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Re: Dragon Beta OS-9 disks

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2020 7:26 pm
by Pernod70
prime wrote: Wed Mar 25, 2020 7:03 pm
Pernod70 wrote: Sat Mar 21, 2020 1:33 pm Who actually has these Beta OS-9 floppies? Could they be re-imaged in a more suitable format such as HFE?
I have a copy of them, I can rig up a grease wezel setup and archive them at some point if you want.
Yes please :)

Re: Dragon Beta OS-9 disks

Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2020 1:32 am
by prime
Pernod70 wrote: Wed Mar 25, 2020 7:26 pm
prime wrote: Wed Mar 25, 2020 7:03 pm
Pernod70 wrote: Sat Mar 21, 2020 1:33 pm Who actually has these Beta OS-9 floppies? Could they be re-imaged in a more suitable format such as HFE?
I have a copy of them, I can rig up a grease wezel setup and archive them at some point if you want.
Yes please :)
I've uploaded the zipped .scp files of the disks to : http://penguin.stats.warwick.ac.uk/~sts ... 0Disks.zip

These can be loaded into the HxC software and processed into other formats.

Cheers.

Phill.

Re: Dragon Beta OS-9 disks

Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2020 12:02 pm
by Pernod70
prime wrote: Thu Mar 26, 2020 1:32 am These can be loaded into the HxC software and processed into other formats.

Cheers.

Phill.
Thanks, at least I can now rule out any mis-interpretation of the floppy format. Are all discs bootable?

Took another look at the driver last night, the implementation of the memory banking looks overly complicated, and is probably now broken. The memory sub-system in MAME has improved immensely since then so should be able to simplify this and make it more readable.

Re: Dragon Beta OS-9 disks

Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2020 8:12 pm
by prime
Pernod70 wrote: Thu Mar 26, 2020 12:02 pm Thanks, at least I can now rule out any mis-interpretation of the floppy format. Are all discs bootable?

Took another look at the driver last night, the implementation of the memory banking looks overly complicated, and is probably now broken. The memory sub-system in MAME has improved immensely since then so should be able to simplify this and make it more readable.
The OS-9 ones should be, not sure about the C compiler one. We do know they do boot on the one real machine we know still exists.

The banking prolly is more complicated than it needs to be, I was kinda learning by example from other drivers so pretty much winging it :)

Cheers.

Phill.

Re: Dragon Beta OS-9 disks

Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2020 7:35 pm
by Pernod70
prime wrote: Thu Mar 26, 2020 8:12 pm The banking prolly is more complicated than it needs to be, I was kinda learning by example from other drivers so pretty much winging it :)
I've modernised most of the driver which has simplified the code by removing ~400 lines, but am still struggling to get the thing to boot :( Both CPU's hit a SYNC and wait forever, so I presume an interrupt issue somewhere.

Is there a documented disassembly of the boot rom anywhere?

I remember seeing some schematics for the keyboard and floppy sections, but can't find them anywhere. Were any other schematics found and are they archived anywhere?

Re: Dragon Beta OS-9 disks

Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2020 10:35 pm
by Alastair
Pernod70 wrote: Thu Apr 02, 2020 7:35 pm I remember seeing some schematics for the keyboard and floppy sections, but can't find them anywhere.
See http://www.dragondata.co.uk/tech/circui ... index.html
(You have to click on the pictures, and not on the text links.)

Re: Dragon Beta OS-9 disks

Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2020 10:42 pm
by Pernod70
Alastair wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 10:35 pm
Pernod70 wrote: Thu Apr 02, 2020 7:35 pm I remember seeing some schematics for the keyboard and floppy sections, but can't find them anywhere.
See http://www.dragondata.co.uk/tech/circui ... index.html
(You have to click on the pictures, and not on the text links.)
Thanks, just couldn't remember where I'd seen them. I presume no others are known to exist?

Re: Dragon Beta OS-9 disks

Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2020 10:47 pm
by Alastair
Pernod70 wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 10:42 pm I presume no others are known to exist?
I wouldn't know.