MODIFICATION NOTES FOR THE TurboROM SYSTEM 6/17/86 This disk is provided as a service to those who wish to modify or experiment with the TurboROM RAM resident system. Additonal disks and information is available from Advent Products, Inc. and Plu*Perfect Systems with regards to patches and improvements for application programs and extensions to the TurboROM. 1. Basic I/O System BIOS The source code to the high memory BIOS, TURBO-BS.ASM is provided as standard on the support disk shipped with the TurboROM. This disk contains the compiled listing which shows the relative addresses of the various parts. This code has been assembled with the CDL Macro III assembler which is not commonly available. The reason we use this assembler is that it is the only product that meets our requirements for sparse (i.e. patchable) relocatable code with an arbitrary number of relocation bases. This assembler was originally available from Technical Design Labs in the middle seventies. Its ownership then passed to Xitan and then reverted to CDL who were recently purchased by Rising Star Industries (of VALDOCS fame). Currently, RSI is selling the assembler, linker and debuggers for $70. The package is called "RSI Assembly Language Programming Tools/ TPM III User's Guide." Their address is 25500 Hawthorne Blvd., Suite 2000, Torrance CA 90505. Phone (213) 373- 9112. An equivalent assembler is also available from Phoenix who was also originally also connected with TDL. If you have access to a CDL type assembler and want to modify the BIOS you may chose to re-write the BIOS or you may wish to do your additions as a relocatable patch (with origin at the label LDPARM in the current bios.). If you use the .phex and the .xlink pseudo ops this will produce a REL file that can be merged with the current TURBO-BS.REL using any text editor. Just make sure there is only one EOF record. Then on a stock Kaypro system re-run the MAKTURBO utility using your newly modifed TURBO-BS.REL file. Run MOVTURBO to build an operating system of desired size and then use TURBOGEN to write the operating system on the system tracks of your boot disk. Note if you are patching the BIOS that all the cold boot initialization code is placed in front of the command processor where it is abandoned to give a larger TPA. There is almost a whole sector free for additional initialization code in this area. Almost 4 full sectors are also available at the end of the BIOS, but take care to avoid the first 42H bytes which a are reserved for scratch space by the BIOS. 2. Console Command Processor CCP The most common request we get is for the ability to integrate ZCPR3 into the system. Echelon, Inc. offers versions of ZCPR3 that can be used with the TurboROM, and most of the Kaypro bulletin board systems offer ZCPR3 for the TurboROM online. Echelon's address: Echelon, Inc. 101 First Street, Suite 427 Los Altos, CA 94022 (415) 948-3820 The command processor can be overlayed with a new one as long as the 2K limit is not exceeded. However, a better solution is to re-assemble the command processor with Digital Research's RMAC and then use LINK-80 to produce a new PRL file that can be integrated in a relocatable manner with the TurboROM system (by re-running the MAKTURBO utility). On this disk there is the source code to ZCPR1 that is used in this manner. To produce a suitable PRL file from this:- RMAC ZCPR ;;assemble and produce microsoft type REL LINK ZCPR[OP,L0200] ;;link REL file and output PRL with load ;;address of 0200 H Then on a stock Kaypro system re-run the MAKTURBO utility using your newly linked ZCPR.PRL file. Run MOVTURBO to build an operating system of desired size and then use TURBOGEN to write the operating system on the system tracks of your boot disk. 3. Files on the Developer's Disk -READ .ME This documentation file. HARDNOTE.TXT Notes by Derek McKay at Plu*Perfect systems on the care and feeding of hard disk drives for use with the TurboROM. NOBLANK .ASM 8080 assembly language source for NOBLANK.COM. NOBLANK .COM Executable program to inhibit video screen blanking on the 84 and Kaypro 10 versions of the TurboROM. This program sets a flag in high memory to a non-zero value. This program does not verify that the TurboROM is present nor does it check that the machine is '84 type Kaypro (translation: use this program ONLY on an '84 or Kaypro 10 with the TurboROM). ROM .DOC Documentation on the internal structure and workings of the TurboROM. These notes were used while developing the TurboROM. These may be of use to those who wish to write programs to take advantage of the TurboROM features. Some of this material is duplicated in the TurboROM manual. STATLN .C "C" source for a program to enable/disable the 25th line on '84 and Kaypro 10 computers with the TurboROM. STATLN .COM Executable program to enable/disable the 25th line on '84 and Kaypro 10 computers with the TurboROM. TURBO-BS.PRN Print file of assembled BIOS used by the TurboROM. TURBOSAF.ASM Assembly language "source" for the TURBOSAF.COM program. Notes are included in the source on how to patch the executable version (TURBOSAF.COM). TURBOSAF.COM Executable program used to "park" the heads on hard disk drives. This program must be "patched" with the cylinder number that the heads are to be positioned over. This program supports two hard disk drives connected to the WD- 1002 hard disk controller. ZCPR .ASM Assembly language source for the version of ZCPR1 used by the TurboROM.