uIEC (Micro IEC) Update
in [Commodore]
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From: Jim Brain on 14 Apr 2008 19:26 For those who do now know, uIEC and uIEC/CF are projects to allow a IEC-based CBM computer (VIC/64/128/etc.) to utilize a IDE drive formatted with a FAT filesystem or a CompactFlash (CF) card with such a filesystem. uIEC development took some very interesting paths this year (more details if there is interest), but I am happy to report that the unit is working and I'm now concentrating my efforts on making it CF-card agnostic (testing various cards I have here), and trying to increase compatibility. I have a deadline to have units for sale in time for the CCCC expo in late June. I've taken advantage of the long list of features in another project (sd2iec) to make uIEC even more compatible and useful. So, here is a combined list of features: o Supports IDE and CF cards (uIEC supports IDE/IDE, IDE/CF, or CF/CF if you have an IDE->CF adapter for the second card. uIEC/CF supports single CF card) o Supports drives of any size, though support for >137GB drives needs more testing. :-) o Supports FAT12/16/32 partitions of any legal size * Supports partition-less cards/drives, or up to 4 primary partitions or 3 primary and 12 extended partitions. (Email me if you have more than 12 extended partitions on a drive :-) o Supports FAT Long filenames * Transparent support for PRG/SEQ/USR file extensions, with REL support planned. o Transparent support for P00/S00/U00 files, with R00 support planned. o Supports read and write of D64 images. o Block level disk access supported on D64 images o Most CBM DOS commands (Scratch,Initialize,Rename,etc.) supported. o CBM general config commands (U0, U+, U-, UI, U9, U:, UJ) supported. o CBM block level commands (B-R, B-W, UA, U1, U2, UB) supported when in D64 image. o CMD-style partition ($=P) support o CMD-style subdirectory (MD,CD,RD) support. o CMD DOS Commands (G-P, G-<shift-P>) support. * Long form CMD directories ($=T:*, $=T:*=L) supported o 1581-style/CMD-FD/HD-style wildcard matching supported ($:JIM*RAIN) o JiffyDOS fast loader equipped (PAL and NTSC support). Can be enabled or disabled via DOS command. & Firmware can be updated by copying new firmware file to root dir of first drive, first partition and resetting unit. (* noted items are in my WIP codebase, & are features in mainline codebase I need to enable in my variant) I want to publicly thank Unseen of sd2iec for creating a very impressive codebase that made my feeble original attempt pale in comparison. Although I will regret not being the originator of the uIEC firmware, it simply made no sense to duplicate all of the features and require sd2iec to re-implement features already in the uIEC project. I think Unseen also appreciates another developer on his firmware project. My additions have primarily been to the FAT LFN code, the CMD HD commands, and multiple drive support. In process is time-based directory pattern matching (>00:00:00 and <00:00:00), support for programs that determine drive type via M-R, and D71/D81 image support. I'll refrain from listing the ideas in the enhancement bucket, but there are quite a few. At this point, I am prioritizing features that might make HW changes necessary, for obvious reasons. Firmware-only additions can be made after shipping. I'm happy to answer questions in the thread. Jim
From: christianlott1 on 14 Apr 2008 20:23 how compatible will this be with fast loaders/copy protection? g64 support? how difficult is rel support? selling price? push button (manual) disk switching?
From: rbernardo on 14 Apr 2008 22:02 On Apr 14, 4:26 pm, Jim Brain wrote: > I have a deadline to have units for sale in time for the > CCCC expo in late June. Congratulations, Jim (and Unseen, too)! I look forward to reading reports of the big "reveal" at the 4C's Expo. Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://videocam.net.au/fcug The Other Group of Amigoids http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
From: Jim Brain on 14 Apr 2008 22:51 christianlott1 wrote: > how compatible will this be with fast loaders/copy protection? Fastloaders: At present, except for JiffyDOS and TurboDisk, none are supported. However, Unseen has this idea of checking the CRC of the downloaded drive code (the code the computer sends to the drive to enable a fastloader), and then just turning on an emulation of the fastloader in question. JiffyDOS is coded in, but Turbodisk support (a SW fastloader) is supported in this way, so the idea is sound. Of course, implementing a new fastloader requires identifying the speeder download code (easy) and someone to write a description of how the code works (not so easy) so it can be implemented in AVR ASM or C. I'll answer the second question with below: > g64 support? Not at present, but I don't see any issue with it, just needs time to code up. All errors that are supported by G64 images would then be supported. The "on-deck" work for generalizing image support will make it easier to write a handler for G64 images and even other images, like HD and FD images, or D82 (8250, as I recall) images. A tip of the hat to Unseen's ability to abstract things in the codebase. > how difficult is rel support? Not difficult, but we are struggling to identify the value of including earlier rather than later. It's in the "things that need to be there at some point" list, but so far I've only found BBS operators that care about it. > selling price? I'm shooting for $50-$75, though I need to get a new bill of materials list priced, as it's been a while. The uIEC/CF will be cheaper, as it has fewer components. > push button (manual) disk switching? I forgot that feature, as I don't use it. It's in there. And, you can have one disk change button per physical drive. You can set the swaplist via open15,x,15,"XS<partition>//cmd/path/to/file/:filename, or it will use AUTOSWAP.LST in the current directory. the file is simply a list of directories or image files, and do not need to be in the current directory, or even the current partition (or drive, for that matter). Jim
From: ramswell on 15 Apr 2008 13:21
On Apr 14, 7:51 pm, Jim Brain <br...(a)jbrain.com> wrote: > christianlott1 wrote: > > how compatible will this be with fast loaders/copy protection? > > Fastloaders: > > At present, except for JiffyDOS and TurboDisk, none are supported. > However, Unseen has this idea of checking the CRC of the downloaded > drive code (the code the computer sends to the drive to enable a > fastloader), and then just turning on an emulation of the fastloader in > question. JiffyDOS is coded in, but Turbodisk support (a SW fastloader) > is supported in this way, so the idea is sound. Of course, implementing > a new fastloader requires identifying the speeder download code (easy) > and someone to write a description of how the code works (not so easy) > so it can be implemented in AVR ASM or C. > > I'll answer the second question with below:> g64 support? > > Not at present, but I don't see any issue with it, just needs time to > code up. All errors that are supported by G64 images would then be > supported. The "on-deck" work for generalizing image support will make > it easier to write a handler for G64 images and even other images, like > HD and FD images, or D82 (8250, as I recall) images. A tip of the hat > to Unseen's ability to abstract things in the codebase. > > > how difficult is rel support? > > Not difficult, but we are struggling to identify the value of including > earlier rather than later. It's in the "things that need to be there at > some point" list, but so far I've only found BBS operators that care > about it. > > > selling price? > > I'm shooting for $50-$75, though I need to get a new bill of materials > list priced, as it's been a while. The uIEC/CF will be cheaper, as it > has fewer components. > > > push button (manual) disk switching? > > I forgot that feature, as I don't use it. It's in there. And, you can > have one disk change button per physical drive. You can set the > swaplist via open15,x,15,"XS<partition>//cmd/path/to/file/:filename, or > it will use AUTOSWAP.LST in the current directory. the file is simply a > list of directories or image files, and do not need to be in the current > directory, or even the current partition (or drive, for that matter). > > Jim Got any pics of it, Jim? Also, what's the cost on it and is based on "FLASHING?" Just curious as if it's "similar" to the RR-NET or the MMC64, then we would be able to download the updates and install them via the sd card/thumb drive. Charles |