Mini680 Altair 680 Memory Expansion Board

[bugman]

I probably should wait to ask questions until I recieve (and build) my kit because I bet the answers will be obvious, but I can't help myself.

I understand how assembled machine code will be able to be stored on the flash. I guess that it would stand to reason that a basic program, or vtl-2 program could be stored as well if you know the memory locations that they initially reside in?

-Brian

[Grant Stockly]

Originally Posted by bugman

I probably should wait to ask questions until I recieve (and build) my kit because I bet the answers will be obvious, but I can't help myself.

I understand how assembled machine code will be able to be stored on the flash. I guess that it would stand to reason that a basic program, or vtl-2 program could be stored as well if you know the memory locations that they initially reside in?

Currently VTL and basic will not store programs to the flash.

The flash can easily be reprogrammed by anyone, so an upgrade in the future would be easy. VTL would be hard to patch, but basic might be possible. What I would imagine is taking the KCACR basic (Kansas City cassette tape standard) and modifying the save/load routines to go to flash instead of the tape. I'm not sure how hard this would be. Once the first kits are built by I'm sure the builders will do some programming. Is that something you would be interested in doing? We'd probably have to run basic in an emulator and trace the routines when issuing the commands, and then substitute our own code.

Along with save/load, it would be nice to have a "directory" type function...

[bugman]

I think this would be a valuable effort. When I asked the question, I guess I was thinking about the challenge on a simpler level. Just identifying what block of RAM gets updated when you type in a basic or VTL program. Then transfering that block to the flash to be re-deposited later. But, I am accustomed to working with slightly more advanced systems which have some form of DOS, or a monitor system that includes built in instructions for relocating blocks of memory. Probably not that simple, though. Either way, I would like to look into this once I get a kit up and running and gain some experience with how things work.

[bugman]

Can anyone comment on their experience and preference with 6800 emulators? I think I have found the majority of the ones available on the net. So far, its looks like the one called "hippy" would be best since you can define any devices you want via c++ (rom, ram, acia, etc). Should be able to set up a system almost identical to Grant's configuration. Does anyone have experience with this emulator, and maybe even have some devices created for terminal output that I could use as examples?