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QDOS for the AMIGA ------------------ 1) Introduction and motivation ------------------------------ I have bought my first QL at 1984 in Berlin, and since this time the QL has proofed to be a very handy tool for all kind of computer work. But unfortunately this computer was not very popular, it was difficult to get anything (software and hardware) for the QL, and without the usergroup, I would have given up very early. With the advent of the ATARI 520 ST and the increasing popularity of the IBM clones the QL became more and more uninteresting for new users, and Sinclair lost interest in the computer himself. So far so bad, but after checking the possible alternatives, there was actually no computer which was really much better than the QL. So the Idea came up to build a new computer with 68000 CPU and a reasonable keyboard. But why building a new computer, when you can buy one ? For this purpose the AMIGA seemed to be best suited. It is highly expandable and has many hardware features allready on board. Furthermore, it seemed to be more easy to emulate the QL screen on the AMIGA, than on the ATARI. 2) What has been done up to now ------------------------------- The gamma version was made from a disassembly of the JS-ROM, which was expanded in some features and testet on the QL. The QL-screen emulation is performed using the Blitter, which makes it a very fast process, costing nearly no CPU time. The keyboard is emulated in most features (including Ctrl-Alt-7) and Keyrow (using the IPC) is working on all programs. Additionaly a default trap handler has been installed, which will tell you what happend at what address, and return to SuperBASIC. The program must be assembled on the QL using the GST macro assembler. NO OTHER assembler can be used (I have tested some Amiga assembler, but there is no Assembler, which has a linker and is really bug free. The best result gave the Atztec-C assembler. It was able to assemble all files, but the linker crashed the system when attempting to link the QDOS file.) Apart from the MicroDriVes and the NETwork all standard QL devices are implemented: CON_ , SCR_ , PIPE_ , SER1 , PAR , FLPn_ . The RAMdisks are running too, but it is only included in the ! Friends only Version ! The clock should run too, if you use the system routines. The T.Tebby toolkit is working also, when TAS instructions are replaced. * Additionally in This Version (3.01) a JANus device driver is included * which allows you to use the Harddisk from the IBM Sidecar. ** A FLoPpy driver accomplishes the system in this release (3.03) ** The Amiga mouse is integrated, QRAM (pointer interface) and MPAINT ** have proofed to work correctly with it. Disks supplied: Version 3.03 comes on 3 disks: Disk 1 is a Amiga BOOT disk, it contains this document (Alpha_QDOS_TXT) an introduction to QDOS (QDOS_INTRO) an old description for the RK00 Version (RK00_INFO) and the QDOS system, ready to BOOT. Additionally, some Programs for File transfer and other utilities are included in executable and source form. Disk 2 is in QDOS format and contains the Assembler source for QDOS. This Disk should be copied using INDEX synchronization and nibble mode or the QDOS DISKCOPY. Disk 3 is also in QDOS format and contains some Utilities and patched programs. Specifically programs to support Filetransfer, TAS replacing and using the PROSPERO compilers. NOTE ! if you give this Disk to other persons, please copy all 3 disks ! If you possess a "Friends only" version, then delete the Files TOOLKIT_CDE and MIXTOOL_CDE and change the startup-sequence accordingly before giving this Disk to others. Files supplied: QDOS The complete running QDOS TKamiga_CDE The T.Tebby toolkit without TAS instructions !!! Friends only !!! MIXTOOL_CDE A combined toolkit including EDITOR and RAMdisk and QMON and Qliberator runtime library !!! Friends only !!! QL_EXTRA batch file to start the QL-emulator in fast memory startup_emulator batch-file to start the QDOS 512k system AllocAbs used to allocate Memory Lbytes used to load files into memory Load_Qdos This programm moves QDOS from $30000 to $00000, sets the clock and memory boundaries. The full format is: Load_Qdos RAMbottom RAMtop SSP All addresses are hex numbers, where RAMbottom and RAMtop should lie in Fast memory, and no care must be taken about Amigados. SSP is the Supervisor Stackpointer and must lie outside the scratch area between RAMbottom and RAMtop SerQl A filetransfer program which can be used to send files from the QL to the Amiga via the serial port. The Handshake lines must be connected for this. Allthough the programm works correct on the Amiga side, it may be difficuld to send files from the Amiga to the QL. I had not the time to search for the reason, but i think the Problem must be the QC compiler on the QL. You can transfer files from the Amiga to the QL nevertheless by sending them with the Amiga SERQL and receiving them with COPY SER2hr to RAM1_hilf and removing the additional bytes in a text editor. Note, that you MUST use the Ramdisk for long files on BOTH computers. SRC/SerQL.C Amiga version of SERQL (Aztec C) SRC/SerQL_C QL version of SERQL (QC) SRC/Load_QDOS.ASM (use Aztec C assembler) flp2_TAS_replacer_BAS Superbasic program to replace the TAS instructions in any program. flp1_JAN_ASM janus device driver source, QL side JAN_CDE janus device driver binary, QL side PC/QLDISK.PAS Turbo pascal source for IBM part PC/QLDISK.COM compiled version (TURBO 3.0 !) PC/AUTOEXEC.BAT example for IBM flp2_QLTRA_BAS file transfer program QL->QLamiga, source flp2_QLTRA_OBJ compiled version (4800 BAUD !!!) 3) Known Bugs !!! ----------------- To Start with the hardest one: The Amiga hardware does not allow the CPU to get two contigues bus cycles. This means, that any read - modify - write cycle is dammed to fail. More precise: the TAS instruction does not work ! neither in Chip nor in Fast memory ! To get around this problem, the line $F... emulator was programed to emulate the TAS instruction. Now you just need to run TAS_replacer_BAS on any program which contains TAS instructions to replace them by the appropriate line $F... instruction. So far, so good, but the sideeffect may be as follows: One day you want to give a program to a friend with a normal QL. If your program needs a library, which contains TAS instructions, then it will now contain line $F... instructions. On a normal QL this will cause a total system crash. Thats it ! The Next Bug is perhaps correlated with this. The RAMdisk (QRAM) can not be formatted correctly, although i have applied TAS_replacer_BAS to it. This should not bother you too much, since you can still use it. But if you try to use the Qliberator compiler with an unformatted RAMdisk, you may have some trouble. Just try some other RAMdisks. !!! The RAMdisk is only included on the friends only Version !!! ** The obscure Memory Management Bugs are fixed in this Version (3.03) For those, who want to program amiga hardware under QDOS, I want to give one essential hint: Interrupts and DMA are very very very critical. You MUST enable your interrupts directly after starting QDOS. You should never disable interrupts in INTENA. Use 'OR #$0700,SR' instead. You should reset interrupt requests only once and only those which really have occured. If you fail to do so, then NOTHING will work, even if you don't need interrupts ! A last remark must be made upon the keyboard. You should try to buy a computer in Germany with an English keyboard. Hopeless ! This stupid selling staff can not imagine, that not everybody who buys a computer is a secretary which needs ä,ö,ü in the proper place. So you have always the pleasure to search for @,[,],{,},_,Y,Z and many other commonly used keys. But this does only bother those, which must write programs for computers, and not the so called "User" which is a much better, this means richer, person. Okay, what i want to tell you is, that the keyboard emulation is only good for German Amigas and not for English Amigas. For the first time you can use ALTKEY to redifine some keys. But over a long range you have to change the QLASC... tables in the QDOS_ASM file and generate a new QDOS version. The sideffect is, that KEYROW may contain some minor inconsistencies. * The keyboard emulation has proofed to fail on certain keyboards. * This Bug should be fixed now ! * The Ctrl-C , Ctrl-spc , Ctrl-F5 'bug' is fixed now ! If you have fixed a bug, I will be greatfull when you can send me the corrected SOURCES or inform me about the reasons. 4) New standards ---------------- (Read also RK00_INFO !) Changes to the System variables: $28002 Flag byte, now contains the following flags: Bit 0 : 0 => OPEN path enable Bit 1 : 0 => OV error disable Bit 2 : 1 => No clearing of memory on MM.ALCHP $28003 Is the contents of CIA-A ICR, updated by interrupt from the Keyboard server. The new value is ORed to the old one. $280A2 in previous versions this was the Caps lock routine address. Since this was never used, i have changed its meaning. It is now a long word offset to the system clock. should not bother you. $280F2 Priority increment of the QL screen emulator. the following byte is increased by 2*contents of this byte, if the result is negative, the next plane (green or red) is updated. Default is 20dez. This will not cost any CPU time. A value of 80dez. will cost 20% CPU time, and a value of 127dez. will cost 30% CPU time. If you set this byte to zero, then the emulation is switched of after the next vertical blank int. $280F3 actual QL screen emulator priority. This byte should be set to zero too, when switching off the screen emulation. $280F4 Address of Blitter interrupt server. If you have switched off the QL screen emulation, you must wait until this Long word contains 0. Afterwards you can link in your own server for Blitter interrupts here. Any program which needs the Amiga hardware interrupts can use the old MT.LXINT system call. This now handles all interrupts except the Blitter, Keyboard and 50 Hz interrupt. You must read the INTREQ register by your own to decide what to do. If it was the interrupt you was waiting for, you have to reset it by your own. You will get the CPU with all interrupts masked out, and you should not change this status. * The Amiga bitplanes are starting at $18000. ** The Floppy controller uses the Memory from $10000 on. * Additional bitplanes can claim the Memory between $14000 - $17FFF. **************************************************************** * 5) The JANus device driver * --------------------------- In the Gamma release, you had no possibility to save or load programs from a permanent medium. In the Beta release, I had included a very simple directory device driver which enables you to use the IBM-harddisk on the Bridgeboard. Of course you can make use of this program only, if you posses the IBM bridgeboard (sidecar) and a Harddisk in one of the IBM compatible slots. (But the floppy on the IBM will give you at least 360K.) The JANus devicedriver expects the program QLDISK.COM running on the IBM side. This program is also included in source format (QLDISK.PAS) and must be compiled with TURBO pascal 3.0 ! any filename has the form: JAN1_name_ext where 1[,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] has no function. The extension is converted from _ext to .ext automatically. Names consist of capital letters only and must not be longer than 8 characters. Subdirectories and file conventions of MS-DOS are used. If you try to read MS-DOS files from QDOS, you will experience some trouble, since QDOS needs a 64 byte fileheader, which is of course not present in MS-DOS files. The other way around, you will find 64 additional bytes at the top of any QDOS file, when you try to read QDOS files from the IBM side. additional BASIC extensions: CHDIR "path" changes the subdirectory path (CD on IBM) MKDIR "name" make subdirectory (MKDIR on IBM) RMDIR "name" remove subdirectory (RMDIR on IBM) SHODIR display the actual path at channel #1 JAN_USE "abc" set up a new device name for JAN (eg MDV) For transfer of files between the QL and QDOS on the amiga you can use the program QLTRA_BAS or QLTRA_OBJ. This program transferes a complete disk. Up to now you should not try to operate on more than 4800 Baud. It is also essential, that you don't type anything on the keyboard while files are transfered. This is because interrupts from the serial port are disabled while processing the keyboard interrupts. ** Access of MS-DOS files is possible in the new Version using ** a filename which contains a 'commercial at @' (eg. D:\@AUTOEXEC.BAT) ** A backwards searchlist is established, which scans all parent directories ** for OPEN old file QDOS calls **************************************************************** **************************************************************** Version 3.03 comes with a floppy device driver for QDOS floppies. This device driver is not the fastest one, and there are lots of bugs, but for the first time you can use it. The Format of a QDOS filename on the floppydisk is FLPn_name_ext. Where FLPn_ is the device name. FLP1_ stands for DF0:, FLP2_ for DF1: and so on (sorry, QDOS convention was first). Filenames can consist of up to 32 characters. The *D2D random access convention is emulated in full scale, so that CP/M and MS-DOS emulator should work. Additional extensions: DISKCOPY make a track to track copy from FLP1_ to FLP2_ You should use DISKCOPY instead of FORMATing a Disk, since Formating a Disk takes 8 minutes ! RQDISK drive,side,track Read one Track from a drive to the Trackbuffer ($10000) and convert from MFM to ASCII Bugs and Hints: Again the hardest Bug first: You can read QDOS disks and write files on Disk, and do everything like on the QL. But when you try to read a Disk which was written on the Amiga using a normal QL, you will not be able to read anything ! This is because the CRC calculation routine in my driver does not work correct. I have tested every possible combination, but i couln't find the bug. If you are able to fix it, please let me know! Some combination of Floppy drives have proofed to give unreadable Disks. This depends much on the drives of your Amiga AND the drives of your QL. Up to now, my Amiga was able to read every QDOS disk, but a friend had trouble to read the same disks. A little hint: Normally QDOS scatters the sectors of adjencent blocks on different sides of one disk. This doesn't matter with a WD1770, but it makes reading a Disk on the Amiga unneccessary slow. You can gain a factor of 3 in spped, when you FORMAT a Disk on the Amiga (afterwards just make a DISKCOPY from this Disk) and copy the files from the original QDOS Disk to the Amiga disk. ************************************************************* 6) What has to be done next ---------------------------- These are the most important things to do, but unfortunately I don't have enough time to do this all by myself. I am writing my doctor thesis in Physics, and this will cost most of my time. So I am looking for people who are interested in this project and are able and willing to do some work for it. I think, it is best you contact me to get information about a specific part of the project. So you can avoid to invent the wheel a second time. You can reach me by post mail: Rainer Kowallik, Eisackstr. 14, 1000 Berlin(W) 62 (Germany) By Phone: (Germany) 030 855 866 5 By EAN mail Kowallik@vax@hmi@dbp.de or in the new form: S=KOWALLIK;OU=VAX;P=HMI;A=DBP;C=DE ALL PROGRAMS HAVE TO HAVE THE FORMAT OF A STANDARD QL-ROM. NO OTHER INTERFACE THAN A ROM TOOLKIT SHOULD BE USED ! Subject programmer ------------------------------------------------------------------------- A program which stores the RAM disk as reset | resistent memory block and restore the RAM disk | from a memory block. | A corresponding programm on the Amiga side to | store files from any device to a resident | memory block and vice versa. | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- An adaption of the Toolkit network server which | uses the CD bit of the serial port (CIA-B, PRA #5) | The transmission speed should be changeble | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- A device driver for the Harddisk DH0, using | subdirectories and fileformat of Amigados | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- New SCR_ and CON_ drivers which can use all | features of the Amiga (32 colours, extra halfbright| Interlace, overscan) | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) What can be done after this ? -------------------------------- Now, we need for example a programm to read Amiga files on QDOS and QDOS files on Amiga dos. It would be nice to have access to the sound generator. An EPROM version which can switch to QDOS at startup time could be interesting. QDOS should be made 68010/68020 compatible. ... 8) Copyright statement : ------------------------ Since I have really spend much time on develloping this QDOS emulator, I think that it is not imoral to claim this emulator as my program. Nevertheless QDOS and the related names are protected by the ones who have now the rights (is it sinclair again, or amstrad, or t.tebby or who or what ?) But this should not stop you from spreading this disk, as long as you are shure, that no commercial use is made from all that stuff. I am shure, that these programs are only interesting for people who have or have had a QL or THOR, and so have allready paid for this software. Those who are working with these programs and don't posses a QL are invited to buy a second hand QL or so. 9) Acknoledgement ----------------- Thanks to Wolfgang Schroeder and Joern Ryba for discussion, Boris Jakubith and Mathias Leidig for the CRC generator, Andreas Ihlenfeld for his Keyrow MT.IPCOM and you for your interest.