinman of DATAQUE spoke about and
showed the processor upgrade he offers
for the 8-bit computers, and announced
that while the circuit boards were
available now, the programming and
development info would not be ready for
another month. ICD did a seminar on
hard drives, Mike Groh did a talk on
MIDI, and Bob Puff and Jeff Williams
discussed the shareware market.
Other exhibitors included COMPUWORLD,
SCORPION/MICRODAFT, ACCUSTAR, DATAFREE,
Index Legalis/ST INFORMER, and Unicorn
Publications.
The show floor was split into two
rooms, with most of the action in the
large hall (about 3,000 square feet),
and several other booths in a small
hall at the other end of the hotel,
next to the seminar room.
Unfortunately, this arrangement left
many attendees unaware that they had
missed part of the show after leaving
the main hall.
User groups present (in addition to
MACE, of course) included CHAOS
(Lansing, MI), GAG (Flint, MI), GLASS
(Troy, MI), LUST (London Ontario,
Canada), MAGIC (Warren, MI), NEOSTAG
(Girard, OH), SAGE (Erie, PA), WAUG
(Westland, MI), and WAUG (Windsor
Ontario, Canada). Groups were
accommodated in a hallway outside and
running away from the main entrance to
the main show floor. Although the hall
was poorly lit, most attendees visited
the groups either on the way in or out
of the show. The clubs showed demos,
sold disks and newsletters, and
generally promoted the benefits of club
membership. Several were selling
discounted tickets to the upcoming
World of Atari show.
A comment heard any number of times at
the MACE show was -this is the hit of
the show- when describing the VIDI-ST,
on display at the CHAOS user group
table. This device allows capturing
real life animation of video inputs,
saving up to 125 frames at up to 4 per
second of 16-shades of gray (or any
Atari palette). Resolution is a good
320 x 200, making NEO or DEGAS pictures
suitable for use in DTP or other
applications. CHAOS was showing the
unit for COMPUTER GAMES PLUS of
California, and offered a $50 discount
coupon through their club, reducing the
$199 unit to $149 (watch ST*ZMAG and
Z*NET for details on a similar offer
soon, along with a full review of this
breakthrough in real-time digitizing!)
Some members of the groups were
surprised to find that their volunteers
working at the club tables were not
extended free admission to the show
floor. This is a common courtesy at
user group and even commercial shows,
and the charge was unexpected of a
group who had championed the group
merits of user shows. Additionally,
show officials didn't visit or check on
the user area during most of the show.
Several club reps felt slighted enough
by it all that they did not buy a
ticket or enter the hall.
Other low notes among the high included
technical problems causing the Atari
and Michtron (and other) booths to go
without power much of Saturday.
Michtron was particularly disappointed,
as they were trying to show the
Ultrascript DTP bundle in operation.
And GAG's president, Jerry Cross, lost
his entire 8-bit computer system (MIO
and all) overnight in the hall, despite
security patrolling.
The MACE show appeared to be a
commercial success, and was by any
measure a success to those attending
and taking advantage of the sale prices
and selection. The first show
experience for organizers Pattie and
Bill Rayl, they say another show may be
possible next year. They may have also
learned the difference between accurate
reporting and eventual results. In the
May issue of their magazine, the Rayls
take a potshot at ST*ZMAG's -track
record for accuracy- for reporting that
Atari would have no booth...and brag
about how Atari officials were there.
Well, there was a booth (a last minute
aggreement with Atari), but no Atari
officials attended to run it. Also,
many developers and vendors were
promised in MACE promotional
literature, even as late as a week
before the show, that did not appear.
Among them: BEST ELECTRONICS, TOTAL
CONTROL SYSTEMS (GOE for the 8-bit),
DIAMOND (8-bit), MIGRAPH, ASTRA
SYSTEMS, and more. Readers (and
would-be publishers too) must realize
that accurate news is only accurate
until it changes. Keeping up with the
changes responsibly is a full time
commitment that we take seriously, and
trust that others do as well, or at
least will in the future.
ST*ZMAG will provide online, instant
reports from the WORLD OF ATARI SHOW
coming to the Detroit area in June.
Keep up with what to expect at that
show in future articles in
ST*ZMAGAZINE.
|COMPUSERVE NEW 8-BIT FILES|
Courtesy of CompuServe's
Atari 8-bit Announcements
|May 8 thru May 15|
LIB 0 (General):
[74746,3316] Scott Meredith
CANLOT.BAS/binary 13-May-89 1408
THIS PROGRAM IS A SIMULATION OF THE
CANADIAN 5/40 GAME.
[75706,134] Grant Castillou
AIHEAV.EN 09-May-89 2332
Text file re potential of future
sentient AI.
LIB 1 (General):
[72327,404] Russel Babylon
SAILIN.DCM/binary 10-May-89 64768
America's Cup Sailing. See how good a
sailor you would make while racing for
the Americas Cup.
LIB 2 (Telecommunications):
[72377,2045] Bob Puff
BOBTRM.ARC/binary 12-May-89 43648
Here it is, Version 1.02 of BobTerm,
the new 8-bit multitasking Terminal
program!
LIB 3 (System Utilities):
[73537,3573] Richard Mier
MIOQUP.ARC/binary 12-May-89 7168
a 256K MIO Upgraded to 1MEG using 1Meg
RAMs.
[72347,354] Dan Schmidt
XL512K.ALF/binary 11-May-89 9533
A revised RAMdisk primarily for 800xl
computers that already have a 256k
upgrade installed.
LIB 4 (Graphics/RLE/PICs):
[73510,2527] Jimmy Holland
BLASTO.GIF/graph:gif 10-May-89 27776
Space Shuttle Challenger at lift-off
from Cape Canaveral.
[73510,2527] Jimmy Holland
PORSHE.GIF/graph:gif 10-May-89 5513
A simple GIF picture of a Porshe, not
too bad for resolution on the Atari8
GIF decoder.
LIB 9 (BBS Programs/Info):
[76214,456] Ralph Enderby
TRAINC.ARC/binary 11-May-89 9088
This is a new on-line game for Carina II or Carina I bbs's.
|DATAQUE SOFTWARE'S TURBO-816|
Courtesy of GEnie's Atari 8-bit RT
|SURVEY SUMMARY REPORT|
(as of 23:35EDT 05/06/89)
1. Are you at all familiar with the
Turbo-816 from DataQue?
38 21% no, never heard of it
53 29% kinda, I have read one or two
news items
48 26% I try to keep up on the
project
43 23% very, I am actively seeking
all available information
2 01% not sure