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base:reu_registers [2015-04-17 04:33] – external edit 127.0.0.1base:reu_registers [2015-07-26 12:58] (current) – Removed a HTML tag that wasn't supposed to be there. ftc
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 +====== REU registers ======
 +
 +By Marko Mäkelä --- (Marko.Makela@HUT.FI)
 +
 +===== Introduction =====
 +
 +The MOS 8726 REC (RAM Expansion Controller) is used in the Commodore REUs
 +(RAM Expansion Units), which are DMA-based external memory expansions
 +for the Commodore 64 and the Commodore 128.  They were available as 128kB,
 +256kB and 512kB expansions, but you can expand them theoretically up to
 +16 MB by adding extra banking bits.  There are instructions that tell you
 +how to upgrade your REU to 2 megabytes.
 +
 +The REC has 5 connected register selection lines, although it only
 +has 11 registers.  The unconnected registers return $FF upon reading.
 +The REU is located normally at $DF00.  As it has 5 register selection lines,
 +the REU actually shows up at $DF00-$DF0A, $DF20-$DF2A, $DF40-$DF4A and so on,
 +up to $DFE0-$DFEA.
 +
 +<code>
 +Address Bits Function
 +0 Status register - read only
 + 7 Interrupt Pending (1=interrupt waiting to be serviced)
 + 6 End of Block (1=transfer complete)
 + 5 Fault (1=block verify error)
 + 4 Size (tells if a jumper is cut in the REU)
 + 3-0 Version number (0 on the REU I tested)
 + Note: Bits 7-5 are cleared when this register is read.
 +</code>
 +
 +The bit 4 only tells if a jumper is cut in the REU.  Do not count on it,
 +measure the REU size with a program instead.
 +
 +Other registers are R/W:
 +<code>
 +1 Command Register
 + 7 Execute (1=initiate transfer per current config)
 + 6 reserved (returns 0 upon reading)
 + 5 Load (1=enable AUTOLOAD option)
 + 4 FF00 (1=disable FF00 decode)
 + 3-2 reserved (0 upon reading)
 + 1-0 Transfer type: 00=C64-&gt;REU
 + 01=REU-&gt;C64
 + 10=swap
 + 11=verify
 +</code>
 +
 +AUTOLOAD: When you select this option, the C64 base address registers, the
 +expansion memory base address registers (including bank) and the byte counter
 +registers at the end of a transfer are automatically reloaded. This is useful
 +if one operation is to be executed repeatedly on one particular block of data.
 +Note that if AUTOLOAD is selected in verify mode, the address where the verify
 +error occurred is lost. Ordinarily, upon finding a verify error, the REC halts
 +the DMA cycle and both address registers and the bank register point to one
 +location above the address that failed.
 +
 +FF00 decode means that the REU won't begin the transfer right away after the
 +execute bit is set, it will wait for a write access to $FF00. The FF00 option 
 +is cleared each time it is used.
 +
 +If you like obfuscated code, here's a nice trick to use with FF00 decode:
 +Start the transfer with a read-modify-write instruction, like
 +"inc $ff00" As you should know, RMW instructions in NMOS 65xx series
 +microprocessors first write unmodified data, then modified.  So, an RMW
 +instruction does two writes, and the REU will start the transfer already on
 +the first write.  It asserts the DMA signal, thus tri-stating the processor's
 +address and data bus and the R/-W signal.  As you should also know, NMOS
 +processors don't stop during writes.  So, the processor will try to write
 +the modified data back to $FF00, but it can't, as its bus is
 +disabled.  So, the $FF00 data will effectively remain the same.
 +
 +<code>
 +2 7-0 C64 start address (LSB)
 +3 7-0 C64 start address (MSB)
 +</code>
 +
 +(address overflow is not detected; it will continue from $0000)
 +
 +<code>
 +4 7-0 REU start address (LSB)
 +5 7-0 REU start address (More SB)
 +6 2-0 REU start address (most significant bits)
 +</code>
 +
 +Editor's note: This is referred as bank; however it is like start address,
 +because if a 64kB "bank" boundary is crossed, the bank will be incremented.
 +Note that the maximum amount of memory is 2^19 bytes=512 kB. The upper bits
 +of this register are unused, so if someone cloned the chip, it could address
 +up to 2^24 bytes=16 MB.  You can achieve this with an external latch, too.
 +Actually, there is an expansion that uses this trick.
 +
 +<code>
 +7 7-0 Transfer length (LSB) ($0000=64 kB)
 +8 7-0 Transfer length (MSB)
 +
 +9 Interrupt Mask Register
 + 7 Interrupt enable (1=interrupts enabled)
 + 6 End of Block mask (1=interrupt on end of block)
 + 5 Verify error (1=interrupt on verify error)
 + 4-0 unused (1 upon reading)
 +</code>
 +
 +Editor's note: The interrupt capability is useless, as the processor won't
 +run anything during the transfer process.  It just initiates the transfer,
 +waits for it to be completed, and continues executing the program. Thus, the
 +interrupt would occur right after the transfer command in the program.
 +
 +Note: If the interrupts are used, you have to read the status register (0) at
 +least once between successive transfers for proper operation.
 +
 +<code>
 +A 7-6 Address Control Register
 + 00=increment both addresses
 + 01=fix expansion address
 + 10=fix C64 address
 + 11=fix both addresses
 + 5-0 unused (1 upon reading)
 +</code>
 +
 +Editor's note: The mode 10, fix C64 address, could be used to play digitized
 +music or to digitize it.  No other applications come to my mind. And the
 +sampling frequency is a bit too high, about 1 MHz.  You can transfer only
 +64kB per request, so it would last less than 0,0665 seconds.)
 +
 +===== Some notes =====
 +
 +Under normal operation (no Autoload, with address increment), both address
 +registers point to the next sequential memory location outside the selected
 +transfer range at the end of the transfer.  This is true for any mode and
 +applies to both base (and bank) address pointers except one that is held
 +fixed.  Also note that under normal operation, the byte counter decrements
 +to the value 1.  Care should be taken, therefore, to check the transfer
 +complete byte counter value to indicate an end to the transfer condition.
 +A byte counter of 0 results in a transfer of a full 64 kB.  Again, wrapping
 +occurs in all modes of operation.
 +
 +The REC switches itself out of the host memory space during the transfers.
 +If you try to read any REC registers with its own DMA, the byte will be
 +read from open address space.
 +
 +The usage of the 2 MHz mode on the Commodore 128 does not affect on the REU
 +transfer speed, which is 1 byte per 1 MHz clock cycle.  Also comparisons take
 +one clock cycle per compared byte, and the comparison will stop immediately
 +when a difference is encountered.  The swapping function takes two clock
 +cycles per byte.  The transfer pauses immediately when the Bus Available (BA)
 +line goes low, and the transfer will begin on the clock cycle following the
 +write to $df01 or $ff00.
 +
 +The 2 MHz mode is not too safe to use with the REU transfers.  The processor
 +may fetch wrong opcode right after the transfer.  This is typical for the
 +2 MHz mode, since you should not use it either when switching between the 8502
 +and the Z80 processors.
 +
 +When using the Autoload option, the REC register values will be copied from
 +the last written values before the transfer.  Suppose that you initialize
 +the REC registers, and then perform one or more transfers, the last transfer
 +being without Autoload.  If you then issue a transfer with Autoload, the
 +current values of address registers (that you can read with the processor)
 +will not be used.  Instead, the Autoload initializes the source and target
 +addresses and the transfer length to the values you specified when
 +writing to the registers.
 +
 +===== Initial configuration =====
 +
 +The initial configuration after RESET is as follows:
 +
 +<code>
 +Reg Value Meaning
 +0 $10 Status Register
 + No bits set except Size (which can be reset as well)
 +1 $10 Command Register
 + Bit 4: disable FF00 decode
 +2 $00 C64 start address, LSB
 +3 $00 C64 start address, MSB
 +4 $00 REU start address, LSB
 +5 $00 REU start address, more SB
 +6 $f8 REU start address, MSB
 +7 $ff Transfer length, LSB ($ffff=65535 bytes)
 +8 $ff Transfer length, MSB
 +9 $1f Interrupt Mask Register
 + No interrupts enabled.
 +A $3f Address Control Register
 + Increment both addresses
 +</code>
  
base/reu_registers.txt · Last modified: 2015-07-26 12:58 by ftc