:: >....Are you _sure_ it's 300 baud? I thought it was 2400....
::
::Well, it has been a few years since I had much to do with the C64 so my
::memory could be faulty. I definitely remember a figure of 300 baud quoted
::somewhere in relation to storage though....perhaps that's the rate that the
::cassette system runs at?
Yup yup yup. I must have missed the original message. The IEC bus is much
faster than that, and of course fast serial devices like the 128 (in 128 mode)
coupled with burst-capable devices like 1571s and 1581s are faster still.
A quick hardware mod will let you use high speed transfers on the 64 too (with
software to drive it, the Kernal doesn't know how).
::No kidding. I remember when systems like "NovaLoad" came along allowing
::games to load from tape faster than they did from disc. And then the
::floodgates opened....
So you *do* know about Novaload! (Ignore previous message.) Who wrote it?
Do you remember?
::Hmm, memory is hazy now, but I think cartridges like Epyx' "FastLoad" did
::use a higher than normal baud rate when running in fast mode (bear in mind
::that it's probably 11 years since I last used my FastLoad cart).
::
::I only heard of this trick of using two lines on the serial bus to double
::the data transfer rate quite recently. AFAIR the serial bus already uses two
::data lines, one for data out of the C64 and a second for data in?
::
::Would I be right in assuming that this trick involves using both lines as
::inputs or outputs simultaneously?
I don't remember the details of how it works, but yes, FastLoad steals
another IEC serial bus line and uses it for an extra bit of transfer. On
every load it shuffles a small ML subroutine into drive RAM and executes
that so the disk drive knows how to do the transfer. It achieves ~5x
increase that way, and is *highly* compatible.
What I suspect it uses is the ATN line. Don't ask me how, it just rings
a bell for some reason.
--
----------------------------- personal page: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ --
Cameron Kaiser * Point Loma Nazarene University * ckaiser_at_ptloma.edu
-- If ignorance is bliss, shouldn't I be happier? -----------------------------
Received on Thu Mar 16 2000 - 17:17:50 GMT