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matherp
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Posted: 05:31pm 12 Dec 2021

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thwill

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Posted: 05:35pm 12 Dec 2021

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Was this not supposed to be "impossible", or at the very least too resource consuming ?

Tom

Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures

Mixtel90

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Posted: 05:42pm 12 Dec 2021

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LOL! Nice one Peter. :)
Even cheaper than the BP too...

Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
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Mixtel90

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Posted: 05:45pm 12 Dec 2021

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*colour* VGA might cause a problem, but there's only one bitplane here. I think it's *very slightly* slower than the VGAmite too, but I don't know the clock speed.

Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
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matherp
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Posted: 06:06pm 12 Dec 2021

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Mixtel90

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Posted: 06:12pm 12 Dec 2021

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LOL! Great! :)

Isn't OPTION CPU LIGHTSPEED implemented yet? ;)

Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
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twofingers
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Posted: 06:46pm 12 Dec 2021

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@Peter:
Congratulation!

The way to the original benchmark thread.
Regards
Michael

toml_12953
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Posted: 07:11pm 12 Dec 2021

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Mixtel90 said LOL! Great! :)

Isn't OPTION CPU LIGHTSPEED implemented yet? ;)

I'm waiting for OPTION CPU PLAIDSPEED but it won't look too good if we're limited in colors (colours).

Mixtel90

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Posted: 09:10pm 12 Dec 2021

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This is seriously encouraging. To get those benchmarks with a VGA driver running at the same time is really neat.

Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
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Plasmamac

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Posted: 11:51pm 12 Dec 2021

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Really cool.
gtx
Edited 2021-12-13 17:05 by Plasmamac

Plasma

Frank N. Furter
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Posted: 07:48am 13 Dec 2021

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That's really phantastic!!!

...is there already somewhere a version to try out???

Thank you Peter for your efforts!!!

Frank

matherp
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Posted: 07:56am 13 Dec 2021

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Quote ...is there already somewhere a version to try out???

Just tidying it up and getting PS2 keyboard working then will release a version.

This will be a VGA only version - no support for any other displays and no GUI/TOUCH support (makes no sense on a monochrome display).
CPU runs at either 126MHZ (normal) or 252MHX (turbo). Also PIO0 is not available for use.
Other than that it will have all the other PicoMite functionality.

The only compromise is that the display has to be blanked when writing to flash as this can only happen with interrupts disabled. How fast the image returns depends on how fast your monitor re-establishes lock.

This happens when exiting edit, exiting autosave, changing options, using VAR SAVE or using FLASH commands that write to flash. Otherwise the mage seems very stable and clear.

Mixtel90

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Posted: 08:11am 13 Dec 2021

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I was lying in bed this morning wondering if you were using a PIO to get the syncs, with an interrupt to trigger the CPU to squirt pixels out. :)

Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
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matherp
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Posted: 08:23am 13 Dec 2021

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Quote I was lying in bed this morning wondering if you were using a PIO to get the syncs, with an interrupt to trigger the CPU to squirt pixels out. :)

As usual not my original work but I am good at incorporating, modifying and extending the work of others

See here for full details of how it works and Miroslav Nemecek who did the real clever stuff

Mixtel90

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Posted: 09:10am 13 Dec 2021

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Ee's a clever lad. Ee talks PIO reet good!

I'm afraid he lost me early on. lol It shows how cleverly the PIO can be used though.

mmm... PicoZork in glorious technigreen!
West of house
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here.
>_
Edited 2021-12-13 19:20 by Mixtel90

Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
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Volhout
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Posted: 09:15am 13 Dec 2021

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Hi Peter,

Looks you are running native 640x480 resolution, not the QVGA 320x240.
So you modified for monochrome, and clocked at 252MHz, and reserved 38k for video memory ?
Leaving an impressive 210k RAM for basic ? (effective 65k editor, 65k variables, 65k program ?)

Volhout
Edited 2021-12-13 19:15 by Volhout

PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS

toml_12953
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Posted: 09:22am 13 Dec 2021

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matherp said

Quote ...is there already somewhere a version to try out???

This will be a VGA only version - no support for any other displays and no GUI/TOUCH support (makes no sense on a monochrome display).

Why don't GUI and TOUCH commands make sense on a mono display? I can see the limited utility of GUI on a text-only display (although Visual Basic for DOS was very handy) but touch is still useful. It simply returns row and column info. If the display has mono graphics but no color, then GUI is useful, too.

Mixtel90

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Posted: 10:47am 13 Dec 2021

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Nothing that makes heavy demands on CPU interrupts will work as the VGA system demands precise timing and can't be interrupted. You'll get a screen flash on every interrupt as the monitor loses sync. Also, VGA monitors don't (as standard) handle touch sensing at all and this software doesn't support LCD displays. GUI commands appear to depend on interrupts to operate at all.

Peter: is it a text display or does it support the usual line, box, circle etc.?
Edited 2021-12-13 20:58 by Mixtel90

Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs

matherp
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Posted: 10:51am 13 Dec 2021

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Quote https://www.thebackshed.com/forum/ViewTopic.php?FID=16&TID=14380&LastEntry=Y#178805

VGA screens almost never support touch. The GUI controls would be a nonsense in monochrome requiring a total rewrite. Interrupts are irrelevant

Mixtel90

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Posted: 10:59am 13 Dec 2021

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Good point - GUI objects can't change colour. :)

Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs

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