Programming the Commodore REUs C=Hacking Issue 8.txt
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Taken from The Fridge C=Hacking Section C=Hacking Issue #8
This issue of C=Hacking #8 was stripped down to just the Programming the Commodore RAM Expansion Units (REUs) article by Richard Hable.
Programming the Commodore RAM Expansion Units (REUs) by Richard Hable (Richard.Hable@jk.uni-linz.ac.at) The following article, initially written for a mailing list, describes the Commodore REUs and explanes how to program them. Contents: 1) External RAM Access With REUs 2) RAM Expansion Controller (REC) Registers 3) How To Recognize The REU 4) Simple RAM Transfer 5) Additional Features 6) Transfer Speed 7) Interrupts 8) Executing Code In Expanded Memory 9) Other Useful Applications Of The REU 10) Comparision Of Bank Switching and DMA 1) _External RAM Access With REUs_ The REUs provide additional RAM for the C64/128. Three types of REUs have been produced by Commodore. These are the 1700, 1764 and 1750 with 128, 256 and 512 KBytes built in RAM. However, they can be extended up to several MBytes. The external memory can not be directly addressed by the C64 with its 16 bit address space--it has to be transferred from and to the main memory of the C64. For that purpose, there is a built in RAM Expansion Controller (REC) which transfers memory between the C64 and the REU using Direct Memory Access (DMA). It can also be used for other purposes. 2) _RAM Expansion Controller (REC) Registers_ The REC is programmed by accessing its registers. When a REU is connected through the expansion port, these registers appear memory mapped in the I/O-area between $DF00 and $DF0A. They can be read and written to like VIC- and SID-registers. $DF00: STATUS REGISTER Various information can be obtained (read only). Bit 7: INTERRUPT PENDING (1 = interrupt waiting to be served) unnecessary Bit 6: END OF BLOCK (1 = transfer complete) unnecessary Bit 5: FAULT (1 = block verify error) set if a difference between C64 and REU memory areas was found during a compare command Bit 4: SIZE (1 = 256 KB) seems to indicate the size of the RAM-chips; set on 1764 and 1750, clear on 1700. Bits 3..0: VERSION contains 0 on my REU. $DF01: COMMAND REGISTER By writing to this register, RAM transfer or comparision can be executed. Bit 7: EXECUTE (1 = transfer per current configuration) must be set to execute a command Bit 6: reserved (normally 0) Bit 5: LOAD (1 = enable autoload option) With autoload enabled, the address and length registers (see below) will be unchanged after a command execution. Otherwise, the address registers will be counted up to the address of the last accessed byte of a DMA + 1 and the length register will be changed (normally to 1). Bit 4: FF00 If this bit is set, command execution starts immediately after setting the command register. Otherwise, command execution is delayed until write access to memory position $FF00. Bits 3..2: reserved (normally 0) Bits 1..0: TRANSFER TYPE 00 = transfer C64 -> REU 01 = transfer REU -> C64 10 = swap C64 <-> REU 11 = compare C64 - REU $DF02..$DF03: C64 BASE ADDRESS 16-bit C64 base address in low/high order $DF04..$DF06: REU BASE ADDRESS This is a three byte address, consisting of a low and high byte and an expansion bank number. Normally, only bits 2..0 of the expansion bank are valid (for a maximum of 512 KByte), the other bits are always set. $DF07..$DF08: TRANSFER LENGTH This is a 16 bit value containing the number of bytes to transfer or compare. The value 0 stands for 64 KBytes. If the transfer length plus the C64 base address exceeds 64K, the C64 address will overflow and cause C64 memory from 0 on to be accessed. If the transfer length plus the REU base address exceeds 512K, the REU address will overflow and cause REU memory from 0 on to be accessed. $DF09: INTERRUPT MASK REGISTER unnecessary Bit 7: INTERRUPT ENABLE (1 = interrupt enabled) Bit 6: END OF BLOCK MASK (1 = interrupt on end) Bit 5: VERIFY ERROR (1 = interrupt on verify error) Bits 4..0: unused (normally all set) $DF0A: ADDRESS CONTROL REGISTER With this register, address counting during DMA can be controlled. If a base address is fixed, the same byte is used repeatedly. Bit 7: C64 ADDRESS CONTROL (1 = fix C64 address) Bit 6: REU ADDRESS CONTROL (1 = fix REU address) Bits 5..0: unused (normally all set) In order to access the REU registers in assembly language, it is convenient to define labels something like this: status = $DF00 command = $DF01 c64base = $DF02 reubase = $DF04 translen = $DF07 irqmask = $DF09 control = $DF0A 3) _How To Recognize The REU_ Normally, the addresses between $DF02 and $DF05 are unused, values stored there get lost. Therefore, if e.g. the values 1,2,3,4 are written to $DF02..$DF05 and do not stay there, no REU can be connected. However, if the values are there, it could be caused by another kind of module connected that also uses these addresses. Another problem is the recognition of the number of RAM banks (64 KByte units) installed. The SIZE bit only tells if there are at least 2 (1700) or 4 (1764, 1750) banks installed. By trying to access and verify bytes in as many RAM banks as possible, the real size can be determined. This can be seen in the source to "Dynamic memory allocation for the 128" in Commodore Hacking Issue 2. In any way, the user of a program should be able to choose, if and which REU banks are to be used. 4) _Simple RAM Transfer_ Very little options of the REU are necessary for the main purposes of RAM expanding. Just set the base addresses, transfer length, and then the command register. The following code transfers one KByte containing the screen memory ($0400..$07FF) to address 0 in the REU: lda #0 sta control ; to make sure both addresses are counted up lda #<$0400 sta c64base lda #>$0400 sta c64base + 1 lda #0 sta reubase sta reubase + 1 sta reubase + 2 lda #<$0400 sta translen lda #>$0400 sta translen + 1 lda #%10010000; c64 -> REU with immediate execution sta command In order to transfer the memory back to the C64, replace "lda #%10010000" by "lda #%10010001". I think, this subset of 17xx functions would be enough for a reasonable RAM expansion. However, if full compatibility with 17xx REUs is desired, also the more complicated functions have to be implemented. 5) _Additional Features_ Swapping Memory With the swap-command, memory between 17xx and C64 can be exchanged. The programming is the same as in simple RAM transfer. Comparing Memory No RAM is transferred. Instead, the number of bytes specified in the transfer length register is compared. If there are differences, the FAULT bit of the status register is set. In order to get valid information, this bit has to be cleared before comparing. This is possible by reading the status register. Using All C64 Memory Normally, C64 memory is accessed in the memory configuration selected during writing to the command register. In order to be able to write to the command register, the I/O-area has to be active. If RAM between $D000 and $DFFF or character ROM shall be used, it is possible to delay the execution of the command by using a command byte with bit 4 ("FF00") cleared. The command will then be executed when an arbitrary value is written to address $FF00. Example: < Set base addresses and transfer length > lda #%10000000 ; transfer C64 RAM -> REU delayed sta command sei lda $01 and #$30 sta $01 ; switch on 64 KByte RAM lda $FF00 ; do not change the contents of $FF00 sta $FF00 ; execute DMA lda $01 ora #$37 sta $01 ; switch on normal configuration cli 6) _Transfer Speed_ During DMA the CPU is halted--the memory access cycles normally available for the CPU are now used to access one byte each cycle. Therefore, with screen and sprites switched off, in every clock cycle (985248 per second on PAL machines) one byte is transferred. If screen is on or sprites are enabled, transfer is a bit slower, as the VIC sometimes accesses RAM exclusively. Comparing memory areas is as fast as transfering. (Comparison is stopped once the first difference is found.) Swapping memory is only half as fast, because two C64 memory accesses per byte (read & write) are necessary. 7) _Interrupts_ By setting certain bits in the interrupt mask register, IRQs at the end of a DMA can be selected. However, as the CPU is halted during DMA, a transfer or comparision will always be finished after the store instruction into the command register or $FF00. Therefore, there is no need to check for an "END OF BLOCK" (bit 6 of status register) or to enable an interrupt. 8) _Executing Code In Expanded Memory_ Code in expanded memory has to be copied into C64 memory before execution. This is a disadvantage against bank switching systems. However, bank switching can be simulated by the SWAP command. This is done e.g. in RAMDOS. There, only 256 bytes of C64 memory are occupied, the 8 KByte RAM disk driver is swapped in whenever needed. Too much swapping is one reason for RAMDOS to be relatively slow at sequential file access. 9) _Other Useful Applications Of The REU_ The REC is not only useful for RAM transfer and comparison. One other application (used in GEOS) is copying C64 RAM areas by first transferring them to the REU and then transferring them back into the desired position in C64 memory. Due to the fast DMA, this is about 5 times faster than copying memory with machine language instructions. Interesting things can be done by fixing base addresses: By fixing the REU base address, large C64 areas can be fast filled with a single byte value. It is also possible to find the end of an area containing equal bytes very fast, e.g. for data compression. Fixing the C64 base address is interesting if it points to an I/O-port. Then, data can be written out faster than normally possible. It would be possible to use real bitmap graphics in the upper and lower screen border by changing the "magic byte" (byte with the highest address accessable by the VIC) in every clock cycle. Therefore, of course, the vertical border would have to be switched off. Generally the REC could be used as graphics accelerator, e.g. to copy bitmap areas or other display data fast into the VIC-addressable 16 KByte area. 10) _Comparision Of Bank Switching and DMA_ When comparing bank switching and DMA for memory expansion, I think, DMA is the more comfortable method to program. It is also faster in most cases. The disadvantage of code execution not possible in external memory can be minimized by always copying only the necessary parts into C64 memory. Executing the code will then take much more time than copying it into C64 memory.