*********
Welcome to Project 64!
The goal of Project 64 is to preserve Commodore 64 related documents
in electronic text format that might otherwise cease to exist with the
rapid advancement of computer technology and declining interest in 8-
bit computers on the part of the general population.
Extensive efforts were made to preserve the contents of the original
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listings, and indexes may have been either altered or sacrificed due
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of contents and indexes may have been changed from page number
references to section number references. Please accept our apologies
for these limitations, alterations, and possible omissions.
Document names are limited to the 8.3 file convention of DOS. The
first characters of the file name are an abbreviation of the original
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The author(s) of the original document and members of Project 64 make
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*********
The Project 64 etext of the ~Mapping The Commodore 64 book~, typed
by David Holz <david_holz@hotmail.com>, formatted to 71 columns and
somewhat proofed by Cris Berneburg <pcgeek@compuserve.com>.
MAPC6410.TXT, May 1998, etext #352#
Note from the tired typist:
WHEW! This is a LOT of text. And, yes, this whole darned 11,000-line
thing was completely hand-typed. As for the content, I tried to get
everything exactly word-for-word. However, many typos are bound to be
lurking in these pages. Thus I give permission for anybody to edit
and repost this file without having to contact me. I also made some
minor changes, which include throwing out page numbers and
delimitation, filling up to 79 columns wide, listing out some
ordinary-formatted text into somewhat formatted tables, and correcting
some typos and errors in the original text.
The book bears Sheldon Leemon's name and was published by Compute!
Publications, (c) 1984. Again (like the Project 64 header should
read), this copy is meant for reference only, and to preserve its
contents from being eternally lost. No monetary or other damages to
Compute! Publications or Sheldon Leemon are meant by the creation and
transfer of this electronic book, and the intellectual ownership of
the contents of this text by the above parties is hereby acknowledged.
No profit is to be made from the transfer of this electronic copy! I
claim no responsibility for anything that anybody does with the text
herein, as do the original author and publisher.
Without further ado, here's one of the best C64 references around!
Enjoy!
White Flame (aka David Holz)
http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Lab/1767
*********
MAPPING THE Commodore 64
::::::::::::
::Contents::
::::::::::::
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. Page 0
Chapter 2. Page 1
Chapter 3. Pages 2 and 3
BASIC and Kernal Working Storage
Chapter 4. 1K to 40K
Screen, Memory, Sprite Pointers, and
BASIC Program Text
Chapter 5. 8K BASIC ROM and 4K Free RAM
Chapter 6. VIC-II, SID, I/O Devices, Color RAM,
and Character ROM
Chapter 7. 8K Operating System Kernal ROM
Appendix A. A Beginner's Guide to
Typing In Programs
Appendix B. How to Type In Programs
Appendix C. Screen Location Table
Appendix D. Screen Color Memory Table
Appendix E. Screen Color Codes
Appendix F. ASCII Codes
[*** OMITTED ***]
[widely available elsewhere; not suitable for textual formatting]
Appendix G. Screen Codes
[*** OMITTED ***]
[widely available elsewhere; not suitable for textual formatting]
Appendix H. Commodore 64 Keycodes
Index (By Memory Location)
::::::::::::
::Foreword::
::::::::::::
This is a memory map of the Commodore 64 personal computer. But it's
much more than that. It's a reference book which every programmer who
uses the 64 will find invaluable. What is a memory map? It's a list
of the memory locations in a computer. But Mapping the Commodore 64
is a memory amp that goes much further. It explains the purpose of
each location and shows you how to change the contents of many of
them. You can make the computer do what you want it to. If you're a
BASIC programmer, you'll find easy-to-understand explanations of how
to use the advanced features of the Commodore 64, and how to include
these features in your own programs. If you're already using machine
language to write your own programs, you'll use this guide over and
over again, referring to specific memory locations and routines.
You'll have the most complete guide to the Commodore 64's memory
available.
As with all COMPUTE! books, the explanations are clear and easy to
understand. Beginning and advanced programmers alike will find
Mapping the Commodore 64 a valuable resource.
::::::::::::::::::::
::Acknowledgements::
::::::::::::::::::::
I would like to thank Russ Davies, author of Mapping the VIC, for his
generosity in sharing the results of his research. Without his help,
and that of Dan Heeb, author of the The Commodore 64 and VIC Tool Kit,
this book would have been much less complete.
Of all the published sources of information about the 64, I have found
the Commodore 64 Programmer's Reference Guide to be the most valuable
for technical information. That Commodore has come out with such a
thorough reference work so quickly after the introduction of the
machine is much to their credit. Because of the similarities between
the 64 and previous Commodore computers, I have also relied heavily on
ooks that deal with the PET/CBM. Of particular interest are
Programming the PET/CBM by Raeto West, which should be subtitled
"Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Commodore Computers," and
the PET/CBM Personal Computer Guide, Third Edition, Osborne/
McGraw-Hill. These important reference works contain more information
of real benefit to the 64 owner than most books which deal
specifically with the 64.
Finally, I would like to thank my wife Lenore. Although her
contribution to this book was nontechnical in nature, it was as
important as any other.
::::::::::::::::
::Introduction::
::::::::::::::::
To many computer users, the concept of a memory map may be an
unfamiliar one. Simply stated, it is a guide to your computer's
internal hardware and software. A memory map can help you use the
PEEK and POKE instructions to extend your BASIC programming powers.
If you plan to do machine language programming, it is necessary that
you be able to find your way around the system.
Many computer owners think of a program as something they buy at a
store and feed into the computer so that it will let them play games,
or do word processing, or keep financial records. But this type of
applications software is by no means the only kind.
It is important to remember that a computer cannot do anything without
some kind of program. When the computer displays the READY prompt, or
blinks the cursor, or displays the letters that you type, it can only
do so by executing a program. In the examples shown above, it is the
master control program, the Operating System (OS), which is being
executed.
When you give the computer a command such as LOAD, the BASIC
interpreter program translates the English-like request to the
language of numbers which the computer understands. The Operating
System and BASIC interpreter programs are contained in permanent Read
Only Memory (ROM), and are available as soon as you turn the power on.
Without them, your computer would be a rather expensive paperweight.
This permanent software co-exists inside your computer with the
applications program that you load. Since the system software
performs many of the same functions as the applications program (such
as reading information from the keyboard and displaying it on the
screen), it is often possible for the applications program to make use
of certain parts of the Operating System. This not only makes the
task of the programmer easier, but in come cases it allows him or her
to do things that otherwise would not be possible.
The Commodore 64 also has hardware support chips which enable the
graphics display, sound synthesis, and communications with external
devices. Since these chips are addressed like memory, they occupy
space in our map. Control over these chips, and the graphics, sound,
and I/O functions they make possible, can only be accomplished by
manipulation of the memory addresses which correspond to these
devices. Therefore, a guide to these addresses is necessary in order
to take advantage of the graphics, music, and communications power
that they offer.
The purpose of this book is to describe the memory locations used by
the system, and to show, wherever possible, how to utilize them in
your own programs. The book should clear up some of the mystery
surrounding the way your computer works.
How to Use This Book
The Commodore 64 and communicate with 64K or 65536 (64*1024) bytes of
memory. Each of these bytes of memory can store a number from 0 to
255. The computer can read (and sometimes write) information from any
of these 65536 locations by using its address, a number from 0 to
65535.
Bits and Bytes
Each byte is make up of eight binary digits called bits. These bits
are the computer's smallest unit of information. They can contain
only the number one or the number zero, but when combined, they can be
used to form any number needed. To see how that is possible, let's
look at a single bit.
A single bit can only be a one or a zero. But if two bits are
combined the number increases.
00,01,10,11
That makes four possible combinations. And if a third bit is added:
000,001,010,011,100,101,110,111
When eight bits are put together, the number of combinations increases
to 256. These eight bits are called a byte and can be used to
represent the numbers from 0 to 255.
This system of numbering is known as binary (or base two). It works
much like the decimal (base ten) system. In the base ten numbering
system, the rightmost digit is known as the one's place, and holds a
number from 0 to 9. The next place to the left is known as then ten's
place, and also holds a number from 0 to 9, which represents the
number of times the one's place has been used in counting (the number
of tens).
In the binary system, there is a one's place, then a two's place, a
four's place, etc. The bits are counted from right to left, starting
with Bit 0. Here are the values of each bit:
Bit 0 = 1
Bit 1 = 2
Bit 2 = 4
Bit 3 = 8
Bit 4 = 16
Bit 5 = 32
Bit 6 = 64
Bit 7 = 128
If all the bits are added together (128+64+32+16+4+2+1), they total
255, which is the maximum value of one byte. What if you need to
count higher than 255? Use two bytes.
By using a second bytere to count the number of 255's, 65536
combinations are possible (256*256). This is the same number as the
bytes of memory in the Commodore 64. Therefore, any byte can be
addressed by a number using a maximum of two bytes.
When discussing large, even units of memory, the second byte, the
number of 256's, is often used alone. These units are known as pages.
Page 0 starts at location zero (0*256), Page 1 starts at location 256
(1*256), etc.
You may see thn terms low-byte, high-byte order or LSB (Least
Significant Byte), MSB (Most Significant Byte) order, mentioned later
in this book. That refers to the way in which the Commodore 64
usually deals with a two-byte address. The byte of the address that
represents the number of 256's (MSB) is usually stored higher in
memory than the part that stores the leftover value from 0 to 255
(LSB). Therefore, to find the address, you must add the LSB to
256*MSB.
Hexadecimal
One other numbering system that is used in speaking about computers is
the hexadecimal (base 16) system. Each hexadecimal digit can count a
number from 0 to 15. Since the highest numeric digit is 9, the
alphabet must be used: A=10, B=11, and so on up to F=15. With just
two digits, 256 combinations are possible (16*16). That means that
each byte can be represented by just two hexadecimal digits, each of
which stands for four bits of memory. These four- bit units are
smaller than a byte, so they are known as nybbles.
Since programmers often find that hexadecimal numbers are easier to
use than binary or decimal numbers, many numbers in this book are
given in both decimal and hexadecimal format. A dollar sign ($) has
been placed in front of each hexadecimal number.
AND, OR, and EOR
Certain functions on the 64 (particularly those using the sound and
graphics chips) are controlled by a single bit. You will often see
references to setting Bit 6 to a value of one, or setting Bit 3 to a
value of zero. This can be done by adding or subtracting the bit
value for that particular bit from the value of the whole byte.
Adding or subtracting the bit value will work only if you know the
status of that bit already. If Bit 4 is off, and you add 16 (the bit
value of Bit 4) to the byte, it will turn Bit 4 on. But if it were on
already, adding 16 would turn Bit 4 off, and another bit on.
This is where logical (sometimes called Boolean) functions come in
handy. Two functions, OR and AND, are available in BASIC, and a
third, EOR, can be used in machine language programming for bit
manipulation.
AND is usually used to zero out (or mask) unwanted bits. When you AND
a number with another, a 1 will appear in the resulting number only of
identical bits in the ANDed numbers had been set to 1. For example,
if you wanted to turn of Bit 4 in the number 154, you could AND it
with 239 (which is the maximum bit combination minus the bit value to
be masked; 255-16):
10011010 = 154
AND 11101111 = 239
--------
= 10001010 = 138
By using the AND function, nothing would be harmed if we tried to turn
off a bit that wasn't on. You can always turn a bit off by using the
formula BYTEVALUE AND (255-BITVALUE). Remember, there must be a 1 in
the same bit of both numbers in order for the same bit in the result
to have a 1.
The opposite function, turning a bit on, is performed by the OR
statement. The OR function puts a 1 in the bit of the resulting
number if there was a 1 in the same bit in either of the two numbers.
For example, to turn Bit 4 back on in the number 138, we would use the
statement 138 OR 16 (the bit value for the bit we want to turn on):
10001010 = 138
OR 00010000 = 16
--------
= 10011010 = 154
Again, no harm would be done if the bit was already on. A bit can
always be turned on with the formula BYTEVALUE OR BITVALUE.
The third operation, EOR, can be done only in machine language. It is
used to reverse the value of a bit. If the bit of the second number
holds a 1, it will reverse the value of the corresponding bit in the
first number. Therefore, to switch all of the bits, you can EOR a
number by 255:
10011010 = 154
EOR 11111111 = 255
--------
= 01100101 = 101
Notice that this produces the complement of the original number (256
minus the number). Anytime you with to flip a bit from 0 to 1, or 1
to 0, you can EOR it with the value of that bit.
The Format of Entries
The entries in this book are organized at the most general level by
large blocks 9the 256 page 0 locations, for example, or the 8192
locations in the BASIC ROM). At the beginning of these blocks, you
will often find an explanation that will give you an idea of how the
lcoations in that section are related. Usually, this overview will
make it easier to understand the more detailed explanations of the
individual locations in that block.
Within these larger blocks, you will sometimes see a few locations
grouped under the heading Location Range. This grouping is done where
the locations are so interrelated that it would be meaningless to try
to explain one without explaining them all.
Finally comes the entries for individual locations. These give the
address, first in decimal, then in hexadecimal, and sometimes a label.
This label is merely a mnemonic device, used in machine language
programming, for easier reference to a particular memory location.
Although Commodore has not released the source code for their
Operating System or BASIC, they have published some of these labels in
the Commodore 64 Programmer's Reference Guide.
Other labels used here are taken from Jim Butterfield's PET memory
maps, which have enjoyed a wide circulation among Commodore users.
Their use here should help 64 owners adapt information about the PET
to their own machines.
The mnemonic label for an entry is followed by a one-line description
of the location. Often, a more detailed explanation will appear under
that, ranging from a couple of sentences to several pages.
Occasionally, program samples will accompany these explanations.
Sometimes the single-line descriptions will identify a location as a
flag, a vector, or a pointer. A flag is just a number that the
program uses to store the outcome of a previous operation. A pointer
of vector is usually a two-byte location that holds a significant
address. Generally, the term pointer is used when the address points
to the start of some data, and vector is used when the address points
to the start of a machine language program. However, sometimes these
terms will be used interchangeably, with the meaning clear from the
context.
:::::::::::::
::Chapter 1::
:: ::
:: Page 0 ::
:::::::::::::
Memory locations 0-255 ($0-$FF) have a special significance in 6502
machine language programming (the 6510 microprocessor in the Commodore
64 shares the same instruction set as the 6502). Since these
addresses cn be expressed using just one byte, instructions which
access data stored in these locations are shorter and execute more
quickly than do instructions which operate on addresses in higher
memory, which requires two bytes.
Because of this relatively fast execution time, most 6502 software
makes heavy use of zero-page locations. The 64 is no exception, and
uses this area for many important system variables and pointers.
In addition, locations 0 and 1 have special Input/Output functions on
the 6510. In the case of the 64, this on-chip I/O port is used to
select the possible combinations of ROM, as we will se below, and to
control cassette I/O.
Location Range: 0-143 ($0-$8F)
BASIC Working Storage
This portion of zero page is used by BASIC only. Therefore, a program
written entirely in machine language that does not interact with BASIC
can freely use this area.
0 $0 D6510
6510 On-Chip I/O DATA Direction Register
Bit 0: Direction of Bit 0 I/O on port at next address. Default = 1 (output)
Bit 1: Direction of Bit 1 I/O on port at next address. Default = 1 (output)
Bit 2: Direction of Bit 2 I/O on port at next address. Default = 1 (output)
Bit 3: Direction of Bit 3 I/O on port at next address. Default = 1 (output)
Bit 4: Direction of Bit 4 I/O on port at next address. Default = 0 (input)
Bit 5: Direction of Bit 5 I/O on port at next address. Default = 1 (output)
Bit 6: Direction of Bit 6 I/O on port at next address. Not used.
Bit 7: Direction of Bit 7 I/O on port at next address. Not used.
This location is the first of a number of hardware registers that we
will discuss. Although they can be written to and/or read like RAM,
they are connected to hardware devices, and their contents affect the
operation of the devices.
Each bit of this Data Direction Register determines whether the
contents of the corresponding bit on the Internal I/O Port (see
location 1) can be written to by peripheral devices. If the bit is
set to 0, it indicates the direction of data flow as Input, which
means that the corresponding bit of the I/O port will be affected by
peripheral defices. If the bit is set to 1, it indicates Output. On
the 64, only Bits 0-5 are significant. On power-up, this register is
set to 239 ($EF), which indicates that all bits, except for Bit 4
(which senses the cassette switch), are set up for Output.
1 $1 R6510
Bit 0: LORAM signal. Selects ROM or RAM at 40960 ($A000). 1=BASIC, 0=RAM
Bit 1: HIRAM signal. Selects ROM or RAM at 57344 ($E000). 1=Kernal, 0=RAM
Bit 2: CHAREN signal. Selects character ROM or I/O devices. 1=I/O, 0=ROM
Bit 3: Cassette Data Output line.
Bit 4: Cassette Switch Sense. Reads 0 if a button is pressed, 1 if not.
Bit 5: Cassette Motor Switch Control. A 1 turns the motor on, 0 turns it off.
Bits 6-7: Not connected--no function presently defined.
The chief function of this register is to determine which blocks of
RAM and ROM the 6510 microprocessor will address. The Commodore 64
comes with 64K RAM, even though it normally does not use all of that
RAM at once. In addition, it has an 8K BASIC Interpreter ROM, an 8K
Operating System Kernal ROM, a 4K Character Generator ROM, a Sound
Interface Device (SID), a 6566 Video Interface Controller (VIC-II),
and two 6526 Complex Interface adapter chips.
To address all of these at once would require 88K, 24K past the
addressing limit of the 6510 microprocessor. In order to allocate
address space, the I/O Port is used to affect the addressing lines,
and thus determine which segments of RAM and ROM will be addressed at
any one time.
Bit 0. This bit controls the LORAM signal. A 0 in this bit position
switches the BASIC ROM out, and replaces it with RAM at addresses
40960-49151 ($A000-$BFFF). The default value of this bit is 1.
Bit 1. Bit 1 controls the HIRAM signal. A 0 in this bit position
switches the Kernal ROM out, and replaces it with RAM at 57344-65535
($E000-$FFFF). As the BASIC interpreter uses the Kernal, it is also
switched out and replaced by RAM. The default value of this bit is 1.
The system allows a wide range of combinations of RAM and ROM to be
utilized. Of course, the BASIC programmer will have little need, in
the ordinary course of events, to switch out the BASIC ROM and the
Kernal. To do so would just hang the system up. But one way to make
use of this feature is to move the contents of ROM to the
corresponding RAM addresses. That way, you can easily modify and
customize the BASIC interpreter and OS Kernal routines, which are
ordinarily fixed in ROM. For examples, to move BASIC into RAM, just
type:
FOR I=40960 TO 49151:POKE I,PEEK(I):NEXT
Though it appears that such a program would not do anything, it in
fact copies bytes from ROM to RAM. This is because any data which is
written to a ROM location is stored in the RAM which resides at the
same address. So while you are PEEKing ROM, you are POKEing RAM. To
switch to your RAM copy of BASIC, type in:
POKE 1,PEEK(1) AND 254.
Now you are ready to make modifications. Examples of simple
modifications include changing the text which the interpreter prints,
such as the READY prompt, the power-up message, or the keyword table.
An example of the latter would be POKE 41122,69. This changes the FOR
keyword to FER, so that BASIC would respond normally to a FER-NEXT
loop, but fail to recognize FOR as syntactically correct.
On the more practical side, you could change the prompt that INPUT
issues to a colon, rather than a question mark:
POKE 43846,58
You are not limited to just cosmetic changes of text. Jim Butterfield
has given an example in COMPUTE! magazine of changing the interpreter
so that it assigns a null string the ASCII value 0. In the ROM
version, the command PRINT ASC("") will return ?ILLEGAL QUANTITY
ERROR. This is inconvenient when INPUTting a string, because if the
user presses RETURN and you try to check the ASCII value of the string
that has been entered, you will get this error. By entering POKE
46991,5, this is changed so that PRINT ASC("") now responds with a
zero.
For the more serious machine language programmer, it is quite feasible
to add new commands or modify existing ones by diverting the vectors
which are discussed in the section covering the BASIC interpreter ROM.
For a good example of this technique, see the article "Hi-Res Graphics
Made Simple" by Paul Schatz in COMPUTE!'s First Book of Commodore 64
Sound and Graphics. The program example there inserts new graphics
commands into a RAM version of BASIC. When you want to switch back to
the ROM BASIC, enter POKE 1,PEEK(1) OR 1.
For machine language applications, it would be possible to replace the
ROM programs with an entirely different operating system, or an
application that has its own screen editing and I/O functions
included. Such an application would first have to be loaded from disk
into RAM. A language other than BASIC could be loaded, and could then
just switch out the BASIC ROM, while still using the OS Kernal.
Or a spreadsheet application that contained its own I/O routines could
switch out all ROMs and have the use of all of RAM that is not
actually needed for the program itself, for data. It should be
remembered, however, that before switching the Kernal out, it is
necessary to disable interrupts, as the vectors for these interrupts
are contained in the Kernal.
Bit 2. This bit controls the CHAREN signal. A 0 in this position
switches the character generator ROM in, so that it can be read by the
6510 at addresses 53248-57343 ($D000-$DFFF). Normally, this bit is
set to 1, so that while the VIC-II chip has access to the character
generator ROM for purposes of creating the screen display, the user
cannot PEEK into it. Since this ROM is switched into the system in
the same location as the I/O devices (SID chip, VIC-II chip, and 6526
CIA's), o I/O can occur when this ROM is switched in.
The ability to switch in the character generator ROM is very useful to
the programmer who wishes to expirement with user-defined characters.
Modified character graphics is one of the more powerful graphics
tools available, but often the user will not want to redefine a whole
character set at one time. By reading the character ROM and
duplicating its contents in RAM, the user can replace only a few
characters in the set. The method for reading this ROM into RAM from
BASIC is as follows:
10 POKE 56333,127:POKE1,PEEK(1) AND 251:FOR I=0 TO 2048
20 POKE BASE+I,PEEK(53248+I):NEXT:POKE 1,PEEK(1) OR 4:POKE 56333,129
The first POKE is necessary to turn off the system timer interrupt.
Since the I/O devices are addressed in the same space as the character
ROM, switching that ROM in switches all I/O out, making it necessary
to turn off any interrupts which use these devices.
The second POKE is the one which switches in the character ROM. The
program loop then reads this ROM memory into RAM, starting with the
address BASE. Note that this address should start on an even 2K
boundary (an address evenly divisible by 2048) within the block of
memory presently being addresses by the VIC-II chip (for more
information on where to put user-defined character sets, and how to
use them, see the section on the VIC-II chip, under location 53272
($D018), the section on the character ROM at 49152 ($C000), and the
section on banking VIC-II memory at 56576 ($DD00)). After reading the
contents of ROM into RAM, the next POKEs switch out the character ROM
and restore the interrupt.
It should be noted that while Bits 0-2 of this register allow software
control of some signals that determine the memory configuration that
is used by the Commodore 64 at any given time, they are not the only
determining factor. Signals can also be generated by means of plug-in
expansion cartridges which are connected to the expansion port, and
these can change the memory map.
Two lines located on the exapansion port are called GAME and EXROM.
When used in conjunction with the software-controlled lines noted
above, these two hardware lines can enable cartridge ROM to replace
various segments of ROM and/or RAM.
Possible configurations include 8K of cartridge ROM to be switched in
at $8000-$9FFF, for a BASIC enhancement program; an 8K cartridge ROM
at $A000-$BFFF, replacing BASIC, or at $E000-$FFFF, replacing the
Kernal, or a 16k cartridge at $8000-$C000.
When cartridge ROM is selected to replace the Kernal, a Max emulator
mode is entered, which mimics the specification of the ill-fated Max
Machine, a game machine which Commodore never produced for sale int he
U.S. In this mode, only the first 6K of RAM are used, there is no
access to the character ROM, and graphics data such as charactger
dot-data is mapped down from 57344 ($E000) to 8192 ($2000). Further
hardware information may be obtained from the Commodore 64
Programmer's Reference Guide.
Bits 3-5 of this register have functions connected with the Datasette
recorder. These are as follows:
Bit 3. This is the Cassette Data Output line. This line is connected
to the Cassette Data Write line on the cassette port, and is used to
send the data which is written to tape.
Bit 4. This bit is the Cassette Switch Sense line. This bit enables
a program to tell whether or not one of the buttons that moves the
recorder is pressed down. If the switch on the recorder is down, this
bit will have a value of 1. Remember that Bit 4 of the data direction
register at location 0 must contain a 0 for this bit to properly
reflect the status of the switch.
Bit 5. Bit 5 is the Cassette Motor Control. Setting this bit to zero
allows the motor to turn when you press one of the buttons on the
recorder, while setting it to one disables it from turning.
Most of the time, the setting of this bit will be controlled by the
interrupt routine that is used to read the keyboard every sixtieth of
a second. If none of the buttons on the recorder is pressed, that
interrupt routine shuts the motor off and sets the interlock at
location 192 ($C0) to zero. When a button is pressed, if the
interlock location is zero, Bit 5 of this register is set to zero to
turn the motor on.
When the interlock location contains a zero, the keyscan routine will
not let you control the setting of this bit of the register (and the
interlock is always set to zero when no buttons are pressed). In
order for you to gain control of the motor, you must POKE a nonzero
value into 192 after a button on the recorder has been pressed. You
can then shut off the motor and turn it back on as you please, by
manipulating this bit, so long as a button stays pressed.
2 $2
Unused
3-4 $3-$4 ADRAY1
Vector: Routine to Convert a Number from Floating Point to Signed
Integer
This vector points to the address of the BASIC routine which converts
a floating point number to an integer. In the current Kernal version,
the address that it points to is 45482 ($B1AA). Disassembly of the
ROMs indicates that BASIC does not use this vector. However, it may
be of real assistance to the programmer who wishes to use data that is
stored in floating point format. The parameter that is passed by the
USR command is available only in that format, for example.
Since it is extremely difficult to decipher and use a floating point
number, the simplest way to deal with such data is to use the
conversion routines that are built into BASIC to change it into a
two-byte signed integer. This could be accomplished by jumping
directly into the BASIC ROM, if you know the location of the routine.
Therefore, if the address changes in future versions of the 64 or
future Commodore computers, you won't have to modify your program to
make it work with them.
See the entry for the USR vector at 785 ($311) for an explanation of
how to use this routine in connection with the USR command.
5-6 $5-$6 ADRAY2
Vector: Routine to Convert a Number from Integer to Floating Point
This vector points to the address of the BASIC routine which converts
an integer to a floating point number. This routine is currently
located at 45969 ($B391). BASIC does not appear to reference this
location. It is available for use by the programmer who needs to make
such a conversion for a machine language program that interacts with
BASIC. For an explanation of how to use this routine in connection
with the USR command, see the entry for the USR vector at 785 ($311).
7 $7 CHARAC
Search Character for Scanning BASIC Text Input
This location and the next are used heavily by the BASIC routines that
scan the text that comes into the buffer at 512 ($200), in order to
detect significant characters such as quotes, comma, the colon which
separates BASIC statements, and end-of-line. The ASCII values of such
special characters are usually stored here.
This location is also used as a work area by other BASIC routines that
do not involve scanning text.
8 $8 ENDCHR
Search Character for Statement Termination or Quote
Like location 7, this location is used as a work byte during the
tokenization of a BASIC statement. Most of the time, its value is 0
or 34.
9 $9 TRMPOS
Column position of the Cursor before the Last TAB or SPC
TRMPOS is used by TAB and SPC. The cursor column position prior to
the TAB or SPC is moved here from 211 ($D3), and is used to calculate
where the cursor ends up after one of these functions is invoked.
Note that the value contained here shows the position of the cursor on
a logical line. Since one logical line can be up to two physical
lines long, the value stored here can range from 0 to 79.
10 $A VERCK
Flag: LOAD or VERIFY
BASIC uses one Kernal routine to perform either the LOAD or VERIFY
function, depending on whether the Accumulator (.A) is set to 0 or 1
upon entry to the routine. BASIC sets the value of VERCK to 0 for a
LOAD, or 1 for a VERIFY. Its contents are passed to the Kernal LOAD
routine, which in turn stores it in location 147 ($93).
11 $B COUNT
Index into the Text Input Buffer/Number of Array Subscripts
The routines that convert the text in the input buffer at 512 ($200)
into lines of executable program tokes, and the routines that link
these program lines together, use this location as an index into the
input buffer area. When the job of converting text to tokens is
finished, the value in this location is equal to the length of the
tokenized line.
The routines which build an array or locate an element in an array use
this location to calculate the number of DIMensions called for and the
amount of storage required for a newly created array, or the number of
subscripts specified when referencing an array element.
12 $C DIMFLG
Flags for the Routines That Locate or Build an Array
This location is used as a flag by the routines that build an array or
reference an existing array. It is used to determine whether a
variable is in an array, whether the array has already been
DIMensioned, and whether a new array should assume the default
dimensions.
13 $D VALTYP
Flag: Type of Data (String or Numeric)
This flag is used internally to indicate whether data being operated
upon is string or numeric. A value of 255 ($FF) in this location
indicates string data, while a 0 indicates numeric data. This
determination is made every time a variable is located or created.
14 $E INTFLG
Flat: Type of Numeric Data (Integer or Floating Point)
If data which BASIC is using is determined to be numeric, it is
further classified here as either a floating point number or as an
integer. A 128 ($80) in this location identifies the number as an
integer, and a 0 indicates a floating point number.
15 $F GARBFL
Flag for LIST, Garbage Collection, and Program Tokenization
The LIST routine uses this byte as a flag to let it know when it has
come to a character string in quotes. It will then print the string,
rather than search it for BASIC keyword tokens.
The garbage collection routine uses this location as a flag to
indicate that garbage collection has already been tried before adding
a new string. If there is still not enough memory, an OUT OF MEMORY
message will result.
This location is also used as a work byte for the process of
converting a line of text in the BASIC input buffer (512, $200) into a
linked program line of BASIC keyword tokens.
16 $10 SUBFLG
Flag: Subscript Reference to an Array or User-Defined Function Call (FN)
This flag is used by the PTRGET routine which finds or creates a
variable, at the time it checks whether the name of a variable is
valid. If an opening parenthesis is found, this flag is set to
indicate that the variable in question is either an array variable or
a user-defined function.
You should note that it is perfectly legal for a user-defined function
(FN) to have the same name as a floating point variable. Moreover, it
is also legal to redefine a function. Using a FN name in an already
defined function results in the new definition of the function.
17 $11 INPFLG
Flag: Is Data Input to GET, READ or INPUT?
Since the keywords GET, INPUT, and READ perform similar functions,
BASIC executes some of the same instructions for all three. There are
also many areas of difference, however, and this flag indicates which
of the three keywords is currently being executed, so that BASIC will
know whether or not to execute the instructions which relate to the
areas in which the commands differ (152 ($98)=READ, 64 ($40)=GET,
0=INPUT).
As a result, INPUT will show the ? prompt, will echo characters back
to the screen, and will wait for a whole line of text ended by a
carriage return. GET gives no prompt and accepts one character
without waiting. The colon character and the comma are valid data for
GET, but are treated as delimiters between data by INPUT and READ.
As each command has its own error messages, this flag is used to
determine the appropriate message to issue in case of an error.
18 $12 TANSGN
Flag: Sign of the Result of the TAN or SIN Function
This location is used to determine whether the sign of the value
returned by the functions SIN or TAN is positive or negative.
Additionally, the string and numeric comparison routines use this
location to indicate the outcome of the comparison. For a comparison
of variable A to variable B, the value here will be 1 if A is greater
than B, 2 if A equals B, and 4 if a is less than B. If more than one
comparison operator was used to compare the two variables (e.g., >= or
<=), the value here will be a combination of the above values.
19 $13 CHANNL
Current I/O Channel (CMD Logical File) Number
Whenever BASIC inputs or outputs data, it looks here to determine
which I/O device is currently active for the purpose of prompting or
output control. It uses location 184 ($B8) for purposes of deciding
what device actually to put input from or output to.
When the default input device (number 0, the keyboard) or output
device (number 3, the display screen) is used, the value here will be
a zero, and the format of prompting and output will be the standard
screen output format.
When another device is used, the logical file number (CMD channel
number) will be placed here. This lets the system now that it may
have to make some subtle changes in the way it performs the I/O
operation. For example, if TAB is used with the PRINT command, cursor
right characters are used if the device PRINTed to is the screen.
Otherwise, spaces are output when the number here is other than zero
(the assumption being that you can't tab a printer like you can the
screen).
Likewise, the ? prompt for INPUT is suppressed if the file number here
is nonzero, as is the EXTRA IGNORED message, and input of a carriage
return by itself is ignored, rather than being treated as a null
string (""). Therefore, by OPENing the screen as a device, and
issuing the CMD statement, you can force the suppression of the ?
prompt, and the other effects above.
CMD places the new output file number here, and calls the Kernal to
open the device for output, leaving it LISTENing for output (such as
the READY prompt, which is diverted to the new device).
Many routines reset this location and UNLISTEN the device, defeating
the CMD and once again sending the output to the screen. If an error
message has to be displayed, for example, this location will be reset
and the message will be displayed on the screen. GET, GET#, INPUT,
INPUT#, and PRINT# all will reset this location after the I/O is
completed, effectively redirecting output back to the screen. PRINT
and LIST are the only I/O operations that will not undo the CMD.
This location can also be used to fool BASIC into thinking that data
it is reading from the tape is actually being entered into the
keyboard in immediate mode.
For a look at a technique that uses a different approach to accomplish
the same thing for disk or tape users, see location 512 ($200), the
keyboard buffer.
20-21 $14-$15 LINNUM
Integer Line Number Value
The target line number for GOTO, LIST, ON, and GOSUB is stored here in
low- byte, high-byte integer format, as is the number of a BASIC line
that is to be added or replaced.
LIST saves the highest line number to list (or 65535 ($FFFF) if
program is to be listed to the end) at this location.
GOTO tests the target line number to see if it is greater than the
line number currently being executed. If it is greater, GOTO starts
its search for the target line at the current line number. If it is
not greater, GOTO must search for the target line from the first line
of the program. It is interesting to note that the test is of the
most significant byte only. Therefore, INT(TARGETLINE/256) must be
greater than INT(CURRENTLINE/256) in order for the search to start
with the current line, instead of at the beginning of the program.
PEEK, POKE, WAIT, and SYS use this location as a pointer to the
address which is the subject of the command.
22 $16 TEMPPT
Pointer to the Next Available Space in the Temporary String Stack
This location points to the next available slot in the temporary
string descriptor stack located at 25-33 ($19-$21). Since that stack
has room for three descriptors of three bytes each, this location will
point to 25 ($19) if the stack is empty, to 28 ($1C) if there is one
entry, to 31 ($1F) if there are two entries, and to 34 ($22) if the
stack is full.
If BASIC needs to add an entry to the temporary string descriptor
stack, and this location holds a 34, indicating that the stack is
full, the FORMULA TOO COMPLEX error message is issued. Otherwise, the
entry is added, and three is added to this pointer.
23-24 $17-$18 LASTPT
Pointer to the Address of the Last String in the Temporary String
Stack
This pointer indicates the last slot used in the temporary string
descriptor stack. Therefore, the value stored at 23 ($17) should be 3
less than that stored at 22 ($16), while 24 ($18) will contain a 0.
25-33 $19-$21 TEMPST
Descriptor Stack for Temporary Strings
The temporary string descriptor stack contains information about
temporary strings which hve not yet been assigned to a string
variable. An examples of such a temporary string is the literal
string "HELLO" in the statement PRINT "HELLO".
Each three-byte descriptor in this stack contains the length of the
string, and its starting and ending locations, expresses as
displacements within the BASIC storage area.
34-37 $22-$25 INDEX
Miscellaneous Temporary Pointers and Save Area
This area is used by many BASIC routines to hold temporary pointers
and calculation results.
38-42 $26-$2A RESHO
Floating Point Multiplication Work Area
This location is used by BASIC multiplication and division routines.
It is also used by the routines which compute the size of the area
required to store an array which is being created.
43-44 $2B-$2C TXTTAB
Pointer to the Start of BASIC Program Text
This two-byte pointer lets BASIC know where program text is stored.
Ordinarily, such text is located beginning at 2049 ($801). Using this
pointer, it is possible to change the program text area. Typical
reasons for doing this include:
1. Conforming the memory configuration to that of other Commodore
computers. On 32K PET and CBM computers, for example, screen memory
starts at 32768 ($8000), and BASIC text begins at 1025 ($401). You
can emulate this configuration with the 64 with the following short
program:
10 POKE 55,0:POKE 56,128: CLR: REM LOWER TOP OF MEMORY TO 32768
20 POKE 56576,PEEK(56576) AND 253: REM ENABLE BANK 2
30 POKE 53272,4: REM TEXT DISPLAY MEMORY NOW STARTS AT 32768
40 POKE 648,128:REM OPERATING SYSTEM PRINTS TO SCREEN AT 32768 (128*256)
50 POKE 44,4:POKE 1024,0: REM MOVE START OF BASIC TO 1025 (4*256+1)
60 POKE 792,193: REM DISABLE RESTORE KEY
70 PRINT CHR$(147);"NOW CONFIGURED LIKE PET":NEW
80 REM ALSO SEE ENTRIES FOR LOCATION 55, 56576, AND 648
Such reconfiguring can be helpful in transferring programs from the 64
to the PET, or vice versa. Since the 64 automatically relocates BASIC
program text, it can load and list PET programs even though the
program file indicates a loading addresss that is different from the
64 start of BASIC. The PET does not have this automatic relocation
feature, however, and it loads all BASIC programs at the two-byte
address indicated at the beginning of the disk or tape file.
So if the PET loads a 64 program at its normal starting address of
2049 ($801), it will not recognize its presence because it expects a
BASIC program to start at 1025 ($401). Therefore, if you want to let
a PET and 64 share a program, you must either reconfigure the 64 to
start BASIC where the PET does, or reconfigure the PET to start BASIC
where the 64 does (with a POKE 41,8:POKE 2048,0).
2. Raising the lowest location used for BASIC text in order to create
a safe area in low memory. For example, if you wish to use the
high-resolution graphics mode, you may want to put the start of screen
memory at 8192 ($2000). The high-resolution moe requires 8K of
memory, and you cannot use the lowest 8K for this purpose because it
is already being used for the zero-page assignments.
Since BASIC program text normally starts at 2048 ($801), this means
that you only have 6k for program text before your program runs over
into screen memory. One way around this is by moving the start of
basic to 16385 ($4001) by typing in direct entry mode:
POKE 44,64: POKE 64*256,0:NEW
Other uses might include setting aside a storage area for sprite shape
data, or user-defined character sets.
3. Keeping two or more programs in memory simultaneously. By
changing this pointer, you can keep more than one BASIC program in
memory at one time, and switch back and forth betwenn them. Examples
of this application can be found in COMPUTE!'s First Book of PET/CBM,
pages 66 and 163.
This technique has a number of offshoots that are perhaps of more
practical use.
a) You can store two programs in memory simultaneously for the purpose
of appending one to the other. This technique requires that the line
numbers of the two programs do not overlap. (See Programming the
PET/CBM by Raeto Collin West, pages 41-42, for a discussion of this
technique).
b) You can have two programs in memory at once and use the concept in
(2) above to allow an easier way to create a safe area in low memory.
The first program is just onw line that sets the start of BASIC
pointer to the address of the second program which is located higher
in memory, and then runs that second program.
4. Since this address is used as the address of the first byte to
SAVE, you can save any section of memory by changing this pointer to
indicate the starting address, and the pointer 45-46 ($2D-$2D) to
indicate the address of the byte after the last byte that you wish to
save.
45-46 $2D-$2E VARTAB
Pointer to the Start of the BASIC Variable Storage Area
This location points to the address which marks the end of the BASIC
program text area, and the beginning of the variable storage area.
All nonarray variables are stored here, as are string descriptors (for
the address of the area where the actual text of strings is stored,
see location 51 ($33)).
Seven bytes of memory are allocated for each variable. The first two
bytes are used for the variable name, which consists of the ASCII
value of the first two letters of the variable name. If the variable
name is a single letter, the second byte will contain a zero.
The seventh bit of one or both of these bytes can be set (which would
add 128 to the ASCII value of the letter). This indicates the
variable type. If neither byte has the seventh bit set, the variable
is the regular floating point type. If only the first byte has its
seventh bit set, the variable is a string. If only the second byte
has its seventh bit set, the variable is a defined function (FN). If
both bytes have the seventh bit set, the variable is an integer.
The use of the other five bytes depends on the type of variable. A
floating point variable will use the five bytes to store the value of
the variable in floating point format. An integer will have its value
stored in the third and fourth bytes, high byte first, and the other
three will be unused.
A string variable will use the third byte for its length, and the
fourth and fifth bytes for a pointer to the address of the string
text, leaving the last two bytes unused. Note that the acrual string
text that is pointed to is located either in the part of the BASIC
program where the string is first assigned a value, or in the string
text storage area pointed to by location 51 ($33).
A function definition will use the third and fourth bytes for a
pointer to the address in the BASIC program text where the function
definition starts. It uses the fifth and sixth bytes for a pointer to
the dependent variable (the X of FN A(X)). The final byte is not
used.
Knowing something about how variables are created can help your BASIC
programming. For example, you can see that nonarray integer variables
take up no less space than floating point variables, and since most
BASIC commands convert the integers to floating point, they do not
offer a speed advantage either, and in many cases will actually slow
the program down. As will be seen below, however, integer arrays can
save a considerable amount of space.
Variables are stored in the order in which they are created.
Likewise, when BASIC goes looking for a variable, it starts its search
at the beginning of this area. If commonly used variables are defined
at the end of the program, and are thus at the back of this area, it
will take longer to find them. It may help program execution speed to
define the variables that will be used most frequently right at the
beginning of the program.
Also, remember that once created, variables do not go away during
program execution. Even if they are never used again, they still take
up space in the variable storage area, and they slow down the routine
that is used to search for variables that are referenced.
Another point to consider about the order in which to define variables
is that arrays are created in a separate area of memory which starts
at the end of the nonarray variable area. Therefore, every time a
nonarray variable is created, all of the arrays must be moved seven
bytes higher in memory in order to make room for the new variable.
Therefore, it may help performance to avoid defining nonarray
variables after defining arrays.
This pointer will be reset to one byte past the end of the BASIC
program text whenever you execute the statements CLR, NEW, RUN, or
LOAD. Adding or modifying a BASIC statement will have the same
effect, because the higher numbered BASIC statements have to be moved
up into memory to make room for the new statements, and can therefore
overwrite the variable storage area. This means that if you wish to
check the value of a variable after stopping a program, you can only
do so before modifying the program.
The exception to the above is when the LOAD command is issued from a
program. The purpose of not resetting this pointer in such a case is
to allow the chaining of programs by having one program load and then
run the next (that is also why a LOAD issued from a program causes a
RUN from the beginning of the program). This allows the second
program to share variables with the first. There are problems with
this, however. Some string variable descriptors and function
definitions have their pointers set to areas within the program text.
When this text is replaced by a load, these pointers are no longer
valid, which will lead to errors if the FN or string value is
referenced. And if the second program text area is larger than that
of the first, the second program will overwrite some of the first
program's variables, and their values will be lost.
The ability to chain short programs is a holdover from the days of the
8K PET, for which this BASIC was written, but with the vastly
increased memory of the 64, program chaining should not be necessary.
You should also note that SAVE uses this pointer as the address of the
byte after the last byte to SAVE.
47-48 $2F-$30 ARYTAB
Pointer to the Start of the BASIC Array Storage Area
This location points to the address of the end of nonarray variable
storage, and the beginning of array variable storage. The format for
array storage is as follows:
The first two bytes hold the array name. The format and high-bit
patterns are the same as for nonarray variables (see 45 ($2D) above),
except that there is no equivalent to the function definition.
Next comes a two-byte offset to the start of the next array, low byte
first. Then there is a one-byte value for the number of array
dimensions (e.g., 2 for a two-dimensional array like A(x,y)). That
byte is followed by pairs of bytes which hold the value of each array
dimension+1 (DIMensioning an array always makes space for 0, so A(0)
can be used).
Finally come the values of the variables themselves. The format for
these values is the same as with nonarray values, but each value only
takes up the space required; that is, floating point variables use
five bytes each, integers two bytes, and string descriptors three
bytes each.
Remember that as with nonarray string, the actual string text is
stored elsewhere, in the area which starts at the location pointed to
in 51-52 ($33- $34).
49-50 $31-$32 STREND
Pointer to End of the BASIC Array Storage Area (+1), and the Start of
Free RAM
This location points to the address of the end of BASIC array storage
space and the start of free RAM. Since string text starts at the top
of memory and builds downwards, this location can also be thought of
as the last possible address of the string storage area. Defining new
variables pushes this pointer upward, toward the last string text.
If a string for which space is being allocated would cross over this
boundary into the array storage area, garbage collection is performed,
and if there still is not enough room, an OUT OF MEMORY error occurs.
FRE performs garbage collection, and returns the difference between
the addresses pointed to here and the address of the end of string
text storage pointed to by location 51 ($33).
51-52 $33-$34 FREETOP
Pointer to the Bottom of the String Text Storage Area
This pointer marks the current end of the string text area, and the
top of free RAM (strings are built from the top of memory downward).
Additional string texts are added, to the area below the address
pointed to here. After they are added, this pointer is lowered to
point below the newly added string text. The garbage collection
routine (which is also called by FRE) readjusts this pointer upward.
While the power-on/reset routines set this pointer to the top of RAM,
the CLR command sets this pointer to the end of BASIC memory, as
indicated in location 55 ($37). This allows the user to set aside an
area of BASIC memory that will not be disturbed by the program, as
detailed at location 55 ($37).
53-54 $35-$36 FRESPC
Temporary Pointer for Strings
This is used as a temporary pointer to the most current string added
by the routines which build strings or move them in memory.
55-56 $37-$38 MEMSIZ
Pointer to the Highest Address Used by BASIC
The power-on/reset routine tests each byte of RAM until it comes to
the BASIC ROM, and sets this pointer to the adress of the highest byte
of consecutive RAM found (40959, $9FFF).
There are two circumstances under which this pointer may be changed
after power-up to reflect an address lower than the actual top of
consecutive RAM:
1. Users may wish to lower this pointer themselves, in order to set
aside an area of free RAM that will not be disturbed by BASIC. For
example, to set aside a 1K area at the top of BASIC, start your
program with the line:
POKE 56,PEEK(56)-4:CLR
The CLR is necessary to insure that the string text will start below
your safe area.
You may wish to store machine language programs, sprites, or alternate
character sets in such an area. For the latter two applications,
however, keep in mind the 16K addressing range limitation of the
VIC-II chip. If you do not assign the VIC-II to a bank other than the
default memory bank of 0-16383 ($0-$3FFF), you must lower the top of
memory below 16383 ($3FFF) if you wish your sprite or character data
area to be within its addressing range.
2. Then the RS-232 device (number 2) is opened, this pointer and the
pointer to the end of user RAM at 643 are lowered by 512 bytes in
order to create two 256-byte buffers, one for input and the other for
output.
Since the contents of these buffers will overwrite any variables at
the top of memory, a CLR command is issued at the time device 2 is
opened. Therefore, the RS-232 device should be opened before defining
any variables, and before setting aside a safe area for machine
language programs or other uses, as described above.
57-58 $39-$3A CURLIN
Current BASIC Line Number
This location contains the line number of the BASIC statement which is
currently being executed, in LSB/MSB format. A value of 255 ($FF) in
location 58 ($3A), which translates to a line number of 65280 or above
(well over the 63999 limit for a program line), means that BASIC is
currently in immediate mode, rather than RUN mode.
BASIC keywords that are illegal in direct mode check 58 ($3A) to
determine whether or not this is the current mode.
When in RUN mode, this location is updated as each new BASIC line is
fetched for execution. Therefore, a TRACE function could be added by
diverting the vector at 776 ($308), which points to the routine that
executes the next token, to a user-written routine which prints the
line number indicated by this location before jumping to the token
execution routine. (LISTing the line itself would be somewhat harder,
because LIST uses many Page 0 locations that would have to be
preserved and restored afterwards.)
This line number is used by BREAK and error messages to show where
program execution stopped. The value here is copied to 59 ($3B) by
STOP, END, and the stop-key BREAK, and copied back by CONT.
59-60 $3B-$3C OLDLIN
Previous BASIC Line Number
When program execution ends, the last line number executed is stored
here, and restored to location 57 ($39) by CONT.
61-62 $3D-$3E OLDTXT
Pointer to the Address of the Current BASIC Statement
This location contains the address (not the line number) of the text
of the BASIC statement that is being executed. The value of TXTPTR
(122, $7A), the pointer tot he address of the BASIC text character
currently being scanned, is stored here each time a new BASIC line
begins execution.
END, STOP, and the STOP-key BREAK save the value of TXTPTR here, and
CONT restores this value to TXTPTR. CONT will not continue if 62
($3E) has been changed to a zero by a LOAD, a modification to the
program text, or by error routines.
63-64 $3F-$40 DATLIN
Current DATA Line Number
This location holds the line number of the current DATA statement
being READ. It should be noted that this information is not used to
determine where the next DATA item is read from (that is the job of
the pointer at 65-66 ($41-$42) below). But if an error concerning the
DATA occurs, this number will be moved to 57 ($39), so that the error
message will show that the error occurred in the line that contains
the DATA statement, rather than in the line that contains the READ
statement.
65-66 $41-$42 DATPTR
Pointer to the Address of the Current DATA Item
This location points to the address (not the line number) within the
BASIC program text area where DATA is currently being READ. RESTORE
sets this pointer back to the address indicated by the start of BASIC
pointer at location 43 ($2B).
The sample program below shows how the order in which DATA statements
are READ can be changed using this pointer. The current address of
the statement before the DATA statement is stored in a variable, and
then used to change this pointer.
10 A1=PEEK(61):A2=PEEK(62)
20 DATA THIS DATA WILL BE USED SECOND
30 B1=PEEK(61):B2=PEEK(62)
40 DATA THIS DATA WILL BE USED FIRST
50 C1=PEEK(61):C2=PEEK(62)
60 DATA THIS DATA WILL BE USED THIRD
70 POKE 65,B1:POKE 66,B2:READ A$:PRINT A$
80 POKE 65,A1:POKE 66,A2:READ A$:PRINT A$
90 POKE 65,C1:POKE 66,C2:READ A$:PRINT A$
67-68 $43-$44 INPPTR
Pointer in the Source of GET, READ, or INPUT Information
READ, INPUT and GET all use this as a pointer to the address of the
source of incoming data, such as DATA statements, or the text input
buffer at 512 ($200).
69-70 $45-$46 VARNAM
Current BASIC Variable Name
The current variable name being searched for is stored here, in the
same two- byte format as in the variable value storage area located at
the address pointed to by 45 ($2D). See that location for an
explanation of the format.
71-72 $47-$48 VARPNT
Pointer to the Current BASIC Variable Value
This location points to the address of the descriptor of the current
BASIC variable (see location 45 ($2D) for the format of a variable
descriptor). Specifically, it points to the byte just after the
two-character variable name.
During a FN call, this location does not point to the dependent
variable (the A of FN A), so that a real variable of the same name
will not have its value changed by the call.
73-74 $49-$4A FORPNT
Temporary Pointer to the Index Variable Used by FOR
The address of the BASIC variable which is the subject of a FOR/NEXT
loop is first stored here, but is then pushed onto the stack. That
leaves this location free to be used as a work area by such statements
as INPUT, GET, READ, LIST, WAIT, CLOSE, LOAD, SAVE, RETURN, and GOSUB.
For a description of the stack entries made by FOR, see location 256
($100).
75-76 $4B-$4C OPPTR
Math Operator Table Displacement
This location is used during the evaluation of mathematical
expressions to hold the displacement of the current math operator in
an operator table. It is also used as a save area for the pointer to
the address of program text which is currently being read.
77 $4D OPMASK
Mask for Comparison Operation
The expression evaluation routine creates a mask here which lets it
know whether the current comparieson operation is a less-than (1),
equals (2), or greater-than (4) comparison.
78-79 $4E-$4F DEFPNT
Pointer to the Current FN Descriptor
During function definition (DEF FN) this location is used as a pointer
to the descriptor that is created. During function execution (FN) it
points to the FN descriptor in which the evaluation results should be
saved.
80-82 $50-$52 DSCPNT
Temporary Pointer to the Current String Descriptor
The string assignment and handling routines use the first two bytes as
a temporary pointer to the current string descriptor, and the third to
hold the value of the string length.
83 $53 FOUR6
Constant for Garbage Collection
The constant contained here lets the garbage collection routines know
whether a three- or seven-byte string descriptor is being collected.
84-86 $54-$56 JMPER
Jump to Function Instruction
The first byte is the 6502 JMP instruction ($4C), followed by the
address of the required function taken from the table at 41042
($A052).
87-96 $57-$60
BASIC Numeric Work Area
This is a very busy work area, used by many routines.
97-102 $61-$66 FAC1
Floating Point Accumulator #1
The Floating Point Accumulator is central to the execution of any
BASIC mathematical operation. It is used in the conversion of
integers to floating point numbers, strings to floating point numbers,
and vice versa. The results of most evaluations are stored in this
location.
The internal format of floating point numbers is not particularly easy
to understand (or explain). Generally speaking, the number is broken
into the normalized mantissa, which represents a number between 1 and
1.99999..., and an exponent value, which represents a power of 2.
Multiplying the mantissa by 2 raised to the value of the exponent
gives you the value of the floating point number.
Fortunately, the BASIC interpreter contains many routines for the
manipulation and conversion of floating point number, and these
routines can be called by the user. See the entries for locations 3
and 5
Floating Point Accumulator #1 can be further divided into the
following locations:
97 $61 FACEXP
Floating Point Accumulator #1: Exponent
This exponent represents the closest power of two to the number, with
129 added to take care of the sign problem for negative exponents. An
exponent of 128 is used for the value 0; an exponent of 129 represents
2 to the 0 power, or 1; an exponent of 130 represents 2 to the first
power, or 2; 131 is 2 squared, or 4; 132 is 2 cubed, or 8; and so on.
98-101 $62-$65 FACHO
Floating Point Accumulator #1: Mantissa
The most significant digit can be assumed to be a 1 (remember that the
range of the mantissa is from 1 to 1.99999...) when a floating point
number is stored to a variable. The first bit is used for the sign of
the number, and the other 31 bits of the four-byte mantissa hold the
other significant digits.
The first two bytes (98-99, $62-$63) of this location will hold the
signed integer result of a floating point to integer conversion, in
high-byte, low- byte order.
102 $66 FACSGN
Floating Point Accumulator #1: Sign
A value of 0 here indicates a positive number, while a value of 255
($FF) indicates a negative number.
103 $67 SGNFLG
Number of Terms in a Series Evaluation
This location is used by mathematical formula evaluation routines. It
indicates the number of separate evaluations that must be done to
resolve a complex expression down to a single term.
104 $68 BITS
Floating Point Accumulator #1: Overflow Digit
This location contains the overflow byte. The overflow byte is used
in an intermediate step of conversion from an integer or text string
to a floating point number.
105-110 $69-$6E FAC2
Floating Point Accumulator #2
A second Floating Point Accumulator, used in conjunction with Floating
Point Accumulator #1 in the evaluation of products, sums,
differences--in short, any operation requiring more than one value.
The format of this accumulator is the same as FAC1.
105 $69 ARGEXP
Floating Point Accumulator #2: Exponent
106-109 $6A-$6D ARGHO
Floating Point Accumulator #2: Mantissa
110 $6E ARGSGN
Floating Point Accumulator #2: Sign
111 $6F ARISGN
Result of a Signed Comparison of Accumulator #1 to Accumulator #2
Used to indicate whether the two Floating Point Accumulators have like
or unlike signs. A 0 indicates like signs, a 255 ($FF) indicates
unlike signs.
112 $70 FACOV
Low Order Mantissa Byte of Floating Point Accumulator #1 (For
Rounding)
If the mantissa of the floating point number has more significant
figures than can be held in four bytes, the least significant figures
are placed here. They are used to extend the accuracy of intermediate
mathematical operations and to round to the final figure.
113-114 $71-$72 FBUFPT
Series Evaluation Pointer
This location points to the address of a temporary table of values
built in the free RAM area for the evaluation of formulas. It is also
used for such various purposes as a TI$ work area, string setup
pointer, and work space for the evaluation of the size of an array.
Although this is labeled a pointer to the tape buffer in the
Programmer's Reference Guide, disassembly of the BASIC ROM reveals no
reference to this location for that purpose (see 178 ($B2) for pointer
to tape buffer).
115-138 $73-$8A CHRGET
Subroutine: Get Next BASIC Text Character
This is actually a machine language subroutine, which at the time of a
BASIC cold start (such as when the power is turned on) is copied from
MOVCHG (58274, $E3A2) in the ROM to this zero page location.
CHRGET is a crucial routine which BASIC uses to read text characters,
such as the text of the BASIC program which is being interpreted. It
is placed on zero page to make the routine run faster. Since it keeps
track of the address of the character being read within the routine
itself, the routine must be in RAM in order to update that pointer.
The pointer to the address of the byte currently being read is really
the operand of a LDA instruction. When entered from CHRGET, the
routine increments the pointer by modifying the operand at TXTPTR
(122, $7A), thus allowing the next character to be read.
Entry at CHRGOT (121, $79) allows the current character to be read
again. The CHRGET routine skips spaces, sets the various flags or the
status register (.P) to indicate whether the character read was a
digit, statement terminator, or other type of character, and returns
with the retrieved character in the Accumulator (.A).
Since CHRGET is used to read every BASIC statement before it is
executed, and since it is in RAM, and therefore changeable, it makes a
handy place to intercept BASIC to add new features and commands (and
in the older PET line, it was the only way to add such features).
Diversion of the CHRGET routine for this purpose is generally referred
to as a wedge.
Since a wedge can greatly slow down execution speed, mose of the time
it is set up so that it performs its preprocessing functions only when
in direct or immediate mode. The most well-known example of such a
wedge is the "Universal DOS Support" program that allows easier
communication with the disk drive command channel.
As this is such a central routine, a disassembly listing is given
below to provide a better understanding of how it works.
115 $73 CHRGET INC TXTPTR ; increment low byte of TXTPTR
117 $75 BNE CHRGOT ; if low byte isn't 0, skip next
119 $77 INC TXTPTR+1 ; increment high byte of TXTPTR
121 $79 CHRGOT LDA ; load byte from where TXTPTR points
; entry here does not update TXTPTR,
; allowing you to readl the old byte again
122 $7A TXTPTR $0207 ; pointer is really the LDA operand
; TXTPTR+1 points to 512-580 ($200-$250)
; when reading from the input buffer
; in direct mode
124 $7C POINTB CMP #$3A ; carry flag set if > ASCII numeral 9
126 $7E BCS EXIT ; character is not a numeral--exit
128 $80 CMP #$20 ; if it is an ASCI space...
130 $82 BEQ CHRGET ; ignore it and get next character
132 $84 SEC ; prepare to subtract
133 $85 SBC #$30 ; ASCII 0-9 are between 48-57 ($30-$39)
135 $87 SEC ; prepare to subtract again
136 $88 SBC #$D0 ; if < ASCII 0 (57, $39) then carry is set
138 $8A EXIT RTS ; carry is clear only for numeral on return
The Accumulator (.A register) holds the character that was read on
exit from the routine. Status register (.P) bits which can be tested
for on exit are:
Carry Clear if the character was an ASCII digit 0-9.
Carry Set, otherwise.
Zero Set only if the character was a statement terminator 0 or an
ASCII colon, 58 ($3A).
Zero Clear, otherwise.
One wedge insertion technique is to change CHRGET's INC $7A to a JMP
WEDGE, have your wedge update TXTPTR itself, and then JSR CHRGOT.
Another is to change the CMP #$3A at location 124 ($7C), which I have
labeled POINTB, to a JMP WEDGE, do your wedge processing, and then
exit through the ROM version of POINTB, which is located at 48283
($E3AB). For more detailed information about wedges, see Programming
the PET/CBM, Raeto Collin West, pages 365-68.
While the wedge is a good, quick technique for adding new commands, a
much more elegant method exists for accomplishing this task on the
VIC-20 and 64 withouth slowing BASIC down to the extent that the wedge
does. See the entries for the BASIC RAM vector area at 768-779
($300-$30B) for more details.
139-143 $8B-$8F RNDX
RND Function Seed Value
This location holds the five-byte floating point value returned by the
RND function. It is initially set to a seed value copied from ROM
(the five bytes are 128, 79, 199, 82, 88--$80, $4F, $C7, $52, $58).
When the function RND(X) is called, the numeric value of X does not
affect the number returned, but its sign does. If X is equal to 0,
RND generates a seed value from chip-level hardware timers. If X is a
positive number, RND(X) will return the next number in an arithmetic
sequence. This sequence continues for such a long time without
repeating itself, and gives such an even distribution of numbers, that
it can be considered random. If X is negative, the seed value is
changed to a number that corresponds to a scrambled floating point
representation of the number X itself.
Given a particular seed value, the same pseudorandom series of numbers
will always be returned. This can be handy for debugging purposes,
but not where you wish to have truly random numbers.
The traditional Commodore method of selecting a random seed is by
using the expression RND(-TI), mostly because RND(0) didn't function
correctly on early PETs. While the RND(0) form doesn't really work
right on the 64 either (see location 57495 ($E097)), the expression
RND(-RND(0)) may produce a more random seed value.
Location Range: 144-255 ($90-$FF)
Kernal Work Storage Area
This is the zero-page storage area for the Kernal. The user should
take into account what effect changing a location here will have on
the operation of the Kernal functions before making any such changes.
At power-on, this range of locations is first filled with zeros, and
then initialized from values stored in ROM as needed.
144 $90 STATUS
Kernal I/O Status Word (ST)
The Kernal routines which open I/O channels or perform input/output
functions check and update this location. The value here is almost
always the same as that returned to BASIC by use of the reserved
variable ST. Note that BASIC syntax will not allow an assignment such
as ST=4. A table of status codes for cassette and serial devices
follows below:
Cassette:
Bit 2 (Bit Value of 4) = Short Block
Bit 3 (Bit Value of 8) = Long Block
Bit 4 (Bit Value of 16) = Unrecoverable error (Read), mismatch
Bit 5 (Bit Value of 32) = Checksum error
Bit 6 (Bit Value of 64) = End of file
Serial Devices:
Bit 0 (Bit Value of 1) = Time out (Write)
Bit 1 (Bit Value of 2) = Time out (Read)
Bit 6 (Bit Value of 64) = EOI (End or Identify)
Bit 7 (Bit Value of 128) = Device not present
Probably the most useful bit to test is Bit 6 (end of file). When
using the GET statement to read in individual bytes from a file, the
statement IF ST AND 64 will be true if you have got to the end of the
file.
For status codes for the RS-232 device, see the entry for location 663
($297).
145 $91 STKEY
Flag: Was STOP Key Pressed?
This location is updated every 1/60 second during the execution of the
IRQ routine that reads the keyboard and updates the jiffy clock.
The value of the last row of the keyboard matrix is placed here. That
row contains the STOP key, and although this location is used
primarily to detect when that key has been pressed, it can also detect
when any of the other keys in that row of the matrix have been
pressed.
In reading the keyboard matrix, a bit set to 1 means that no key has
been pressed, while a bit reset to 0 indicates that a key is pressed.
Therefore, the following values indicate the keystrokes detailed
below:
255 $FF = no key pressed
254 $FE = 1 key pressed
253 $FD = (left arrow) key pressed
251 $FB = CTRL key pressed
247 $F7 = 2 key pressed
239 $EF = space bar pressed
223 $DF = Commodore logo key pressed
191 $BF = Q key pressed
127 $7F = STOP key pressed
VIC owners will notice that the 64's keyboard matrix is very different
from the VIC's. One of the advantages of this difference is that you
can test for the STOP key by following a read of this location with a
BPL instruction, which will cause a branch to occur anytime that the
STOP key is pressed.
146 $92 SVXT
Timing Constant for Tape Reads
This location is used as an adjustable timing constant for tape reads,
which can be changed to allow for the slight speed variation between
tapes.
147 $93 VERCK
Flag for Load Routine: 0=LOAD, 1=VERIFY
The same Kernal routine can perform either a LOAD or VERIFY, depending
on the value stored in the Accumulator (.A) on entry to the routine.
This location is used to determine which operation to perform.
148 $94 C3PO
Flag: Serial Bus--Output Character Was Buffered
This location is used by the serial output routines to indicate that a
character has been placed in the output buffer and is waiting to be
sent.
149 $95 BSOUR
Buffered Character for Serial Bus
This is the character waiting to be sent. A 255 ($FF) indicates that
no character is waiting for serial output.
150 $96 SYNO
Cassette Block Synchronization Number
151 $97 XSAV
Temporary .X Register Save Area
This .X register save area is used by the routines that get and put an
ASCII character.
152 $98 LDTND
Number of Open I/O Files/Index to the End of File Tables
The number of currently open I/O files is stored here. The maximum
number that can be open at one time is ten. The number stored here is
used as the index to the end of the tables that hold the file numbers,
device numbers, and secondary address numbers (see locations 601-631
($259-$277) for more information about these tables).
CLOSE decreases this number and removes entries from the tables
referred to above, while OPEN increases it and adds the appropriate
information to the end of the tables. The Kernal routine CLALL closes
all files by setting this number to 0, which effectively empties the
table.
153 $99 DFLTN
Default Input Device (Set to 0 for Keyboard)
The default value of this location is 0, which designates the keyboard
as the current input device. That value can be changed by the Kernal
routine CHKIN (61966, $F20E), which uses this location to store the
device number of the device whose file it defines as an input channel.
BASIC calls CHKIN whenever the command INPUT# or GET# is executed, but
clears the channel after the input operation has been completed.
154 $9A DFLTO
Default Output (CMD) Device (Set to 3 for the Screen)
The default value of this location is 3, which designates the screen
as the current output device. That value can be changed by the Kernal
routine CHKOUT (62032, $F250), which uses this location to store the
device number of the device whose file it defines as an output
channel.
BASIC calls CHKOUT whenever the command PRINT# or CMD is executed, but
clears the channel after the PRINT# operation has been completed.
155 $9B PRTY
Tape Character Parity
This location is used to help detect when bits of information have
been lost during transmission of tape data.
156 $9C DPSW
Flag: Tape Byte Received
This location is used as a flag to indicate whether a complete byte of
tape data has been received, or whether it has only been partially
received.
157 $9D MSGFLG
Flag: Kernal Message Control
This flag is set by the Kernal routine SETMSG (65048, $FE18), and it
controls whether or not Kernal error messages or control messages will
be displayed.
A value of 192 ($C0) here means that both Kernal error and control
messages will be displayed. This will never normally occur when using
BASIC, which prefers its own plain text error messages over the
Kernal's perfunctory I/O ERROR (number). The Kernal error messages
might be used, however, when you are SAVEing or LOADing with a machine
language monitor.
A 128 ($80) means that control messages only will be displayed. Such
will be the case when you are in the BASIC direct or immediate mode.
These messages include SEARCHING, SAVING, FOUND, etc.
A value of 64 means that Kernal error messages only are on. A 0 here
suppresses the display of all Kernal messages. This is the value
placed here when BASIC enters the program or RUN mode.
158 $9E PTR1
Tape Pass 1 Error Log Index
This location is used in setting up an error log of bytes in which
transmission parity errors occur the first time that the block is
received (each tape block is sent twice to minimize data loss from
transmission error).
159 $9F PTR2
Tape Pass 2 Error Log Correction Index
This location is used in correcting bytes of tape data which were
transmitted incorrectly on the first pass.
160-162 $A0-$A2 TIME
Software Jiffy Clock
These three locations are updated 60 times a second, and serve as a
software clock which counts the number of jiffies (sixtieths of a
second) that have elapsed since the computer was turned on.
The value of location 162 ($A2) is increased every jiffy (0.1667
second), 161 ($A1) is updated every 256 jiffies (4.2267 seconds), and
160 ($A0) changes every 65536 jiffies (or every 18.2044 minutes).
After 24 hours, these locations are set back to 0.
The jiffy clock is used by the BASIC reserved variables TI and TI$.
These are not ordinary variables that are stored in the RAM variable
area, but are functions that call the Kernal routines RDTIM (63197,
$F6DD), and SETTIM (63204, $F6E4). Assigning the value of TI or TI$
to another variable reads these locations, while assigning a given
value to TI$ alters these locations.
To illustrate the relationship between these locations and TI$, try
the following program. The program sets the jiffy clock to 23 hours,
50 minutes. After the program has been running for one minute, all
these locations will be reset to 0.
100 TI$="235900"
110 PRINT TI$,PEEK(160),PEEK(161),PEEK(162)
120 GOTO 110
Since updating is done by the IRQ interrupt that reads the keyboard,
anything which affects the operation of that interrupt routine will
also interfere with this clock. A typical example is tape I/O
operations, which steal the IRQ vector for their own use, and restore
it afterwards. Obviously, user routines which redirect the IRQ and do
not send it back to the normal routine will upset software clock
operation as well.
163-164 $A3-$A4
Temporary Data Storage Area
These locations are used temporarily by the tape and serial I/O
routines.
165 $A5 CNTDN
Cassette Synchronization Character Countdown
Used to count down the number of synchronization characters that are
sent before the actual data in a tape block.
166 $A6 BUFPNT
Count of Characters in Tape I/O Buffer
This location is used to count the number of bytes that have been read
in or written to the tape buffer. Since on a tape write, no data is
sent until the 192 byte buffer is full, you can force output of the
buffer with the statement POKE 166,191.
167 $A7 INBIT
RS-232 Input Bits/Cassette Temporary Storage Area
This location is used to temporarily store each bit of serial data
that is received, as well as for miscellaneous tasks by tape I/O.
168 $A8 BITCI
RS-232 Input Bit Count/Cassete Temporary Storage
This location is used to count the number of bits of serial data that
has been received. This is necessary so that the serial routines will
know when a full word has been received. It is also used as an error
flag during tape loads.
169 $A9 RINONE
RS-232 Flag: Check for Start Bit
This flag is used when checking for a start bit. A 144 ($90) here
indicates that no start bit was received, while a 0 means that a start
bit was received.
170 $AA RIDATA
RS-232 Input Byte Buffer/Cassette Temporary Storage
Serial routines use this area to reassemble the bits received into a
byte that will be stored in the receiving buffer pointer to by 247
($F7). Tape routines use this as a flag to help determine whether a
received character should be treated as data or as a synchronization
character.
171 $AB RIPRTY
RS-232 Input Parity/Cassete Leader Counter
This location is used to help detect if data was lost during RS-232
transmission, or if a tape leader is completed.
172-173 $AC-$AD SAL
Pointer to the Starting Address of a Load/Screen Scrolling
The pointer to the start of the RAM area to be SAVEd or LOADed at 193
($C1) is copied here. This pointer is used as a working version, to
be increased as the data is received or transmitted. At the end of
the operation, the initial value is restored here. Screen management
routines temporarily use this as a work pointer.
174-175 $AE-$AF EAL
Pointer to Ending Address of Load (End of Program)
This location is set by the Kernal routine SAVE to point to the ending
address for SAVE, LOAD, or VERIFY.
176-177 $B0-$B1 CMP0
Tape Timing
Location 176 ($B0) is used to determine the value of the adjustable
timing constant at 146 ($92). Location 199 is also used in the timing
of tape reads.
178-179 $B2-$B3 TAPE1
Pointer: Start of Tape Buffer
On power-on, this pointer is set to the address of the cassette buffer
(828, $33C). This pointer must contain an address greater than or
equal to 512 ($200), or an ILLEGAL DEVICE NUMBER error will be sent
when tape I/O is tried.
180 $B4 BITTS
RS-232 Output Bit Count/Cassette Temporary Storage
RS-232 routines use this to count the number of bits transmitted, and
for parity and stop bit manipulation. Tape load routines use this
location to flag when they are ready to receive data bytes.
181 $B5 NXTBIT
RS-232 Next Bit to Send/Tape EOT Flag
This location is used by the RS-232 routines to hold the next bit to
be sent, and by the tape routines to indicate what part of a block the
read routine is currently reading.
182 $B6 RODATA
RS-232 Output Byte Buffer
RS-232 routines use this area to disassemble each byte to be sent from
the transmission buffer pointed to by 249 ($F9).
183 $B7 FNLEN
Length of Current Filename
This location holds the number of characters in the current filename.
Disk filenames may have from 1 to 16 characters, while tape filenames
range from 0 to 187 characters in length.
If the tape name is longer than 16 characters, the excess will be
truncated by the SEARCHING and FOUND messages, but will still be
present on the tape. This means that machine language programs meant
to run in the cassette buffer may be saved as tape filenames.
A disk file is always referred to be a name, whether full or generic
(containing the wildcard characters * or ?). This location will
always be greater than 0 if the current file is a disk file. Tape
LOAD, SAVE, and VERIFY operations do not require that a name be
specified, and this location can therefore contain a 0. If this is
the case, the contents of the pointer to the filename at 187 will be
irrelevant.
An RS-232 OPEN command may specify a filename of up to four
characters. These characters are copied to locations 659-662
($293-$296), and determine baud rate, word length, and parity.
184 $B8 LA
Current Logical File Number
This location holds the logical file number of the device currently
being used. A maximum of five disk files, and ten files in total, may
be open at any one time.
File numbers range from 1 to 255 (a 0 is used to indicate system
defaults). When printing to a device with a file number greater than
127, an ASCII linefeed character will be sent following each carriage
return, which is useful for devices like serial printers that require
linefeeds in addition to carriage returns.
The BASIC OPEN command calls the Kernal OPEN routine, which sets the
value of this location. In the BASIC statement OPEN 4,8,15, the
logical file number corresponds to the first parameter 4.
185 $B9 SA
Current Secondary Address
This location holds the secondary address of the device currently
being used. The range of valid secondary address numbers is 0 through
31 for serial devices, and 0 through 127 for other devices.
Secondary device numbers mean something different to each device that
they are used with. The keyboard and screen devices ignore the
secondary address completely. But any device which can have more than
one file open at the same time, such as the disk drive, distinguishes
between these files by using the secondary address when opening a disk
file. Secondary address numbers 0, 1, and 15-31 have a special
significance to the disk drive, and therefore device numbers 2-14 only
should be used as secondary addresses when opening a disk file.
OPENing a disk file with a secondary address of 15 enables the user to
communicate with the Disk Operating System through that channel. A
LOAD command which specifies a secondary address of 0 (for example,
LOAD "AT BASIC",8,0) results in the program being loaded not to the
address specified on the file as the starting address, but rather to
the address pointed to by the start of BASIC pointer (43, $2B).
A LOAD with a secondary address of 1 (for example, LOAD "HERE",8,1)
results in the contents of the file being loaded to the address
specified in the file. A disk file that has been LOADed using a
secondary address of 1 can be successfully SAVEd in the same manner
(SAVE "DOS 5.1",8,1).
LOADs and SAVEs that do not specify a secondary address will default
to a secondary address of 0.
When OPENing a Datasette recorder file, a secondary address of 0
signifies that the file will be read, while a secondary address of 1
signifies that the file will be written to. A value of 2 can be added
to indicate that an End of Tape marker should be written as well.
This marker tells the Datasette not to search past it for any more
files on the tape, though more files can be written to the tape if
desired.
As with the disk drive, the LOAD and SAVE commands use secondary
addresses of 0 and 1 respectively to indicate whether the operation
should be relocating or nonrelocating.
When the 1515 or 1525 Printer is opened with a secondary address of 7,
the uppercase/lowercase character set is used. If it is openend with
a secondary address of 0, or without a secondary address, the
uppercase/graphics character set will be used.
186 $BA FA
Current Device Number
This location holds the number of the device that is currently being
used. Device number assignments are as follows:
0 = Keyboard
1 = Datasette Recorder
2 = RS-232/User Port
3 = Screen
4-5 = Printer
8-11 = Disk
187-188 $BB-$BC FNADR
Pointer: Current Filename
This location holds a pointer to the address of the current filename.
If an operation which OPENs a tape file does not specify a filename,
this pointer is not used.
When a disk filename contains a shifted space character, the remainder
of the name will appear outside the quotes in the directory, and may
be used for comments. For example, if you SAVE "ML[shifted
space]SYS828", the directory entry will read "ML"SYS 828. You may
reference the program either by the portion of the name that appears
within quotes, or by the full name, including the shifted space. A
program appearing later in the directory as "ML"SYS 900 would not be
found just by reference to "ML", however.
A filename of up to four characters may be used when opening the
RS-232 device. These four characters will be copied to 659-662
($293-$296), where they are used to control such parameters as baud
rate, parity, and word length.
189 $BD ROPRTY
RS-232 Output Parity/Cassette Temporary Storage
This location is used by the RS-232 routines as an output parity work
byte, and by the tape as temporary storage for the current character
being read or sent.
190 $BE FSBLK
Cassette Read/Write Block Count
Used by the tape routines to count the number of copies of a data
block remaining to be read or written.
191 $BF MYCH
Tape Input Byte Buffer
This is used by the tape routines as a work area in which incoming
characters area assembled.
192 $C0 CAS1
Tape Motor Interlock
This location is maintained by the IRQ interrupt routine that scans
the keyboard. Whenever a button is pressed on the recorder, this
location is checked. If it contains a 0, the motor is turned on by
setting Bit 5 of location 1 to 0. When the button is let up, the tape
motor is turned off, and this location is set to 0.
Since the interrupt routine is executed 60 times per second, you will
not be able to keep the motor bit set to keep the motor on if no
buttons are pushed. Likewise, if you try to turn the motor off when a
button is pressed and this location is set to 0, the interrupt routine
will turn it back on.
To control the motor via software, you must set this location to a
nonzero value after one of the buttons on the recorder has been
pressed.
193-194 $C1-$C2 STAL
I/O Start Address
This location points to the beginning address of the area in RAM which
is currently being LOADed or SAVEd. For tape I/O, it will point to
the cassette buffer, and the rest of the data is LOADed or SAVEd
directly to or from RAM. This location points to the beginning
address of the area of RAM to be used for the blocks of data that come
after the initial header.
197 $C5 LSTX
Matrix Coordinate of Last Key Pressed, 64=None Pressed
During every normal IRQ interrput this location is set with the value
of the last keypress, to be used in keyboard debouncing. The
Operating System can check if the current keypress is the same as the
last one, and will not repeat the character if it is.
The value returned here is based on the keyboard matrix values as set
forth in the explanation of location 56320 ($DC00). The values
returned for each key pressed are shown at the entry for location 203
($CB).
198 $C6 NDX
Number of Characters in Keyboard Buffer (Queue)
The value here indicates the number of charracters waiting in the
keyboard buffer at 631 ($277). The maximum number of characters in
the keyboard buffer at any one time is determined by the value in
location 649 ($289), which defaults to 10.
If INPUT or GET is executed while there are already characters in the
buffer, those characters will be read as part of the data stream. You
can prevent this by POKEing a 0 to this location before those
operations, which will always cause any character in the buffer to be
ignored. This technique can be handy when using the joystick in
Controller Port #1, which sometimes causes fake keypresses to be
registered, placing unwanted characters in the keyboard buffer.
Not only is this location handy for taking unwanted characters out of
the keyboard buffer, but it can also be used to put desired characters
into the buffer, and thus to program the keyboard buffer. This
technique (dynamic keyboard) allows you to simulate keyboard input in
direct mode from a program.
The dynamic keyboard technique is an extremely useful one, as it
enables you to add, delete, or modify program lines while the program
is running. The basic scheme is to POKE the PETASCII character values
that you wish to be printed (including cursor control characters and
carriage returns) into the buffer. Then, when an END statement is
executed, the characters in the buffer will be printed, and entered by
the carriage return.
This technique can help with the problem of trying to use data
separation and terminator characters with INPUT statements. If you
try to INPUT a string that has a comma or colon, the INPUT will read
only up to that character and issue an EXTRA IGNORED error message.
You can avoid this by entering the input string in quotes, but this
places on the user the burder of remembering the quote marks. One
solution is to use the statements:
POKE 198,3:POKE 631,34: POKE 632,34: POKE 633,20
before the input. This will force two quote marks and a delete into
the buffer. The first quote mark allows the comma or colon to be
INPUT, the second is used to get the editor out of quote mode, and the
delete removes that second quote.
For more specific information and programming examples, see the
description of location 631 ($277), the keyboard buffer.
199 $C7 RVS
Flag: Print Reverse Characters? 0=No
When the [CTRL][RVS-ON] characters are printer (CHR$(18)), this flag
is set to 18 ($12), and the print routines will add 128 ($80) to the
screen code of each character which is printed, so that the caracter
will appear on the screen with its colors reversed.
POKEing this location directly with a nonzero number will achieve the
same results. You should remember, however, that the contents of this
location are returned to 0 not only upon entry of a [CTRL][RVS-OFF]
character (CHR$(146)), but also at every carriage return. When this
happens, characters printed thereafter appear with the normal
comination of colors.
200 $C8 INDX
Pointer: End of Logical Line for Input
This pointer indicates the column number of the last nonblank
character on the logical line that is to be input. Since a logical
line can be up to 80 characters long, this number can range from 0-79.
201-202 $C9-$CA LXSP
Cursor X,Y Position at Start of Input
These locations keep track of the logical line that the cursor is on,
and its column position on that logical line (in line, column format).
Each logical line may contain one or two 40-column physical lines.
Thus there may be as many as 25 logical lines, or as few as 13 at any
one time. Therefore, the logical line number might be anywhere from
1-25. Depending on the length of the logical line, the cursor column
may be from 1-40 or 1-80.
For a more detailed exaplanation of logical lines, see the description
of the screen line link talbe, 217 ($D9).
203 $CB SFDX
Matrix Coordinate of Current Key Pressed
The keyscan interrupt routine uses this location to indicate which key
is currently being pressed. The value here is then used as an index
into the appropriate keyboard table to determine which character to
print when a key is struck.
The correspondence between the key pressed and the number stored here
is as follows:
0 = INST/DEL 34 = J
1 = RETURN 35 = 0
2 = CRSR RIGHT 36 = M
3 = F7 37 = K
4 = F1 38 = O
5 = F3 39 = N
6 = F5 40 = +
7 = CRSR DOWN 41 = P
8 = 3 42 = L
9 = W 43 = -
10 = A 44 = .
11 = 4 45 = :
12 = Z 46 = @
13 = S 47 = ,
14 = E 48 = LIRA (BRITISH POUND SIGN)
15 = NOT USED 49 = *
(WOULD BE LEFT SHIFT) 50 = ;
16 = 5 51 = CLR/HOME
17 = R 52 = NOT USED
18 = D (WOULD BE RIGHT SHIFT)
19 = 6 53 = =
20 = C 54 = UP ARROW
21 = F (EXPONENTATION SIGN)
22 = T 55 = /
23 = X 56 = 1
24 = 7 57 = LEFT ARROW
25 = Y 58 = NOT USED
26 = G (WOULD BE CTRL)
27 = 8 59 = 2
28 = B 60 = SPACE BAR
29 = H 61 = NOT USED
30 = U (WOULD BE COMMODORE LOGO)
31 = V 62 = Q
32 = 9 63 = RUN/STOP
33 = I 64 = NO KEY PRESSED
The RESTORE key is not accounted for, because it is not part of the
normal keyboard matrix. Instead, it is connected directly to the
microprocessor NMI line, and causes an NMI interrupt whenever it is
pressed.
204 $CC BLNSW
Cursor Blink Enable: 0=Flash Cursor
When this flag is set to a nonzero value, it indicates to the routine
that normally flashes the cursor not to do so. The cursor blink is
turned off when there are characters in the keyboard buffer, or when
the program is running.
You can use this location to turn the cursor on during a program (for
a series of GET operations, for example, to show the user that input
is expected) by using the statement POKE 204,0.
205 $CD BLNCT
Timer: Countdown to Blink Cursor
The interrupt routine that blinks the cursor uses this location to
tell when it's time for a blink. First the number 20 is put here, and
every jiffy (1/60 second) the value here is decreased by one, until it
reaches zero. Then the cursor is blinked, the number 20 is put back
here, and the cycle starts all over again. Thus, under normal
circumstances, the cursor blinks three times per second.
206 $CE GDBLN
Character Under Cursor
The cursor is formed by printing the inverse of the character that
occupies the cursor position. If that characters is the letter A, for
example, the flashing cursor merely alternates between printing an A
and a reverse-A. This location keeps track of the normal screen code
of the character that is located at the cursor position, so that it
may be restored when the cursor moves on.
207 $CF BLNON
Flag: Was Last Curson Blink on or off?
This location keeps track of whether, during the current cursor blink,
the character under the cursor was reversed, or was restored to
normal. This location will contain a 0 if the character is reversed,
and a 1 if the character is restored to its nonreversed status.
208 $D0 CRSW
Flag: Input from Keyboard or Screen
This flag is used by the Kernal CHRIN (61783, $F157) routine to
indicate whether input is available from the screen (3), or whether a
new line should be obtained from the keyboard (0).
209-210 $D1-$D2 PNT
Pointer to the Address of the Current Screen Line
This location points to the address in screen RAM of the first column
of the logical line upon which the cursor is currently positioned.
211 $D3 PNTR
Cursor Column on Current Line
The number contained here is the cursor column position within the
logical line pointed to by 209 ($D1). Since a logical line can
contain up to two physical lines, this value may be from 0 to 79 (the
number here is the value returned by the POS function).
212 $D4 QTSW
Flag: Editor in Quote Mode? 0=No
A nonzero value in this location indicates that the editor is in quote
mode. Quote mode is toggled every time that you type in a quotation
mark on a given line--the first quote mark turns it on, the second
turns it off, the third turns it back on, etc.
If the editor is in this mode when a cursor control character or other
nonprinting character is entered, a printed equivalent will appear on
the screen instead of the cursor movement or other control operation
taking place. Instead, that action is deferred until the string is
sent to the string by a PRINT statement, at which time the cursor
movement or other control operation will take place.
The exception to this rule is the DELETE key, which will function
normally within quote mode. The only way to print a character which
is equivalent to the DELETE key is by entering insert mode (see
loctaion 216 ($D8)). Quote mode may be exited by printing a closing
quote, or by hitting the RETURN or SHIFT-RETURN keys.
Sometimes, it would be handy to be able to escape from quote mode or
insert mode without skipping to a new line. The machine language
program below hooks into the keyscan interrupt routine, and allows you
to escape quote mode by changing this flag to 0 when you press the f1
key:
10 FOR I=850 TO I+41:READ A:POKE I,A:NEXT
20 PRINTCHR$(147)"PRESS F1 KEY TO ESCAPE QUOTE MODE"
30 PRINT"TO RESTART AFTER RESTORE ONLY, SYS 850":SYS850:NEW
40 DATA 173 , 143 , 2 , 141 , 46 , 3 , 173 , 144 , 2 , 141
50 DATA 47 , 3 , 120 , 169 , 107 , 141 , 143 , 2 , 169 , 3
60 DATA 141 , 144 , 2 , 88 , 96 , 165 , 203 , 201 , 4 , 208
70 DATA 8 , 169 , 0 , 133 , 212 , 133 , 216 , 133 , 199 , 108 , 46 , 3
213 $D5 LNMX
Maximum Length of Physical Screen Line
The line editor uses this location when the end of a line has been
reached to determine whether another physical line can be added to the
current logical line, or if a new logical line must be started.
214 $D6 TBLX
Current Cursor Physical Line Number
This location contains the current physical screen line position of
the cursor (0-24). It can be used in a fashion to move the cursor
vertically, by POKEing the target screen line (1-25) minus 1 here,
followed by a PRINT command. For example,
POKE 214,9:PRINT:PRINT "WE'RE ON LINE ELEVEN"
prints the message on line 11. The first PRINT statement allows the
system to update the other screen editor variables so that they will
also show the new line. The cursor can also be set or read using the
Kernal PLOT routine (58634, $E50A) as explained in the entry from
locations 780-783 ($30C-$30F).
215 $D7
Temporary Storage Area for ASCII Value of Last Character Printed
The ASCII value of the last character printed to the screen is held
here temporarily.
216 $D8 INSRT
Flag: Insert Mode (Any Number Greater Than 0 Is the Number of Inserts)
When the INST key is pressed, the screen editor shifts the line to the
right, allocates another physical line to the logical line if
necessary (and possible), updates the screen line length in 213 ($D5),
and adjusts the screen line link table at 217 ($D9). This location is
used to keep track of the number of spaces that has been opened up in
this way.
Until the spaces that have been opened up are filled, the editor acts
as if in quote mode (see location 212 ($D4), the quote mode flag).
This means that cursor control characters that are normally
nonprinting will leave a printed equivalent on the screen when
entered, instead of having their normal effect on cursor movement,
etc. The only difference between insert and quote mode is that the
DELETE key will leave a printed equivalent in insert mode, while the
INST key will insert spaces as normal.
217-242 $D9-$F2 LDTB1
Screen Line Link Table/Editor Temporary Storage
This table contains 25 entries, one for each row of the screen
display. Each entry has two functions. Bits 0-3 indicate on which of
the four pages of screen memory the first byte of memory for that row
is located. This is used in calculating the pointer to the starting
address of a screen line at 209 ($D1).
While earlier PETs used one table for the low bytes of screen rows and
another for the high bytes, this is not possible on the 64, where
screen memory is not fixed in any one spot. Therefore, the Operating
System uses a table of low bytes at 60656 ($ECF0), but calculates the
high byte by adding the value of the starting page of screen memory
held in 648 ($288) to the displacement page held here.
The other function of this table is to establish the makeup of logical
lines on the screen. While each screen line is only 40 characters
long, BASIC allows the entry of program lines that contain up to 80
characters. Therefore, some method must be used to determine which
pairs of physical lines are linked into a longer logical line, so that
this longer logical line may be edited as a unit.
The high bit of each byte here is used as a flag by the screen editor.
That bit is set (leaving the value of the byte over 128 ($80)) when a
line is the first or only physical line in a logical line. The high
bit is reset to 0 only when a line is the second half of a logical
line.
243-244 $F3-$F4 USER
Pointer to the Address of the Current Screen Color RAM Location
This poitner is synchronized with the pointer to the address of the
first byte of screen RAM for the current line kept in location 209
($D1). It holds the address of the first byte of color RAM for the
corresponding screen line.
245-246 $F5-$F6 KEYTAB
Vector: Keyboard Decode Table
KEYTAB points to the address of the keyboard matrix lookup table
currently being used. Although there are only 64 keys on the keyboard
matrix, each key can be used to print up to four different characters,
depending on whether it is struck by itself or in combination with the
SHIFT, CTRL, or Commodore logo keys.
The tables pointed to y this address hold the ASCII value of each of
the 64 keys for one of these possible combinations of keypresses.
When it comes time to print the character, the table that is used
determines which character is printed.
The addresses of the four tables are:
60289 ($EB81) = default uppercase/graphics characters (unshifted)
60354 ($EBC2) = shifted characters
60419 ($EC03) = Commodore logo key characters
60536 ($EC78) = CTRL characters
The concept of the keyboard matrix tables should not be confused with
changing the character sets from uppercase/graphics to
upper/lowercase. The former involves determining what character is to
be placed into screen memory, while the latter involves determining
which character data table is to be used to decode the screen memory
into individual dots for the display of characters on the screen.
That character base is determined by location 53272 ($D018) of the
VIC-II chip.
247-248 $F7-$F8 RIBUF
Pointer: RS-232 Input Buffer
When device number 2 (the RS-232 channel) is opened, two buffers of
256 bytes each are created at the top of memory. This location points
to the address of the one which is used to store characters as they
are received. A BASIC program should always OPEN device 2 before
assigning any variables to avoid the consequences of overwriting
variables which were previously located at the top of memory, as BASIC
executes a CLR after opening this device.
249-250 $F9-$FA ROBUF
Pointer: RS-232 Output Buffer
This location points to the address of the 256-byte output buffer
which is used for transmitting data to RS-232 devices (device number
2)l
251-254 $FB-$FE FREEZP
Four Free Bytes of Zero Page for User Programs
These locations were specifically set aside for user-written ML
routines that require zero-page addressing. While other zero-page
locations can be used on a noninterference basis, it is guaranteed
that BASIC will not alter these locations.
255 $FF BASZPT
BASIC Temporary Data for Floating Point to ASCII Conversion
This location is used for temporary storage in the process of
converting floating point numbers to ASCII characters..
:::::::::::::
::Chapter 2::
:: ::
:: Page 1 ::
:::::::::::::
256-511 $100-$1FF
Microprocessor Stack Area
Locations 256-511 are reserved for the 6510 microprocessor hardware
stack. The organization of this temporary storage area has often been
compared to that of a push-down stack of trays at a cafeteria. The
first number placed on the stack goes to the bottom, and subsequent
entries are placed on top of it. Then you pull a number off the
stack, you come up with the last number that was pushed on (such a
stack is called a Last In, First Out, or LIFO stack).
The stack is controlled by one of the microprocessor registers called
the Stack Pointer, which keeps track of the last stack location used.
The first number placed on the stack goes to location 511 ($1FF), and
subsequent entries are built downward toward 256 ($100). If more than
256 numbers are pushed onto the stack, the Stack Pointer will start
counting from 0 again, and an overflow error will result. Likewise,
if you try to pull more items off the stack than have been pushed on,
an underflow error will result. Most often, such errors will cause
the system to go haywire, and nothing will operate until you turn the
power off and on again.
The stack is used by the system to keep track of the return addresses
of machine language subroutines and interrupt calls and to save the
contents of internal registers. The stack can also be used by the
programmer for temporary storage. BASIC and the Kernal make heavy use
of the stack.
Microsoft BASIC uses part of the stack for a temporary work area.
Therefore, the stack may be broken down into the following subregions:
256-266 $100-$10A
Work Area for Floating Point to String Conversions
Used in the conversion of numbers to the equivalent ASCII digits, and
in scanning strings.
256-318 $100-$13E BAD
Tape Input Error Log
Each tape block is saved twice consecutively, in order to minimize
loss of data from transmission errors. These 62 bytes serve as
indices of which bytes in the tape block were not received corectly
during the first transmission, so that corrections might be made on
the second pass.
319-511 $13F-$1FF
This area is exclusively for the microprocessor stack. Some BASIC
commands, such as FOR-NEXT loops require many stack entries at a time.
Therefore, BASIC frequently checks the stack before pushing entries
on, and returns an OUT OF MEMORY error if an operation would result in
less than 62 bytes of available stack memory.
Each FOR statement causes 18 bytes to be pushed onto the stack, which
come off in the following order:
First comes a one-byte constant of 129 ($81). Next is a two-byte
pointer to the address of the subject variable (the X of FOR X=1 to
10). This is followed by the five-byte floating point representation
of the TO value. Finally comes the two-byte line number of the line
to which the program returns after a NEXT, and the two-byte address of
the next character to read in that line after the FOR statement.
Each GOSUB call places five bytes on the stack. The first byte to
come off is a one-byte constant of 141 ($8D). The next two bytes
contain the line number of the statement to which the program will
RETURN after the subroutine ends. And the final two bytes are a
pointer to the address of the BASIC program text for that statement in
which the program RETURNs.
DEF also leaves a five-byte entry on the stack. It is the same as
that described for GOSUB, except that instead of a constant byte of
141, the first number is a dummy byte, whose value has no
significance.
::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: Chapter 3 ::
:: ::
:: Pages 2 and 3 ::
:: ::
::BASIC and the Kernal::
:: Working Storage ::
::::::::::::::::::::::::
This area is used to store important information for the Operating
System and BASIC. It contains vectors to certain BASIC routines as
well as Operating System Kernal routines. Registers for RS-232 serial
I/O are located here. Buffer space is allocated in this area for tape
I/O, BASIC text input, and the keyboard queue. In addition, there are
a number of Operating System variables and pointers here which the
programmer can utilize.
512-600 $200-$258 BUF
BASIC Line Editor Input Buffer
When you are in the BASIC immediate mode, and type in a line of
characters, those characters are stored here. BASIC then scans the
string of characters, converts the text to tokenized BASIC program
format, and either stores it or executes the line, depending on
whether or not it started with a line number.
This same area is also used to store data which is received via the
INPUT and GET commands. This explains why these commands are illegal
in immediate mode--they must use the same buffer space that is
required by the immediate mode statement itself.
It is interesting to note that this buffer is 89 bytes long. The
screen editor will allow a maximum of only 80 characters in a program
line, with one extra byte required for a 0 character, marking the end
of the line. This presumable is a carry over from the VIC, which
allows a line length of up to 88 characters. The last eight bytes of
this buffer are therefore normally not used, and can be considered
free space for the programmer to use as he or she sees fit.
Location Range: 601-630 ($259-$276)
Tables for File Numbers, Device Numbers, and Secondary Addresses
All three of the tables here have room for ten one-byte entries, each
of which represents an active Input/Output file. When an I/O file is
opened, its logical file number is put into the table at 601 ($259),
the device number of the I/O device is put into the table at 611
($263), and its secondary address is put into the table at 621 ($26D).
The entry for any particular I/O file will occupy the same position in
each of the three tables. That is, if logical file number 2 is the
third entry in the file number table, its secondary address will be
the third entry in the secondary address table, and its corresponding
device number will occupy the third spot in the device number table.
Every time a device is OPENed, its information is added as the last
entry in each table, and the value at location 152 ($98) is increased
by one, indicating that there is one more active I/O file. When a
device is CLOSEd, the value at location 152 is decreased by one, and
all entries that occupy a position in the tables that is higher than
that of the closed device are moved down one position, thus
eliminating the entry for that device. The Kernal CLALL routine
(62255, $F32F) simply zeros location 152, which has the effect of
emptying these tables.
601-610 $259-$262 LAT
Kernal Table of Active Logical File Numbers
611-620 $263-$26C FAT
Kernal Table of Device Numbers for Each Logical File
621-630 $26D-$276 SAT
Kernal Table of Secondary Addresses for Each Logical File
631-640 $277-$280 KEYD
Keyboard Buffer (Queue)
This buffer, sometimes also referred to as the keyboard queue, holds
the ASCII values of the characters entered from the keyboard. The
interrupt routine which scans the keyboard deposits a character here
each time a key is pressed. When BASIC sees that there are characters
waiting, it removes and prints them, one by one, in the order in which
they were entered.
This kind of a buffer is known as FIFO, for First In, First Out. The
buffer will hold up to ten characters, allowing you to type faster
than the computer prints characters, without losing characters. The
maximum number of characters this buffer can hold at one time is ten
(as determined by the value at 649 ($289)). Characters entered after
the buffer is full will be ignored.
The commands GET and INPUT retrieve characters from this buffer. If
one of these is executed while there are already characters waiting in
the buffer, those characters will be fetched as if they were part of
the data being input. To prevent this from happening, you can clear
the buffer by POKEing a 0 into location 198 ($C6), which holds the
number of characters that are waiting in the buffer.
One of the most interesting and useful techniques for programming
Commodore computers is to have a program simulate direct entry of
commands from the keyboard. This dynamic keyboard trick is achieved
by first POKEing PETASCII characters, usually cursor movement
characters and carriage returns, into the buffer, and setting location
198 ($C6) to show how many characters are waiting in the buffer.
Next, you clear the screen, and PRINT the statements that you wish to
have executed on the screen, carefully positioning them so that the
first statement to be entered is on the fourth line of the screen.
You then home the cursor and execute an END statement. This causes
the keyboard buffer to be read, and the carriage returns to be
executed, thus entering the printed lines as if they had been typed in
immediate or direct mode. The program can be continued by including a
GOTO statement in the last line entered.
Many interesting effects can be achieved using this method. Examples
of a few of these are included below. For example, program lines can
be added, modified, or deleted, while the program is running. The
following example shows how this is done:
10 REM THIS LINE WILL BE DELETED
20 REM A NEW LINE 30 WILL BE CREATED
40 PRINT CHR$(147):PRINT:PRINT
50 PRINT "80 LIST":PRINT"30 REM THIS LINE WASN'T HERE BEFORE"
60 PRINT "10":PRINT "GOTO 80"CHR$(19)
70 FOR I=631 TO 634:POKE I,13:NEXT:POKE 198,4:END
80 REM THIS LINE WILL BE REPLACED
You can use this technique to enter numbered DATA statements
automatically, using values in memory. These statements become a
permanent part of the program.
Another interesting application is taking ASCII program lines from a
tape data file, or sequential disk file, and having them entered
automatically. This can be used for merging programs, or for
transferring programs between computers with a modem and a terminal
program. To create the ASCII program file, you use CMD to direct a
LISTing to the desired device as follows:
For tape: OPEN 1,1,1,"ASCII":CMD 1:LIST
After the listing has ended: PRINT #1:CLOSE 1
For disk: OPEN 8,8,8,"ASCII,S,W":CMD 8:LIST
After the listing has ended: PRINT #8:CLOSE 8
This file can then be uploaded using a modem and appropriate terminal
software, entered by itself or merged with another program by using
the following program. Be sure to save this program before you run
it, because it will erase itself when it is done.
60000 OPEN 1,8,8,"ASCII"
60010 POKE 152,1:B=0:GOSUB 60170
60020 GET #1,A$:IF A$=""THEN60020
60030 IF ST AND 64 THEN 60120
60040 IF A$=CHR$(13)AND B=0THEN60020
60050 PRINT A$;:B=1:IF A$=CHR$(34)THEN POKE 212,0
60060 IF A$<>CHR$(13) THEN 60020
60070 PRINT CHR$(5);"GOTO 60010";CHR$(5):PRINT:PRINT:POKE 198,0
60080 PRINT "RETURN=KEEP LINE S=SKIP LINE":B=0
60090 GET A$:IF A$=""THEN 60090
60100 IF A$="S" THEN 60010
60110 GOTO 60180
60120 PRINT "END OF FILE--HIT RETURN TO FINISH MERGE"
60130 IF PEEK(197)<>1THEN60130
60140 A=60000
60150 GOSUB 60170:FOR I=A TO A+60 STEP10:PRINTI:NEXT
60160 PRINT "A="I":GOTO 60150":GOTO 60180
60170 PRINT CHR$(147):PRINT:PRINT:RETURN
60180 FOR I=631TO640:POKEI,13:NEXT:POKE198,10:PRINTCHR$(19);:END
If you wish to merge additional programs at the same time, when it
indicates that the file has ended, press the STOP key rather than
RETURN, enter the name of the new file in line 60000, and RUN 60000
641-642 $281-282 MEMSTR
Pointer: O.S. Start of Memory
When the power is first turned on, or a cold start RESET is performed,
the Kernal routine RAMTAS (64848, $FD50) sets this location to point
to address 2048 ($800). This indicates that this is the starting
address of user RAM. BASIC uses this location to set its own start of
memory pointer at location 43 ($2B), and thereafter uses only its own
pointer.
The Kernal routine MEMBOT (65076, $FE34) may be used to read or set
this pointer, or these locations may be directly PEEKed or POKEd from
BASIC.
643-644 $283-284 MEMSIZ
Pointer: O.S. End of Memory
When the power is first turned on, or a cold start RESET is performed,
the Kernal routine RAMTAS (64848, $FD50) performs a nondestructive
test of RAM from 1024 ($400) up, stopping when the test fails,
indicating the presence of ROM. This will normally occur at 40960
($A000), the location of the BASIC ROM. The top of user RAM pointer
is then set to point to that first ROM location.
After BASIC has been started, the system will alter this location only
when an RS-232 channel (device number 2) is OPENed or CLOSEd. As 512
bytes of memory are required for the RS-232 transmission and reception
buffers, this pointer, as well as the end of BASIC pointer at 55
($37), is lowered to create room for those buffers when the device is
opened. CLOSing the device resets these pointers.
The Kernal routine MEMTOP (65061, $FE25) may be used to read or set
this pointer.
645 $285 TIMOUT
Flag: Kernal Variable for IEEE Time-Out
This location is used only with the external IEEE interface card
(which was not yet available from Commodore at the time of writing).
For more information, see the entry for the Kernal SETTMO routine at
65057 ($FE21).
646 $286 COLOR
Current Foreground Color for Text
The process of PRINTing a character to the screen consists of both
placing the screen code value for the character in screen memory and
placing a foreground color value in the corresponding location in
color RAM. Whenever a character is PRINTed, the Operating System
fetches the value to be put in color RAM from this location.
The foreground color may be changed in a number of ways. Pressing the
CTRL or Commodore logo key and numbers 1-8 at the same time will
change the value stored here, and thus the color being printed.
PRINTing the PETASCII equivalent character with the CHR$ command will
have the same effect. But probably the easiest method is to POKE the
color value directly to this location. The table below lists the
possible colors that may be produced, and shows how to produce them
using all three methods.
POKE
COLOR # COLOR CHR$ KEYS TO PRESS
0 Black 144 CTRL-1
1 White 5 CTRL-2
2 Red 28 CTRL-3
3 Cyan 159 CTRL-4
4 Purple 156 CTRL-5
5 Green 30 CTRL-6
6 Blue 31 CTRL-7
7 Yellow 158 CTRL-8
8 Orange 129 Logo-1
9 Brown 149 Logo-2
10 Lt Red 150 Logo-3
11 Dark Gray 151 Logo-4
12 Med Gray 152 Logo-5
13 Lt Green 153 Logo-6
14 Lt Blue 154 Logo-7
15 Lt Gray 155 Logo-8
647 $287 GDCOL
Color of Character under Cursor
This location is used to keep track of the original color code of the
character stored at the present cursor location. Since the blinking
cursor uses the current foreground color at 646 ($286), the original
value must be stored here so that if the cursor moves on without
changing that character, its color code can be restored to its
original value.
648 $288 HIBASE
Top Page of Screen Memory
This location contains the value used by the Operating System routines
that print to the screen as the base address for screen RAM. The top
of screen memory can be found by multiplying this location by 256.
The default value for screen RAM is set on power-up to location 1024
($400), and this location therefore usually contains a 4.
Screen display memory on the Commodore 64 can be moved to start on any
1K boundary (location evenly divisible by 1024). This is done by
manipulating the VIC-II chip memory bank select at location 56576
($DD00).
It is important to note, however, that while any area may be
displayed, the Operating System will look here to find out where it
should PRINT characters. Therefore, if you change the screen location
by altering the contents of one of the two addresses listed above, the
Operating System will still not know where to PRINT characters unless
you also change this address as well. The result will be that
characters entered from the keyboard or PRINTed will not appear on the
screen.
Examples of how to properly relocate the screen can be found at the
entries for location 53272 ($D018) and 43 ($2B).
Since the PRINT command in essence just POKEs a lot of values to
screen and color memory, by changing this pointer you can print a
string of characters to memory locations other than screen RAM. For
example, you could PRINT a sprite shape to memory without having to
READ a lot of DATA statements. The program below PRINTs different
sprite shapes into the sprite data area:
10 SP=53248:POKESP,170:POKESP+1,125:POKESP+21,1:POKE 2040,13:PRINT CHR$(147)
20 A$="THIS TEXT WILL BE PRINTED TO THE SPRITE SHAPE DATA AREA AND DISPLAYED"
30 GOSUB 100
40 A$="THIS IS SOME DIFFERENT TEXT TO BE PRINTED TO THE SPRITE SHAPE AREA"
50 GOSUB 100
60 COUNT=COUNT+1:IF COUNT<15 THEN 20
70 END
100 POKE 648,3:PRINT CHR$(19);CHR$(17);SPC$(24);A$;:POKE 648,4:RETURN
Since PRINTing also changes color memory, you can change the pointer
to print the characters harmlessly to ROM, while changing a lot of
screen RAM at one time, as the following program demonstrates:
10 D$=CHR(94):FOR I=1 TO 4:D$=D$+D$:NEXT
20 PRINT CHR$(147);:FOR I=1 TO 7:PRINT TAB(10) D$:NEXT:PRINT:PRINT:PRINT:PRINT
30 PRINT TAB(9);CHR$(5);"HIT ANY KEY TO STOP"
40 DIM C(15):FOR I=0TO14:READ A:C(I)=A:NEXT:DATA2,8,7,5,6,4,1,2,8,7,5,6,4,1,2
50 POKE 53281,0:POKE 648,212:FOR J=0 TO 6:PRINT CHR$(19);
60 FOR I=J TO J+6:POKE 646,C(I):PRINT TAB(10) D$:NEXT I,J
70 GET A$:IF A$="" THEN 50
80 POKE 648,4:POKE 646,1
649 $289 XMAX
Maximum Keyboard Buffer Size
The value here indicates the maximum number of characters that the
keyboard buffer at 631 ($277) may hold at any one time. Anytime that
the current buffer length in location 198 ($C6) matches the value
here, further keypresses will be ignored.
Although the maximum size of the keyboard buffer is usually 10
characters, it may be possible to extend it up to 15 characters by
changing the number here. This could cause the Operating System
pointers to the bottom and top of memory at 641-644 ($281-$284) to be
overwritten, but no real harm should result.
650 $28A RPTFLAG
Flag: Which Keys Will Repeat?
The flag at this location is used to determine whether to continue
printing a character as long as its key is held down, or whether to
wait until the key is let up before allowing it to be printed again.
The default value here is 0, which allows only the cursor movement
keys, insert/delete key, and the space bar to repeat.
POKEing this location with 128 ($80) will make all keys repeating,
while a value of 64 ($40) will disable all keys from repeating.
651 $28B KOUNT
Counter for Timing the Delay Between Key Repeats
This location is used as a delay counter to determine how long to wait
while a key is being held down until the next repeat printing of that
key.
The value here starts at 6. If location 652 ($28C) contains a 0, the
value in this location is counted down once every 1/60 second, so long
as the same key is held down. When this counter gets to 0, and if the
repeat flag at 650 ($28A) allows that key to repeat, its ASCII
equivalent will once again be placed in the keyboard buffer. A value
of 4 is then placed in location 651, allowing subsequent repeats to
occur at a rate of 15 per second.
652 $28C DELAY
Counter for Timing the Delay Until the First Key Repeat Begins
This location is used as a delay counter to determine how long a key
must be held down before the entry of that key should be repeated.
The initial value of 16 is counted down every 1/60 second, as long as
the same key remains pressed. When the value gets to 0, location 651
($28B) is counted down from 6, and the key is repeated when the value
there reaches 0. Thus a total of 22/60, or approximately 1/3, second
will elapse before the first repeat of a key. The value here will be
held to 0 after the first repeat, so that subsequent keystroke
repititions occur much more quickly.
653 $28D SHFLAG
Flag: SHIFT/CTRL/Logo Keypress
This flag signals which of the SHIFT, CTRL, or Commodore logo keys are
currently being pressed, if any.
A value of 1 signifies that one of the SHIFT keys is being pressed, a
2 shows that the Commodore logo key is down, and 4 means that the CTRL
key is being pressed. If more than one key is held down, these values
will be added; for example, a 3 indicates that SHIFT and logo are both
held down.
The value here is used by the Operating System when determining how to
convert a keypress into a PETASCII character. There are four
different tables used to translate one of the 64 keys on the keyboard
matrix into a PETASCII character, and the combination of special SHIFT
keys determines which of these tables will be used (see the entry for
location 245 ($F5) for more details on the keyboard tables).
Pressing the SHIFT and Commodore logo keys at the same time will
toggle the character set that is presently being used between the
uppercase/graphics set, and the lowercase/uppercase set (provided that
the flag at 657 ($291) has not been set to disable this switch).
This changes the appearance of all of the characters on the screen at
once. It has nothing whatever to do with the keyboard shift tables,
however, and should not be confused with the printing of SHIFTed
characters, which affects only one character at a time. Rather, it is
the result of the value of the character dot data table base address
in 53272 ($D018) being changed. The came result may be obtained by
POKEing that address directly.
654 $28E LSTSHF
Last Pattern of SHIFT/CTRL/Logo Keypress
This location is used in combination with the one above to debounce
the special SHIFT keys. This will keep the SHIFT/logo combination
from changing character sets back and forth during a single pressing
of both keys.
655-656 $28F-$290 KEYLOG
Vector to Keyboard Table Setup Routine
This location points to the address of the Operating System routine
which actually determines which keyboard matrix lookup table will be
used.
The routine looks at the value of the SHIFT flag at 653 ($28D), and
based on what value it finds there, stores the address of the correct
table to use at location 245 ($F5).
The interrupt driven keyboard-scanning routine jumps through this RAM
vector to get to the table setup routine. Therefore, it is possible
to alter the address contained in this vector, and direct the keyscan
routine to your own routine, which can check the keypress and SHIFT
combination, and act before a character is printed.
Since this routine comes after the keypress, but before it is printed,
this is a very good place to have your preprocessor routine check for
a particular keypress. An excellent example of such a program is the
"VICword" program by Mark Niggemann, COMPUTE!'s Second Book of VIC.
This program adds a machine language routine that checks if the SHIFT
or Commodore logo key is pressed while not in quote mode. If it finds
one of these keypresses, it substitutes an entire BASIC keyword for
the letter (A-Z) of the key that was pressed. An adaptation of that
program for the 64 appears below.
100 IF PEEK(PEEK(56)*256)<>120THENPOKE56,PEEK(56)-1:CLR
110 HI=PEEK(56):BASE=HI*256
120 PRINTCHR$(147)"READING DATA"
130 FOR AD=0 TO 211:READ BY
140 POKE BASE+AD,BY:NEXT AD
150 :
200 REM RELOCATION ADJUSTMENTS
210 POKE BASE+26,HI:POKE BASE+81,HI
220 POKE BASE+123,HI:POKE BASE+133,HI
230 :
240 PRINT CHR$(147) TAB(15)"***64WORD***":PRINT
250 PRINT"TO TOGGLE THE PROGRAM ON/OFF:":PRINT:PRINT:PRINT "SYS";BASE;
260 PRINT CHR$(145);CHR$(145);
270 DATA 120,173,143,2,201,32
280 DATA 208,12,169,220,141,143
290 DATA 2,169,72,141,144,2
300 DATA 88,96,169,32,141,143
310 DATA 2,169,0,141,144,2
320 DATA 88,96,165,212,208,117
330 DATA 173,141,2,201,3,176
340 DATA 110,201,0,240,106,169
350 DATA 194,133,245,169,235,133
360 DATA 246,165,215,201,193,144
370 DATA 95,201,219,176,91,56
380 DATA 233,193,174,141,2,224
390 DATA 2,208,3,24,105,26
400 DATA 170,189,159,0,162,0
410 DATA 134,198,170,160,158,132
420 DATA 34,160,160,132,35,160
430 DATA 0,10,240,16,202,16
440 DATA 12,230,34,208,2,230
450 DATA 35,177,34,16,246,48
460 DATA 241,200,177,34,48,17
470 DATA 8,142,211,0,230,198
480 DATA 166,198,157,119,2,174
490 DATA 211,0,40,208,234,230
500 DATA 198,166,198,41,127,157
510 DATA 199,2,230,198,169,20
520 DATA 141,119,2,76,72,235
530 DATA 76,224,234
550 REM TOKENS FOR SHIFT KEY
570 DATA 153,175,199,135,161,129
580 DATA 141,164,133,137,134,147
590 DATA 202,181,159,151,163,201
600 DATA 196,139,192,149,150,155
610 DATA 191,138
630 REM TOKENS FOR COMMODORE KEY
650 DATA 152,165,198,131,128,130
660 DATA 142,169,132,145,140,148
670 DATA 195,187,160,194,166,200
680 DATA 197,167,186,157,165,184
690 DATA 190,158,0
Commodore 64word: Keys into BASIC Commands
Key SHIFT Commodore
A PRINT PRINT#
B AND OR
C CHR$ ASC
D READ DATA
E GET END
F FOR NEXT
G GOSUB RETURN
H TO STEP
I INPUT INPUT#
J GOTO ON
K DIM RESTORE
L LOAD SAVE
M MID$ LEN
N INT RND
O OPEN CLOSE
P POKE PEEK
Q TAB( SPC(
R RIGHT$ LEFT$
S STR$ VAL
T IF THEN
U TAN SQR
V VERIFY CMD
W DEF FN
X LIST FRE
Y SIN COS
Z RUN SYS
657 $291 MODE
Flag: Enable or Disable Changing Character Sets with SHIFT/Logo
Keypress
This flag is used to enable or disable the feature which lets you
switch between the uppercase/graphics and upper/lowercase character
sets by pressing the SHIFT and Commodore logo keys simultaneously.
This flag affects only this special SHIFT key function, and does not
affect the printing of SHIFTed characters. POKEing a value of 128
($80) here will disable this feature, while POKEing a value of 0 will
enable it once more. The same effect can be achieved by PRINTing
CHR$(8) or CTRL-H to disable the switching of character sets, and
CHR$(9) or CTRL-I to enable it. See entries for locations 53272
($D018) and 49152 ($C000) for more information on switching character
sets.
658 $292 AUTODN
Flag: Screen Scrolling Enabled
This location is used to determine whether moving the cursor past the
fortieth column of a logical line will cause another physical line to
be added to the logical line.
A value of 0 enables the screen to scroll the following lines down in
order to add that line; any nonzero value will disable the scroll.
This flag is set to disable the scroll temporarily when there are
characters waiting in the keyboard buffer (these may include cursor
movement characters that would eliminate the need for a scroll).
Location Range: 659-663 ($293-$297)
RS-232 Pseudo 6551 Registers
For serial Input/Output via the RS-232 port, the internal software of
the Commodore 64 emulates the operation of a 6551 UART chip (that's
Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter, for you acronym buffs),
also known as an ACIA (Asynchronous Communications Interface Adapter).
These RAM locations are used to mimic the functions of that chip's
hardware command, control, and status registers. Although RAM
locations are allocated for mimicking the 6551's ability to use either
an on-board baud rate generator or an external clock crystal, this
function is not implemented by the internal software.
Provisions have been made for the user to communicate with these
registers through the RS-232 OPEN command. When device 2 is opened, a
filename of up to four characters may be appended. These four
characters are copied to locations 659-662 ($293-$296), although the
last two, which specify a nonstandard baud rate, are not used because
that feature is not implemented.
659 $293 M51CTR
RS-232: Mock 6551 Control Register
This location is used to control the RS-232 serial I/O baud rate
(speed at which data is transmitted and received), the word length
(number of bits per data character), and the number of stop bits used
to mark the end of a transmitted character. It uses the same format
as that of the 6551 UART control register to set these parameters,
although, as you will see, some of the 6551 configurations are not
implemented by the software that emulates the UART device. For
example, the standard baud rates which are higher than 2400 baud are
not implemented, presumably because the software cannot keep up at
higher rates. The meanings of the various bit patterns are as
follows:
Bit 7: STOP Bits
0 (bit value of 0) = 1 STOP Bit
1 (bit value of 128) = 0 STOP Bits
Bits 6-5: WORD LENGTH
00 (bit value of 0) = 8 DATA Bits
01 (bit value of 32) = 7 DATA Bits
10 (bit value of 64) = 6 DATA Bits
11 (bit value of 96) = 5 DATA Bits
Bit 4: Unused
Bits 3-0: BAUD RATE
0000 (bit value of 0) = Nonstandard (User-Defined) Rate (Not Implemented)
0001 (bit value of 1) = 50 Baud
0010 (bit value of 2) = 75 Baud
0011 (bit value of 3) = 110 Baud
0100 (bit value of 4) = 134.5 Baud
0101 (bit value of 5) = 150 Baud
0110 (bit value of 6) = 300 Baud
0111 (bit value of 7) = 600 Baud
1000 (bit value of 8) = 1200 Baud
1001 (bit value of 9) = 1800 Baud
1010 (bit value of 10) = 2400 Baud
1011 (bit value of 11) = 3600 Baud (Not Implemented on the Commodore 64)
1100 (bit value of 12) = 4800 Baud (Not Implemented on the Commodore 64)
1101 (bit value of 13) = 7200 Baud (Not Implemented on the Commodore 64)
1110 (bit value of 14) = 9600 Baud (Not Implemented on the Commodore 64)
1111 (bit value of 15) = 19200 Baud (Not Implemented on the Commodore 64)
This register is the only one which must be set when opening RS-232
device (number 2). The first character of the filename will be stored
here. For example, the statement OPEN 2,2,0,CHR$(6+32) will set the
value of this location to 38. As you can see from the above chart,
this sets up the RS-232 device for a data transfer rate of 300 baud,
using seven data bits per character and one stop bit.
660 $294 M51CDR
RS-232: Mock 6551 Command Register
This location performs the same function as the 6551 UART chip's
command register, which specifies type of parity, duplex mode, and
handshaking protocol.
The type of parity used determines how the 64 will check that RS-232
data is received correctly.
The duplex mode can be either full duplex (the 64 will be able to
transmit at the same time it is receiving) or half duplex (it will
take turns sending and receiving).
The handshaking protocol has to do with the manner in which the
sending device lets the receiver know that it is ready to send data,
and the receiver lets the sender know that it has gotten the data
correctly. The meanings of the bit patterns in this register are as
follows:
Bits 7-5: Parity
XX0 (bit value of
0,64,128, or 192) = No Parity Generated or Received
001 (bit value of 32) = Odd Parity Transmitted and Received
011 (bit value of 96) = Even Parity Transmitted and Received
101 (bit value of 160) = Mark Parity Transmitted and Received
111 (bit value of 224) = Space Parity Transmitted and Received
Bit 4: Duplex
0 (bit value of 0) = Full Duplex
1 (bit value of 16) = Half Duplex
Bits 3-1: Unused
Bit 0: Handshake Protocol
0 (bit value of 0) = 3 Line
1 (bit value of 1) = X Line
This register can be set at the user's option when opening RS-232
device (number 2). The second character of the filename will be
stored here. For example, the statement
OPEN 2,2,0,CHR$(6+32)+CHR$(32+16)
will set the value of this location to 48, which is the value of the
second character in the filename portion of the statement. As you can
see from the above chart, this configures the RS-232 device for half
duplex data transfer using odd parity and three-line handshaking.
661-662 $295-$296 M51AJB
RS-232: Nonstandard Bit Timing
These locations are provided for storing a nonstandard user-defined
baud rate, to be used when the low nybble of the control register at
659 ($293) is set to 0. They were presumable provided to conform to
the nodel of the 6551 UART device, which allows a nonstandard baud
rate to be generated from an external reference crystal. However, the
software emulation of that feature is not provided in the current
version of the Kernal, and thus these locations are currently
nonfunctional.
Nonetheless, Commodore has specified that if the nonstandard baud rate
feature is implemented, the value placed here should equal the system
clock frequency divided by the baud rate divided by 2 minus 100,
stored in low byte, high byte order. The system clock frequency for
American television monitors (NTSC standard) is 1.02273 MHz, and for
European monitors (PAL standard) .98525 MHz.
663 $297 $RSSTAT
RS-232: Mock 6551 Status Register
The contents of this register indicate the error status of RS-232 data
transmission. That status can be determined by PEEKing this location
directly, by referencing the BASIC reserved variable ST, or by using
the Kernal READST (65031, $FE07) routine.
Note that if you use ST or Kernal, this location will be set to 0
after it is read. Therefore, if you need to test more than one bit,
make sure that each test preserves the original value, because you
won't be able to read it again. The meaning of each bit value is
specified below:
Bit 7: 1 (bit value of 128) = Break Detected
Bit 6: 1 (bit value of 64) = DTR (Data Set Ready) Signal Missing
Bit 5: Unused
Bit 4: 1 (bit value of 16) = CTS (Clear to Send) Signal Missing
Bit 3: 1 (bit value of 8) = Receiver Buffer Empty
Bit 2: 1 (bit value of 4) = Receiver Buffer Overrun
Bit 1: 1 (bit value of 2) = Framing Error
Bit 0: 1 (bit value of 1) = Parity Error
The user is responsible for checking these errors and taking
appropriate action. If, for example, you find that Bit 0 or 1 is set
when you are sending, indicating a framing or parity error, you should
resend the last byte. If Bit 2 is set, the GET#2 command is not being
executed quickly enough to empty the buffer (BASIC should be able to
keep up at 300 baud, but not higher). If Bit 7 is set, you will want
to stop sending, and execute a GET#2 to see what is being sent.
664 $298 BITNUM
RS-232: Number of Bits Left to be Sent/Received
This location is used to determine how many zero bits must be added to
the data character to pad its length out to the word length specified
in 659 ($293).
665-666 $299-$29A BAUDOF
Time Required to Send a Bit
This location holds the prescaler value used by CIA #2 timers A and B.
These timers cause an NMI interrupt to drive the RS-232 receive and
transmit routines CLOCK/PRESCALER times per second each, where CLOCK
is the system 02 frequency of 1,022,730 Hz (985,250 if you are using
the European PAL television standard rather than the American NTSC
standard), and PRESCALER is the value stored at 56580-1 ($DD04-5) and
56582-3 ($DD06-7), in low-byte, high-byte order. You can use the
following formula to figure the correct prescaler value for a
particular RS-232 baud rate:
PRESCALER=((CLOCK/BAUDRATE)/2)-100
The American (NTSC standard) prescaler values for the standard RS-232
baud rates which the control register at 659 ($293) makes available
are stored in a table at 65218 ($FEC2), starting with the two-byte
value used for 50 baud. The European (PAL standard) version of that
table is located at 58604 ($E4EC).
Location Range: 667-670 ($29B-$29E)
Byte Indices to the Beginning and End of Receive and Transmit Buffers
The two 256-byte First In, First Out (FIFO) buffers for RS-232 data
reception and transmission are dynamic wraparound buffers. This means
that the starting point and the ending point of the buffer can change
over time, and either point can be anywhere withing the buffer. If,
for example, the starting point is at byte 100, the buffer will fill
towards byte 255, at which point it will wrap around to byte 0 again.
To maintain this system, the following four locations are used as
indices to the starting and the ending point of each buffer.
667 $29B RIDBE
RS-232: Index to End of Receive Buffer
This index points to the ending byte within the 256-byte RS-232
receive buffer, and is used to add data to that buffer.
668 $29C RIDBS
RS-232: Index to Start of Receive Buffer
This index points to the starting byte within the 256-byte RS-232
receive buffer, and is used to remove data from that buffer.
669 $29D RODBS
RS-232: Index to Start of Transmit Buffer
This index points to the starting byte within the 256-byte RS-232
transmit buffer, and is used to remove data from that buffer.
670 $29E RODBE
RS-232: Index to End of Transmit Buffer
This index points to the ending byte within the 256-byte RS-232
transmit buffer, and is used to add data to that buffer.
671-672 $29F-$2A0 IRQTMP
SAve Area for IRQ Vector During Cassette I/O
The routines that read and write tape data are driven by an IRQ
interrupt. In order to hook one of these routines into the interrupt,
the RAM IRQ vector at 788-789 ($314-$315) must be changed to point to
the address at which it starts. Before that change is made, the old
IRQ vector address is saved at these locations, so that after the tape
I/O is finished, the interrupt that is used for scanning the keyboard,
checking the stop key, and updating the clock can be restored.
You will note that all of the above functions will be suspended during
tape I/O.
673 $2A1 ENABL
RS-232 Interrupts Enabled
This location holds the active NMI interrupt flag byte from CIA #2
Interrupt Control Register (56589, $DD0D). The bit values for this
flag are as follows:
Bit 4: 1 (bit value of 16) = System is Waiting for Receiver Edge
Bit 1: 1 (bit value of 2) = System is Receiving Data
Bit 0: 1 (bit value of 1) = System is Transmitting Data
674 $2A2
Indicator of CIA #1 Control Register B Activity During Cassette I/O
675 $2A3
Save Area for CIA #1 Interrupt Control Register During Cassette Read
676 $2A4
Save Area for CIA #1 Control Register A During Cassette Read
677 $2A5
Temporary Index to the Next 40-Column Line for Screen Scrolling
678 $2A6
PAL/NTSC Flag
At power-on, a test is performed to see if the monitor uses the NTSC
(North American) or PAL (European) television standard.
This test is accomplished by setting a raster interrupt for scan line
311, and testing if the interrupt occurs. Since NTSC monitors have
only 262 raster scan lines per screen, the interrupt will occur only
if a PAL monitor is used. The results of that test are stored here,
with a 0 indicating an NTSC system in use, and one signifying a PAL
system.
This information is used by the routines which set the prescaler
values for the system IRQ timer, so that the IRQ occurs every 1/60
second. Since the PAL system 02 clock runs a bit slower than the NTSC
version, this prescaler value must be adjusted accordingly.
679-767 $2A7-$2FF
Unused
The programmer may use this area for machine language subroutines, or
for graphics data storage.
If the VIC-II ship is using the bottom 16K for graphics and memory
(the default setting when the system is turned on), this is one of the
few free areas available for storing sprite or character data.
Locaitons 704-767 could be used for sprite data block number 11,
without interfering with BASIC program text or variables.
Location Range: 768-779 ($300-$30B)
BASIC Indirect Vector Table
Several important BASIC routines are vectored through RAM. This means
that the first instruction executed by the routine is an indirect jump
to a location pointed to by one of the vectors in this table.
On power up, the system sets these vectors to point to the next
instruction past the original JuMP instruction. The routine then
continues with that instruction as if the jump never took place. For
example, the BASIC error message routine starts at 42039 ($A437) with
the instruction JMP ($300). The indirect vector at 768 ($300) points
to 42042 ($A43A), which is the instruction immediately following JMP
($300).
Although this may seem like a fancy way of accomplishing nothing,
using these indirect vectors serves two important purposes. First, it
allows you to use these important BASIC routines without knowing their
addresses in the BASIC ROM.
For example, the routine to LIST the ASCII text of the single-byte
BASIC program token that is currently in the Accumulator (.A) is
located at one address in the VIC, and another in the 64. On future
Commodore computers it may be found at still another location. Yet as
long as the routine is vectored in RAM at 774 ($306), the statement
QP=PEEK(774)+256*PEEK(775) would find the address of that routine on
any of the machines. Thus, entering such routines through RAM vectors
rather than a direct jump into the ROMs helps to keep your programs
compatible with different machines.
The other important effect of having these vectors in RAM is that you
can alter them. In that way, you can redirect these important BASIC
routines to execute your own preprocessing routines first.
If you wanted to add commands to BASIC, for example, how would you go
about it? First, you would need to change the BASIC routines that
convert ASCII program text to tokenized program format, so that when a
line of program text was entered, the new keyword would be stored as a
token.
Next, you would need to change the routine that executes tokens, so
that when the interpreter comes to your new keyword token, it will
take the proper action.
You would also have to change the routine that converts tokens back to
ASCII text, so that your program would LIST the token out correctly.
And you might want to alter the routine that prints error messages, to
add new messages for your keyword.
As you will see, vectors to all of these routines can be found in the
following indirect vector table. Changing these vectors is a much
more elegant and efficient solution than the old wedge technique
discussed at location 115 ($73)
768-769 $300-$301 IERROR
Vector to the Print BASIC Error Message Routine
This vector points to the address of the ERROR routine at 58251
($E38B).
770-771 $302-$303 IMAIN
Vector to the Main BASIC Program Loop
This vector points to the address of the main BASIC program loop at
42115 ($A483). This is the routine that is operating when you are in
the direct mode (READY). It executes statements, or stores them as
program lines.
772-773 $304-$305 ICRNCH
Vector to the Routine That Crunches the ASCII Text of Keywords into
Tokens
This vector points to the address of the CRUNCH routine at 42364
($A57C).
774-775 $306-$307 IQPLOP
Vector to the Routine That Lists BASIC Program Token as ASCII Text
This vector points to the address of the QPLOP routine at 42778
($A71A).
776-777 $308-$309 IGONE
Vector to the Routine That Executes the Next BASIC Program Token
This vector points to the address of the GONE routine at 42980 ($A7E4)
that executes the next program token.
778-779 $30A-$30B IEVAL
Vector to the Routine That Evaluates a Single-Term Arithmetic
Expression
This vector points to the address of the EVAL routinea t 44678 ($AE86)
which, among other things, is used to evaluate BASIC functions such as
INT and ABS.
Location Range: 780-783 ($30C-$30F)
Register Storage Area
The BASIC SYS command uses this area to store 6510 internal
registers--the Accumulator (.A), the .X and .Y index registers, and
the status register, .P.
Before every SYS command, each of the registers is loaded with the
value found in the corresponding storage address. After the ML
program finished executing, and returns to BASIC with an RTS
instruction, the new value of each register is stored in the
appropriate storage address. This is only true of SYS, not of the
similar USR command.
This feature allows you to place the necessary preentry values into
the registers from BASIC before you SYS to a Kernal or BASIC ML
routine. It also enables you to examine the resulting effect of the
routine on the registers, and to preserve the condition of the
registers on exit for subsequent SYS calls.
An extremely practical application comes immediately to mind.
Although the 64's BASIC 2 has many commands for formatting printed
characters on the monitor screen (for example, TAB, SPC, PRINT A$,B),
there is none to adjust the vertical cursor position.
There is a Kernal routine, PLOT (58634, $E50A), which will allow you
to position the cursor anywhere on the screen. In order to use it,
you must first clear the carry flag (set it to 0), and then place the
desired horizontal column number in the .Y register and the vertical
row number in the .X register before entering the routine with a SYS
65520. Using the register storage area, we can print the work HELLO
at row 10, column 5 with the following BASIC line:
POKE 781,10:POKE 782,5:POKE 783,0:SYS 65520:PRINT "HELLO"
You can also use these locations to help you take advantage of Kernal
routines that return information in the register. For example, the
SCREEN routine (58629,$E505) returns the number of screen rows int he
.Y register, and the number of columns in the .X register. Using this
routine, a BASIC program could be written to run on machines with
different screen formats (for example, the 64 and the VIC-20). Just
PEEK(781) after a SYS 65517 to see how many screen columns the
computer display has.
780 $30C SAREG
Storage Area for .A Register (Accumulator)
781 $30D SXREG
Storage Area for .X Index Register
782 $30E SYREG
Storage Area for .Y Index Register
783 $30F SPREG
Storage Area for .P (Status) Register
The Status (.P) register has seven different flags. Their bit
assignments are as follows:
Bit 7 (bit value of 128) = Negative
Bit 6 (bit value of 64) = Overflow
Bit 5 (bit value of 32) = Not Used
Bit 4 (bit value of 16) = BREAK
Bit 3 (bit value of 8) = Decimal
Bit 2 (bit value of 4) = Interrupt Disable
Bit 1 (bit value of 2) = Zero
Bit 0 (bit value of 1) = Carry
If you wish to clear any flag before a SYS, it is safe to clear them
all with a POKE 783,0. The reverse is not true, however, as you must
watch out for the Interrupt disable flag.
A 1 in this flag bit is equal to an SEI instruction, which turns off
all IRQ interrupts (like the one that reads the keyboard, for
example). Turning off the keyboard could make the computer very
difficult to operate! To set all flags except for Interrupt disable
to 1, POKE 783,247.
784 $310 USRPOK
Jump Instruction for User Function ($4C)
The value here (67, $4C) is first part of the 6510 machine language
JuMP instruction for the USR command.
785-786 $311-$312 USRADD
Address of USR Routine (Low Byte First)
These locations contain the target address of the USR command. They
are initialized by the Operating System to point to the BASIC error
message handler routine, so that if you try to execute a USR call
without changing these values, you wil receive an ILLEGAL QUANTITY
error message.
In order to successfully execute a USR call, you must first POKE in
the target address in low-byte, high-byte order. You can calculate
these two values for any address with the formula:
HI=INT(AD/256):LO=AD-(HI*256)
For example, if the USR routine started at 49152 ($C000), you would
POKE 786, INT(49152/256):POKE 785,49152-(PEEK(786)*256 before
executing the USR command.
What makes the USR command different from SYS is that you can pass a
parameter into the machine language routine by placing it in
parenthesis after the USR keyword, and you can pass a parameter back
to a variable by assigning its value to the USR function.
In other words, the statement X=USR(50) will first put the number 50
in floating point format into the Floating Point Accumulator (FAC1) at
97-102 ($61-$66). Then, the machine language program designated by
the address at this vector will be executed. Finally, the variable X
will be assigned the floating point value which ends up in FAC1 after
the user-written routine is finished.
Since floating point representation is difficult to work with, it is
handy to change these floating point parameters into integers before
working with them. Fortunately, there are vectored routines which
will do the conversions for you. The routine vectored at locations
3-4 converts the number in FAC1 to a two-byte signed integer, with the
low byte in the .Y register (and location 101 ($65)) and the high byte
in the Accumulator (.A). Remember, that number is converted to a
signed integer in the range between 32767 and -32768, with Bit 7 of
the high byte used to indicate the sign.
To pass a value back through the USR function, you need to place the
number into FAC1. To conert a signed integer to floating point
format, place the high byte into the Accumulator (.A), the low byte
into the .Y register, and jump through the vector at locations 5-6
with a JMP ($0005) instruction. The floating point result will be
left in FAC1.
787 $313
Unused
788-789 $314-$315 CINV
Vector to IRQ Interrupt Routine
This vector points to the address of the routine that is executed when
an IRQ interrupt occurs (normally 59953 ($FA31)).
At power on, the CIA #1 Timer B is set to cause an IRQ interrupt to
occur every 1/60 second. This vector is set to point to the routine
which updates the software clock and STOP key check, blinks the
cursor, maintains the tape interlock, and reads the keyboard. By
changing this vector, the user can add or substitute a machine
language routine that will likewise execute every 1/60 second. The
user who is writing IRQ interrupt routines should consider the
following:
1. It is possible for an IRQ interrupt to occur while you are
changing this vector, which would cause an error from which no
recovery could be made. Therefore, you must disable all IRQ
interrupts before changing the contents of this location, and reenable
them afterwards, by using the 6510 SEI and CLI instructions, or by
using the Kernal VECTOR routine (64794, $FD1A) to set this vector.
2. There is some code in ROM that is executed before the interrupt
routine is directed through this vector. This code checks whether the
source of the interrupt was an IRQ or BRK instruction. If first
preserves the contents of all the registers by pushing them onto the
stack in the following sequence: PHA, TXA, PHA, TYA, PHA. It is up
to the user to restore the stack at the end of his routine, either by
exiting through the normal IRQ, or with the sequence: PLA, TAY, PLA,
TAX, PLA, RTI.
3. There is only one IRQ vector, but there are many sources for IRQ
interrupts (two CIA chips, and several VIC chip IRQs). If you plan to
enable IRQs from more than one source, the IRQ routine here must
determine the source, and continue the routine in the appropriate
place for an IRQ from that source.
In the same vein, if you replace the normal IRQ routine with your own,
you should be aware that the keyboard's scanning and clock update will
not occur unless you call the old interrupt routine once every 1/60
second. It is suggested that if you plan to use that routine, you
save the old vector address in some other location. In that way, you
can JuMP to the keyboard interrupt routine through this alternate
vector, rather than assuming that the ROM address will never change
and that it is safe to jump into the ROM directly.
790-791 $316-$317 CBINV
Vector: BRK Instruction Interrupt
This vector points to the address of the routine which will be
executed anytime that a 6510 BRK instruction (00) is encountered.
The default value points to a routine that calls several of the Kernal
initialization routines such as RESTOR, IOINIT and part of CINT, and
then jumps through the BASIC warm start vector at 40962. This is the
same routine that is used when the STOP and RESTORE keys are pressed
simultaneously, and is currently located at 65126 ($Fe66).
A machine language monitor program will usually change this vector to
point to the monitor warm start address, so that break points may be
set that will return control to the monitor for debugging purposes.
792-793 $318-$319 NMINV
Vector: Non-Maskable Interrupt
This vector points to the address of the routine that will be executed
when a Non-Maskable Interrupt (NMI) occurs (currently at 65095
($FE47)).
There are two possible sources for an NMI interrupt. The first is the
RESTORE key, which is connected directly to the 6510 NMI line. The
second is CIA #2, the interrupt line of which is connected to the 6510
NMI line.
When an NMI interrupt occurs, a ROM routine sets the Interrupt disable
flag, and then jumps through this RAM vector. The default vector
points to an interrupt routine which checks to see what the cause of
the NMI was.
If the cause was CIA #2, the routine checks to see if one of the
RS-232 routines should be called. If the source was the RESTORE key,
it checks for a cartridge, and if present, the cartridge is entered at
the warm start entry point. If there is no cartridge, the STOP key is
tested. If the STOP key was pressed at the same time as the RESTORE
key, several of the Kernal initialization routines such as RESTOR,
IOINIT and part of CINT are executed, and BASIC is entered through its
warm start vector at 40962. If the STOP key was not pressed
simultaneously with the RESTORE, the interrupt will end without
letting the user know that anything happened at all when the RESTORE
key was pressed.
Since this vector controls the outcome of pressing the RESTORE key, it
can be used to disable the STOP/RESTORE sequence. A simple way to do
this is to change this vector to point to the RTI instruction. A
simple POKE 792,193 will accomplish this. To set the vector back,
POKE 792,71. Note that this will cut out all NMIs, including those
required for RS-232 I/O.
Location Range: 794-813 ($31A-$32D)
Kernal Indirect Vectors
There are 39 Kernal routines for which there are vectors in the jump
table located at the top of the ROM (65409, $FF81). For ten of these
routines, the jump table entry contains a machine language instruction
to jump to the address pointed to by the RAM vector in this table.
The addresses in this table are initialized to point to the
corresponding routines in the Kernal ROM. Since these addresses are
in RAM, however, any entry in this table may be changed. This enables
the user to add to these routines, or to replace them completely.
You will notice, for example, that many of these routines involve
Input/ Output functions. By changing the vectors to these routines,
it is possible to support new I/O devices, such as an IEEE disk drive
used through an adapter.
The user should be cautioned that since some of these routines are
interrupt-driven, it is dangerous to change these vectors without
first turning off all interrupts. For a safe method of changing all
of these vectors at one time, along with the interrupt vectors above,
see the entry for the Kernal VECTOR routine at 64794 ($FD1A).
More specific information about the individual routines can be found
in the descriptions given for their ROM locations.
794-795 $31A-$31B IOPEN
Vector to Kernal OPEN Routine (Currently at 62282 ($F34A))
796-797 $31C-$31D ICLOSE
Vector to Kernal CLOSE Routine (Currently at 62097 ($F291))
798-799 $31E-$31F ICHKIN
Vector to Kernal CHKIN Routine (Currently at 61966 ($F20E))
800-801 $320-$321 ICKOUT
Vector to Kernal CKOUT Routine (Currently at 62032 ($F250))
802-803 $322-$323 ICLRCH
Vector to Kernal CLRCHN Routine (Currently at 62259 ($F333))
804-805 $324-$325 IBASIN
Vector to Kernal CHRIN Routine (Currently at 61783 ($F157))
806-807 $326-$327 IBSOUT
Vector to Kernal CHROUT Routine (Currently at 61898 ($F1CA))
808-809 $328-$329 ISTOP
Vector to Kernal STOP Routine (Currently at 63213 ($F6ED))
This vector points to the address of the routine that tests the STOP
key. The STOP key can be disabled by changing this with a POKE
808,239. This will not disable the STOP/RESTORE combination, however.
To disable both STOP and STOP/ RESTORE, POKE 808,234 (POKEing 234 here
will cause the LIST command not to function properly). To bring
things back to normal in either case, POKE 808, 237.
810-811 $32A-$32B IGETIN
Vector to Kernal GETIN Routine (Currently at 61758 ($F13E))
812-813 $32C-$32D ICLALL
Vector to Kernal CLALL Routine (Currently at 62255 ($F32F))
814-815 $32E-$32F USRCMD
Vector to User-Defined Command (Currently Points to BRK at 65126
($FE66))
This appears to be a holdover from PET days, when the built-in machine
language monitor would JuMP through the USRCMD vector when it
encountered a command that it did not understand, allowing the user to
add new commands to the monitor.
Although this vector is initialized to point to the routine called by
STOP/ RESTORE and the BRK interrupt, and is updated by the Kernal
VECTOR routine (64794, $FD1A), it does not seem to have the function
of aiding in the addition of new commands.
816-817 $330-$331 ILOAD
Vector to Kernal LOAD Routine (Currently at 62622 ($F49E))
818-819 $332-$333 ISAVE
Vector: Kernal SAVE Routine (Currently at 62941 ($F5DD))
820-827 $334-$33B
Unused
Eight free bytes for user vectors or other data.
828-1019 $33C-$3FB TBUFFER
Cassette I/O Buffer
This 192-byte buffer area is used to temporarily hold data that is
read from or written to the tape device (device number 1).
When not being used for tape I/O, the cassette buffer has long been a
favorite place for Commodore programmers to place short machine
language routines (although the 64 has 4K of unused RAM above the
BASIC ROM at 49152 ($C000) that would probably better serve the
purpose).
Of more practical interest to the 64 programmer is the possible use of
this area for VIC-II chip graphics memory (for example, sprite shape
data or text character dot data). If the VIC-II chip is banked to the
lowest 16K of memory (as is the default selection), there is very
little memory space which can be used for such things as sprite shape
data without conflict. If the tape is not in use, locations 832-895
($340-$37F) can be used as sprite data block number 13, and locations
896-959 ($380-$3BF) can be used as sprite data block number 14.
The types of tape blocks that can be stored here are program header
blocks, data header blocks, and data storage blocks.
The first byte of any kind of block (which is stored at location 828
($33C)) identifies the block type. Header blocks follow this
identifier byte with the two-byte starting RAM address of the tape
data, the two-byte ending RAM address, and the filename, padded with
blanks so that the total length of the name portion equals 187 bytes.
Data storage blocks have 191 bytes of data following the identifier
byte. The meanings of the various identifier blocks are as follows:
A value of 1 signifies that the block is the header for a relocatable
program file, while a value of 3 indicates that the block is the
header for a nonrelocatable program file.
A relocatable file is created when a program is SAVEd with a secondary
address of 0 (or any even number), while a nonrelocatable program file
is created if the secondary SAVE address is 1 (or any odd number).
The difference between the two types of files is that a nonrelocatable
program will always load at the address specified in the header. A
relocatable program will load at the current start of BASIC address
unless the LOAD statement uses a secondary address of 1, in which case
it will also be loaded at the addrss specified in the header.
You should note that a program file uses the cassette buffer only to
store the header block. Actual program data is transferred directly
to or from RAM, without first being buffered.
An identifier value of 4 means that the block is a data file header.
Such a header block is stored in the cassette buffer whenever a BASIC
program OPENs a tape data file for reading or writing. Subsequent
data blocks start with an identifier byte of 2. These blocks contain
the actual data byte written by the PRINT #1 command, and read by the
GET #1 and INPUT #1 commands. Unlike the body of a program file,
these blocks are temporarily stored in the cassette byffer when being
written or read.
An identifier byte of 5 indicates that this block is the logical end
of the tape. This signals the Kernal not to search past this point,
even if there are additional tape blocks physically present on the
tape.
1020-1023 $3FC-$3FF
Unused
Four more free bytes.
::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: Chapter 4 ::
:: ::
:: 1K to 40K ::
:: ::
:: Screen Memory, ::
::Sprite Pointers, and::
:: BASIC Program Text ::
::::::::::::::::::::::::
1024-2047 $400-$7FF VICSCN
Video Screen Memory Area
This is the default location of the video screen memory area, which
contains the video matrix and the sprite data pointers. Keep in mind,
however, that the video screen memory area can be relocated to start
on any even 1K boundary. Its location at any given moment is
getermined by the VIC-II chip memory control register at 53272
($D018), and the VIC-II memory bank select bits on CIA #2 Data Port A
(56576, $DD00).
1024-2023 $400-$7E7
Video Matrix: 25 Lines by 40 Columns
The video matrix is where thext screen characters are stored in RAM.
Normally, the VIC-II chip will treat each byte of memory here as a
screen display code and will display the text character that
corresponds to that byte of code. The first byte of memory here will
be displayed in the top-left corner of the screen, and subsequent
bytes will be displayed in the columns to the right and the rows below
that character.
It is possible to make text or graphics characters appear on the
screen by POKEing their screen codes directly into this area of RAM.
For example, the letter A has a screen code value of 1. Therefore,
POKE 1024,1 should make the letter A appear in the top-left corner of
the screen.
However, you should be aware that the most current version of the
Operating System initializes the color RAM which is used for the
foreground color of text characters to the same value as the
background color every time that the screen is cleared. The result is
that although the POKE will put a blue A on the screen, you won't be
able to see it because it is the same color blue as the background.
This can be remedied by POKEing a different value into color RAM
(which starts at 55296 ($D800)).
A POKE 1024,1:POKE 1024+54272,1 will put a white A in the upper-left
corner of the screen. The loop
FOR I=0 TO 255:POKE 1024+I,I:POKE 1024+54272+I,1:NEXT
will display all of the characters in white at the top of the screen.
Another solution to the color RAM problem is to fool the Operating
System into initializing the color RAM for you. If you change the
background color to the desired foreground color before you clear the
screen, color RAM will be set to that color. Then, all you have to do
is change the background color back to what it was. This example will
show how it's done:
10 POKE 53281,2:REM BACKGROUND IS RED
20 PRINT CHR$(147):REM CLEAR SCREEN
30 POKE 53281,1:REM BACKGROUND IS WHITE
40 POKE 1024,1:REM RED "A" APPEARS IN TOP LEFT CORNER
2040-2047 $7F8-$7FF
Sprite Shape Data Pointers
The last eight bytes of the video matrix (whether it is here at the
default location, or has been relocated elsewhere) are used as
pointers to the data blocks used to define the sprite shapes.
Each sprite is 3 bytes wide (24 bits) by 21 lines high. It therefore
requires 63 bytes for its shape definition, but it actually uses 64
bytes in order to arrive at an even 256 shape blocks in the 16K area
of RAM which the VIC-II chip addresses.
Each pointer holds the current data block being used to define the
shape of one sprite. The block numver used to define the shape of
Sprite 0 is held in location 2040 ($7F8), the Sprite 1 shape block is
designated by location 2041 ($7F9), etc. The value in the pointer
times 64 equals the starting location of the sprite shape data table.
For example, a value of 11 in location 2040 indicates that the shape
data for Sprite 0 starts at address 704 (11*64), and continues for 63
more bytes to 767.
For additional information on sprite graphics, see the entries for
individual VIC-II chip sprite graphics locations, and the summary at
the beginning of the VIC-II chip section, at 53248 ($D000).
2048-40959 $800-$9FFF
BASIC Program Text
This is the area where the actual BASIC program text is stored. The
text of a BASIC program consists of linked lines of program tokens.
Each line contains the following:
1. A two-byte pointer to the address of the next program line (in
standard low-byte, high-byte order). After the last program line, a
link pointer consisting of two zeros marks the end of the program.
2. A two-byte line number (also in low-byte, high-byte order).
3. The program commands. Each keyword is stored as a one-byte
character whose value is equal to or greater than 128. Print, for
example, is stored as the number 151. Other elements of the BASIC
command, such as the variable names, string literals ("HELLO"), and
numbers, are stored using their ASCII equivalents.
4. A 0 character, which acts as a line terminator. In order for
BASIC to work correctly, the first character of the BASIC text area
must be 0.
A quick review of the BASIC pointers starting at 43 ($2B) reveals that
the layout of the BASIC program area (going from lower memory
addresses to higher) is as follows:
BASIC Program Text
Non-Array Variables and String Descriptors
Array Variables
Free Area (Reported by FRE(0))
String Text Area (Strings build from top of memory down into free area)
BASIC ROM
It is interesting to note that the NEW command does not zero out the
text area but rather replaces the first link address in the BASIC
program with two zeros, indicating the end of the program. Therefore,
you can recover a program from a NEW by replacing the first link
adress, finding the address of the two zeros that actually mark the
end of the program, and setting the pointers at 45, 47, and 49 (which
all point to the end of a BASIC program before the program is RUN) to
the byte following these zeros.
4096-8191 $1000-$1FFF
Character ROM Image for VIC-II Chip When Using Memory Bank 0 (Default)
Though the VIC-II chip shares memory with the 6510 processor chip, it
does not always see that memory in exactly the same way as the main
microprocessor.
Although the 6510 accesses RAM at these locations, when the VIC-II is
banked to use the first 16K of RAM (which is the default condition),
it sees the character ROM here (the 6510 cannot access this ROM unless
it is switched into its memory at 49152 ($C000)). This solves the
riddle of how the VIC-II chip can use the character ROM at 49152
($C000) for character shape data and RAM at 1024 ($400), when it can
only address memory within a 16K range. It also means that the RAM at
4096-8191 cannot be used for screen display memory or user-defined
character dot data, and sprite data blocks 64-127 are not accessible.
You can verify this by turning on bitmap graphics with the screen
memory set to display addresses from 0 to 8192. You will see that the
bottom portion of the screen shows all of the text character shapes
stored in the ROM. For more information on the format of text
character data storage, see the description of the Character ROM at
49152 ($C000).
32768 $8000
Autostart ROM Cartridge
An 8K or 16K autostart ROM cartridge designed to use this as a
starting memory address may be plugged into the Expansion Port on the
back. If the cartridge ROM at locations 32772-32776 ($8004-$8008)
contains the numbers 195, 194, 205, 56, 48 ($C3, $C2, $CD, $38, $30)
when the computer powers up, it will start the program pointed to by
the vector at locations 32768-32769 ($8000-$8001), and will use
32770-32771 ($8002-$8003) for a warm start vector when the RESTORE key
is pressed. These characters are PETASCII for the inverse letters
CBM, followed by the digits 80. An autostart cartridge may also be
addressed at 40960 ($A000), where it would replace BASIC, or at 61440
($F000), where it would replace the Kernal.
It is possible to have a 16K cartridge sitting at 32768 ($8000), such
as Simon's BASIC, which can be turned on and off so that the BASIC ROM
underneath can also be used. Finally, it is even possible to have
bank-selected cartridges, which turn banks of memory in the cartidge
on and off alternately, so that a 32K program could fit into only 16K
of addressing space.
36864-40959 $9000-$9FFF
Character ROM Image for VIC-II Chip When Using Memory Bank 2
When the VIC-II chip is set up to use the third 16K block of memory
for graphics (as would be the case when the 64 is set up to emulate
the PET, which has its text screen memory at 32768 ($8000), it sees
the character generator ROM at this address (see entry at 4096 ($1000)
above for more details).
It should be noted that the character ROM is available only when the
VIC-II chip is using banks 0 or 2. When using one of the other two
banks, the user must supply all of the character shape data in a RAM
table.
::::::::::::::
::Chapter 5 ::
:: ::
:: 8K BASIC ::
::ROM and 4K::
:: Free RAM ::
::::::::::::::
Locations 40960 to 49152 ($A000 to $BFFF) are used by the BASIC ROM
when it is selected (which is the default condition). BASIC is the
64's main program, which is always run if there is no autostart
cartridge inserted at power-up time. When the 64 tells you READY,
that's BASIC talking.
The BASIC interpreter that comes with the 64 is, aside from being
located in a different memory space, almost identical to the Microsoft
BASIC interpreter found on the VIC-20. Both of these interpreters are
slightly modified versions of PET BASIC 2.0, also known as PET BASIC
3.0 or Upgrade BASIC, because it was an upgraded version of the BASIC
found on the original PET.
This is a somewhat mixed blessing, because while PET BASIC was, in its
day, quote an advanced language for use with an eight-bit
microprocessor, it lacks several of the features (such as error
trapping) which are now standard on most home computers. And, of
course, it makes no provision whatever for easy use of the many
graphics and sound capabilities made available by the new dedicated
video and sound support chips.
On the other hand, its faithfulness to the original Commodore BASIC
allows a large body of software to be translated for the 64 with
little change (in most cases, the PET Emulator program from Commodore
will allow you to run PET programs with no changes). Programming aids
and tricks developed for the PET and VIC will, for the most part,
carry over quite nicely to the 64. Although there is no official
source code listing of the ROM available from Commodore, this version
of BASIC has been around long enough that it has been thoroughly
disassembled, dissected, and documented by PET users.
The labels used here correspond to those used by Jim Butterfield in
his PET memory maps, which are well-known among PET BASIC users. They
should, therefore, provide some assistance in locating equivalent
routines on the two machines. A good description of the workings of
PET BASIC can be found in Programming the PET/CBM by Raeto West.
It is beyond the scope of this book to detail the inner workings of
each routine in the BASIC interpreter. However, the following summary
of routines and their functions should aid the user who is interested
in calling BASIC routines from his or her own program, or in modifying
the BASIC.
Please keep in mind that the entry and exit points listed for routines
that perform a particular function are to be used as guideposts, and
not absolutes. In fact, BASIC enters many of these routines from
slightly different places to accomplish different tasks. Some
subroutines are called by so many commands that it is hard to say
which they belong to. You will even find that some whole commands are
part of other commands. Where it is important for you to know the
details of a particular routine, you will need to obtain a disassembly
of that section and look at the machine language program itself.
It should be noted that when BASIC is not neede,d it can be switched
out and the RAM underneath can be accessed by the VIC-II chip and used
for screen graphics. See location 56576 ($DD00) for more information.
40960-40961 $A000-$A001
Cold Start Vector
This vector points to the address of the routine used to initialize
BASIC. After the Operating System finishes its power-on activities,
it enters the BASIC program through this vector. The most visible
effect of the BASIC initialization routine is that the screen is
cleared, and the words:
**** COMMODORE 64 BASIC V2 ****
are printed along with the BYTES FREE message. For details of the
steps taken during the initialization of BASIC, see the entry for
58260 ($E394), the current cold start entry point.
40962-40963 $A002-$A003
Warm Start Vector
The warm start vector points to the address of the routines used to
reset BASIC after the STOP/RESTORE key combination is pressed. This
is the same address to which the BRK instruction is vectored. When
BASIC is entered through this vector, the program in memory is not
disturbed. For more information, see the entry for 58235 ($E37B), the
current warm start entry point.
40964-40971 $A004-$A00B
ASCII Text characters CBMBASIC
The ASCII characters for the letters CBMBASIC are located here.
Possibly an identifier, this text is not referenced elsewhere in the
program.
40972041941 $A00C-$A051 STMDSP
Statement Dispatch Vector Table
This table contains two-byte vectors, each of which points to an
address which is one byte before the address of one of the routines
that perform a BASIC statement.
The statements are in token number order. When it comes time to
execute a statement, the NEWSTT routine at 42926 ($A7AE) places this
address-1 on the stack and jumps to the CHRGET routine. The RTS
instruction at the end of that routine causes the statement address to
be pulled off the stack, incremented, and placed in the Program
Counter, just as if it were the actual return address.
This table is handy for locating the address of the routine that
performs a BASIC statement, so that the routine can be disassembled
and examined. To aid in this purpose, the table is reproduced below
with the actual target address, and not in the address-1 format used
by BASIC.
Token # Statement Routine Address
128 $80 END 43057 $A831
129 $81 FOR 42818 $A742
130 $82 NEXT 44318 $AD1E
131 $83 DATA 43256 $A8F8
132 $84 INPUT# 43941 $ABA5
133 $85 INPUT 43967 $ABBF
134 $86 DIM 45185 $B081
135 $87 READ 44038 $AC06
136 $88 LET 43429 $A9A5
137 $89 GOTO 43168 $A8A0
138 $8A RUN 43121 $A871
139 $8B IF 43304 $A928
140 $8C RESTORE 43037 $A81D
141 $8D GOSUB 43139 $A883
142 $8E RETURN 43218 $A8D2
143 $8F REM 43323 $A93B
144 $90 STOP 43055 $A82F
145 $91 ON 43339 $A94B
146 $92 WAIT 47149 $B82D
147 $93 LOAD 57704 $E168
148 $94 SAVE 57686 $E156
149 $95 VERIFY 57701 $E165
150 $96 DEF 46003 $B3B3
151 $97 POKE 47140 $B824
152 $98 PRINT# 43648 $AA80
153 $99 PRINT 43680 $AAA0
154 $9A CONT 43095 $A857
155 $9B LIST 42652 $A69C
156 $9C CLR 42590 $A65E
157 $9D CMD 43654 $AA86
158 $9E SYS 57642 $E12A
159 $9F OPEN 57790 $E1BE
160 $A0 CLOSE 57799 $E1C7
161 $A1 GET 43899 $AB7B
162 $A2 NEW 42562 $A642
41042-41087 $A052-$A07F FUNDSP
TABLE
Function Dispatch Vector Table
This table contains two-byte vectors, each of which points to the
address of one of the routines that performs a BASIC function.
A function is distinguished by a following argument, in parentheses.
The expression in the parentheses is first evaluated by the routines
which begin at 44446 ($AD9E). Then this table is used to find the
address of the function that corresponds to the token number of the
function to be executed.
The substance of this table, which can be used for locating the
addresses of these routines, is reproduced below. Note that the
address for the USR function is 784 ($310), which is the address of
the JMP instruction which precedes the user-supplied vector.
Token # Function Routine Address
180 $B4 SGN 48185 $BC39
181 $B5 INT 48332 $BCCC
182 $B6 ABS 48216 $BC58
183 $B7 USR 784 $0310
184 $B8 FRE 45949 $B37D
185 $B9 POS 45982 $B39E
186 $BA SQR 49009 $BF71
187 $BB RND 57495 $E097
188 $BC LOG 45794 $B9EA
189 $BD EXP 49133 $BFED
180 $BE COS 57956 $E264
191 $BF SIN 57963 $E26B
192 $C0 TAN 58036 $E2B4
193 $C1 ATN 58126 $E30E
194 $C2 PEEK 47117 $B80D
195 $C3 LEN 46972 $B77C
196 $C4 STR$ 46181 $B465
197 $C5 VAL 47021 $B7AD
198 $C6 ASC 46987 $B78B
199 $C7 CHR$ 46828 $B6EC
200 $C8 LEFT$ 46848 $B700
201 $C9 RIGHT$ 46892 $B72C
202 $CA MID$ 46903 $B737
41088-41117 $A080-$A09D OPTAB
Operator Dispatch Vector Table
This table contains two-byte vectors, each of which points to an
address which is one byte before the address of one of the routines
that perform a BASIC math operation.
For the reasoning behind the one-byte offset to the true address, see
the entry for location 40972 ($A00C). In addition, each entry has a
one-byte number which indicates the degree of precedence that
operation takes. Operations with a higher degree of precedence are
performed before operations of a lower degree (for example, in the
expression A=3+4*6, the 4*6 operation is performed first, and 3 is
added to the total). The order in which they are performed is:
1. Expressions in parentheses
2. Exponentation (raising to a power, using the up-arrow symbol)
3. Negation of an expression (-5, -A)
4. Multiplication and division
5. Addition and subtraction
6. Relation tests (=, <>, <, >, <=, >= all have the same precedence)
7. NOT (logical operation)
8. AND (logical operation)
9. OR (logical operation)
The substance of this table, which can be used to locate the addresses
of the math routines, is given below. Note that less that, equal, and
greater than operators all use the same routines, though they have
different token numbers.
Token # Operator Routine Address
170 $AA + (ADD) 47210 $B86A
171 $AB - (SUBTRACT) 47187 $B853
172 $AC * (MULTIPLY) 47659 $BA2B
173 $AD / (DIVIDE) 47890 $BB12
174 $AE ^ (EXPONENTIATE) 49019 $BF7B
175 $AF AND (LOGICAL AND) 45033 $AFE9
176 $B0 OR (LOGICAL OR) 45030 $AFE6
177 $B1 > (GREATER THAN) 49076 $BFB4
178 $B2 = (EQUAL TO) 44756 $AED4
179 $B3 < (LESS THAN) 45078 $B016
41118-41373 $A09E-$A19D RESLST
List of Keywords
This table contains a complete list of the reserved BASIC keywords
(those combinations of ASCII text characters that cause BASIC to do
something). The ASCII text characters of these words are stored in
token number order. Bit #7 of the last letter of each word is set to
indicate the end of the word (the last letter has 128 added to its
true ASCII value).
When the BASIC program text is stored, this list of words is used to
reduce any keywords to a single-byte value called a token. The
command PRINT, for example, is not stored in a program as five ASCII
bytes, but rather as the single token 153 ($99).
When the BASIC program is listed, this table is used to convert these
tokens back to ASCII text. The entries in this table consist of the
following:
1. The statements found in STMDSP at 40972 ($A00C), in the token
number order indicated (token numbers 128-162).
2. Some miscellaneous keywords which never begin a BASIC statement:
Token # Keyword
162 $A3 TAB(
164 $A4 TO
165 $A5 FN
166 $A6 SPC(
167 $A7 THEN
168 $A8 NOT
169 $A9 STEP
3. The math operators found in OPTAB at 41088 ($A080), in the token
number order indicated (token numbers 170-179).
4. The functions found in FUNDSP at 41042 ($A052), in the token
number order indicated (token numbers 182-202).
5. The word GO (token number 203 ($CB)). This word was added to the
table to make the statement GO TO legal, to afford some compatibility
with the very first PET BASIC, which allowed spaces within keywords.
41374-41767 $A19E-$A327 ERRTAB
ASCII Text of BASIC Error Messages
This table contains the ASCII text of all of the BASIC error messages.
As in the keyword table, Bit 7 of the last letter of each message is
set to indicate the end of the message. Although we've all seen some
of them at one time or another, it's somewhat daunting to see the
whole list at once. The possible errors you can make include:
1. TOO MANY FILES
2. FILE OPEN
3. FILE NOT OPEN
4. FILE NOT FOUND
5. DEVICE NOT PRESENT
6. NOT INPUT FILE
7. NOT OUTPUT FILE
8. MISSING FILENAME
9. ILLEGAL DEVICE NUMBER
10. NEXT WITHOUT FOR
11. SYNTAX
12. RETURN WITHOUT GOSUB
13. OUT OF DATA
14. ILLEGAL QUANTITY
15. OVERFLOW
16. OUT OF MEMORY
17. UNDEF'D STATEMENT
18. BAD SUBSCRIPT
19. REDIM'D ARRAY
20. DIVISION BY ZERO
21. ILLEGAL DIRECT
22. TYPE MISMATCH
23. STRING TOO LONG
24. FILE DATA
25. FORMULA TOO COMPLEX
26. CAN'T CONTINUE
27. UNDEF'D FUNCTION
28. VERIFY
29. LOAD
Message number 30, BREAK, is located in the Miscellaneous Messages
table below.
41768-41828 $A328-$A364
Error Message Vector Table
This table contains the two-byte address of the first letter of each
of the 30 error messages.
41829-41865 $A365-$A389
Miscellaneous Messages
The text of some of the other messages that BASIC can give you is
stored here. This text includes cursor movement characters, and each
message ends with a 0 character. The messages are:
1) Carriage return, OK, carriage return
2) Space, space, ERROR
3) Space, IN, space
4) Carriage return, linefeed, READY., carraige return, linefeed
5) Carriage return, linefeed, BREAK
41866-41911 $A38A-$A3B7 FNDFOR
Find FOR on Stack
This routine searches the stack for the blocks of data entries which
are stored by each FOR command. For more information on the data that
FOR places on the stack, see location 256 ($100).
41912 $A3B8 BLTU
Open a Space in Memory for a New Program Line or Variable
When a new nonarray variable is being created, or when a BASIC program
line is being added or replaced, this routine is used to make room for
the addition. It first checks to see if space is available, and then
moves the program text and/or variables to make room.
41979-41991 $A3FB-$A407 GETSTK
Check for Space on Stack
Before undertaking an operation that requires stack space, this
routine is used to check if there is enough room on the stack. If
there is not, an OUT OF MEMORY error is issued.
41992-42036 $A408-$A434 REASON
Check for Space in Memory
This is the subroutine that checks to see if there is enough space in
free memory for proposed additions such as new lines of program text.
If not, it calls for garbage collection, and if this still does not
produce enough space, an OUT OF MEMORY error is issued.
42037-42088 $A435-$A468 OMERR
OUT OF MEMORY Error Handler
This routine just sets the error message code, and falls through to
the general error handler.
42039-42088 $A437-$A468 ERROR
General Error Handler
The error number is passed to this routine in the .X register, and it
displays the appropriate error message. Since this routine is
vectored through RAM at 768 ($300), you can divert this vector to the
address of your own routine, which would allow error trapping, or the
addition of new commands.
42089-42099 $A474-$A47F READY
Print READY
This routine displays the word READY, sets the Kernal message flag to
show that direct mode is operative, and falls through to the main
BASIC loop.
42112-42139 $A480-$A49B MAIN
Main Loop, Receives Input and Executes Immediately or Stores as
Program Line
This is the main BASIC program loop. It jumps through the RAM vector
at 770 ($302), so this routine can be diverted. The routine gets a
line of input from the keyboard, and checks for a line number. If
there is a line number, the program branches to the routine that
stores a line of program text. If there is no line number, it
branches to the routine that executes statements.
42140 $A49C MAIN1
Add or Replace a Line of Program Text
This routine calls subroutines to get the line number, tokenize
keywords, and then looks for a line with the same line number.
If it finds a line with the same number, the routine deletes that line
by moving all higher program text and variables down to where it
started. The new line is then added. Since the CLR routine is
called, the value of all current program variables is lost.
42291 $A533 LINKPRG
Relink Lines of Tokenized Program Text
Each line of program text starts with a pointer to the address of the
next line (link address). This routine scans each line to the end
(which is marked with a 0), and calculates the new link address by
adding the offset to the address of the current statement.
42336 $A560 INLIN
Input a Line to Buffer from Keyboard
This subroutine calls the Kernal CHRIN routine (61783, $F157) to
obtain a line of input from the current input device (usually the
keyboard). It stores the characters in the BASIC text input buffer at
512 ($200) until a carriage return or 89 characters have been
received. The keyboard device will never return more than 80
characters before a carriage return, but other devices can output a
longer line. An error will occur if the line goes over 80 characters.
42361 $A579 CRUNCH
Tokenize Line in Input Buffer
When a line of program text has been input into the BASIC text buffer
at 512 ($200), this routine goes through the line and changes any
keywords or their abbreviations, which do not appear in quotes, into
their corresponding token. This command is vectored through RAM at
772 ($304), so it can be diverted in order to add new commands.
42515 $A613 FINDLN
Search for Line Number
This routine searches through the program text, trying to match the
two-byte integer line number that is stored in 20-21 ($14-$15). If it
is found, 95-96 ($5F-$60) will be set as a pointer to the address of
the link field for that line, and the Carry flag will be set. If it
is not found, the Carry flag will be cleared.
42562 $A642 SCRTCH
Perform NEW
The NEW command stores two zeros in the link address of the first
program line to indicate the end of program, and sets the end of
program pointer at 45-46 ($2D-$2E) to point to the byte past those
zeros. It continues through to the CLR command code.
42590 $A65E CLEAR
Perform CLR
The CLR command closes all I/O files with the Kernal CLALL routine
(62255, $F32F). It eliminates string variables by copying the end of
memory pointer at 55-56 ($37-$38) to the bottom of strings pointer at
51-52 ($33-$34). It also copies the pointer to the end of BASIC
program text at 49-50 ($31-$31) to the pointer to the start of
nonarray variables at 45-46 ($2D-$2E) and the start of array variables
at 47-48 ($2F-$30). This makes these variables unusable (although the
contents of these areas are not actually erased). RESTORE is called
to set the data pointer back to the beginning, and the stack is
cleared.
42638 $A68E RUNC
Reset Pointer to Current Text Character to the Beginning of Program
Text
This routine resets the CHRGET pointer TXTPTR (122-123, $7A-$7B) so
that the next byte of text that the interpreter will read comes from
the beginning of program text.
52652 $A69C LIST
Perform LIST
This routine saves the range of lines to be printed in pointers at
95-96 ($5F- $60) and 20-21 ($14-$15), and then prints them out,
translating any tokens back to their ASCII equivalent.
42775 $A717 QPLOP
Print BASIC Tokens as ASCII Characters
This is the part of the LIST routine that chagnes one-byte program
tokens back to their ASCII text characters. The routine is vectored
through RAM at 774 ($306), so it is possible to list out new command
words that you have added by changing this vector to detour through
your own routine.
42818 $A742 FOR
Perform FOR
FOR is performed mostly by saving the needed information for the NEXT
part of the command on the stack (see the entry for 256 ($100) for
details). This includes the TO termination value, so if the upper
limit is a variable, the current value of the variable will be stored,
and you cannot end the loop early by decreasing the value of the TO
variable within the loop (although you can end it early by increasing
the value of the FOR variable within the loop).
Also, since the TO expression is evaluated only once, at the time FOR
is performed, a statement such as FOR I=1 TO I+100 is valid. The
terminating value is not checked until NEXT is executed, so the loop
statements always execute at least once. The variable used by FOR
must be a nonarray floating point variable. Reusing the same FOR
variable in a loop that is still active will cause the previous FOR
loop and all intervening loops to be cancelled.
42926 $A7AE NEWSTT
Set Up Next Statement for Execution
This routine tests for the STOP key, updates the pointer to the
current line number, and positions the text pointer to read the
beginning of the statement.
42980 $A7E4 GONE
Read and Execute the Next Statement
This is the routine which gets the next token and executes the
statement. It is vectored through RAM at 776 ($308) to allow the
addition and execution of new statement tokens.
Since a statement must always start with a token or an implied LET
statement, this routine checks to see if the first character is a
valid token. If it is, the address is placed on the stack, so that a
call to CHRGET will return to the address of the code that executes
the statement (see the table of statement tokens at 40972 ($A00C)).
An invalid token will cause a SYNTAX ERROR. A character whose ASCII
value is less that 128 will cause LET to be executed.
43037 $A81D RESTOR
Perform RESTORE
The RESTORE command simply resetes the DATA pointer at 65-66 ($41-$42)
from the start of BASIC pointer at 43-44 ($2B-$2V).
43052 $A82C
Test STOP Key for Break in Program
The Kernal STOP routine is called from here, and if the key is
pressed, the STOP (63213, $F6ED) command, below, is executed.
43055 $A831 END
Perform END
The current line number and text pointers are preserved for a possible
CONT command, and the READY prompt is printed. If a STOP key break
occured, the BREAK message is printed first.
43095 $A857 CONT
Perform CONT
The CONT statement is performed by moving the saved pointers back to
the current statement and current text character pointers. If the
saved pointers cannot be retrieved, the CAN'T CONTINUE error statement
is printed.
43121 $A871 RUN
Perform RUN
RUN is executed by calling the Kernal SETMSG (65048, $FE18) routine to
set the message flag for RUN mode and performing a CLR to start the
program. If a line followed RUN, a GOTO is executed after the CLR.
43139 $A883 GOSUB
Perform GOSUB
This statement pushes the pointers to the current text character and
current line onto the stack, along with a constant 141 ($8D) which
identifies the block as saved GOSUB information to be used by RETURN.
The GOTO is called.
43168 $A8A0 GOTO
Perform GOTO
This statement scans BASIC for the target line number (the scan starts
with the current line if the target line number is higher, otherwise
it starts with the first line). When the line is found, the pointers
to the current statement and text character are changed, so that the
target statement will be executed next.
43218 $A8D2 RETURN
Perform RETURN
The RETURN statement finds the saved GOSUB data on the stack, and uses
it to restore the pointers to the current line and current character.
This will cause execution to continue where it left off when GOSUB was
executed.
43256 $A8F8 DATA
Perform DATA
DATA uses the next subroutine to find the offset to the next
statement, and adds the offset to the current pointers so that the
next statement will be executed. If effect, it skips the statement,
much like REM.
43270 $A906 DATAN
Search Program Text for the End of the Current BASIC Statement
This routine starts at the current byte of program text and searches
until it finds a zero character (line delimiter) or a colon character
that is not in quotes (statement delimiter).
43304 $A928 IF
Perform IF
IF uses the FRMEVL routine at 44446 ($AD9E) to reduce the expression
which follows to a single term. If the expression evaluates to 0
(false), the routine falls through to REM. If it is not 0, GOTO or
the statement following THEN is executed.
43323 $A93B REM
Perform REM
The REM statement is executed by skipping all program text until the
beginning of the next statement. It is actually a part of the IF
statement, which continues for a few bytes after the REM part.
43339 $A94B ONGOTO
Perform ON GOTO or ON GOSUB
ON is performed by converting the argument to an integer, and then
skipping a number between commas each time that the integer is
decremented until the argument reaches 0. If a GOTO or GOSUB is the
next token, the current number between commas is used to execute one
of those statements. If the numbers between commas are used up before
the argument reaches 0, the statement has no effect, and the next
statement is executed.
43371 $A96B LINGET
Convert an ASCII Decimal Number to a Two-Byte Binary Line Nmumber
This subroutine is used by several statements to read a decimal
number, convert it to a two-byte integer line number (in low-byte,
high-byte format), and check that it is in the correct range of
0-63999.
43429 $A9A5 LET
Perform LET
The LET command causes variables to be created and initialized, or to
have a new value assigned. It handles all types of array or nonarray
variables: strings, floating point, integers, ST, TI, and TI$. The
routine is composed of several subroutines that evaluate the variable,
evaluate the assigned expression, check that the assigned value is
suitable for a variable of that type, and then assign a value to the
existing variable, or create a new variable.
43648 $AA80 PRINTN
Perform PRINT#
The PRINT# statement calls CMD and then closes the output channel with
the Kernal CLRCHN routine (62259, $F333).
43654 $AA86 CMD
Perform CMD
This routine calls the Kernal CHKOUT routine (62032, $F250), and calls
PRINT to send any included text to the device. Unlike PRINT# it
leaves the output channel open, so that output continues to go to that
device.
43680 $AAA0 PRINT
Perform PRINT
The PRINT routine has many segments, which are required for the
various options which can be added to it: TAB, SPC, comman,
semicolon, variables, PI, ST, TI, and TI$. Eventually, all output is
converted to strings, and the Kernal CHROUT routine is called to print
each character.
43806 $AB1E STROUT
Print Message from a String Whose Address Is in the .Y and .A
Registers
This part of the PRINT routine outputs a string whose address is in
the Accumulator (low byte) and .Y register (high byte), and which ends
in a zero byte.
43853 $AB4D DOAGIN
Error Message Formatting Routines for GET, INPUT, and READ
43899 $AB7B GET
Perform GET and GET#
The GET routine first makes sure that the program is not in direct
mode. It opens an input channel using the Kernal CHKIN routine
(61966, $F20E) if a number sign was added to make GET#. Then it calls
the common I/O routines in READ to get a single character, and causes
the input channel to be closed if one was opened.
43941 $ABA5 INPUTN
Perform INPUT#
This routine opens an input channel with the Kernal CHKIN routine,
calls INPUT, and then closes the channel with a CHKOUT routine (62032,
$F250). Extra data is discarded without an EXTRA IGNORED message, and
a FILE DATA ERROR message is issued when the data type is not suitable
for the type of variable used.
43967 $ABBF INPUT
Perform INPUT
The INPUT routine checks to make sure that direct mode is not active,
prints prompts, receives a line of input from the device, and jumps to
the common code in READ that assigns the input to the variables which
were named.
44038 $AC06 READ
Perform READ
This routine includes the READ command and common code for GET and
INPUT. The READ command locates the next piece of DATA, reads the
text, and converts it to the appropriate type of data to be assigned
to a numeric or string variable.
44284 $ACFC EXIGNT
ASCII Text for Input Error Messages
The text stored here is ?EXTRA IGNORED and ?REDO FROM START, each
followed by a carriage return and a zero byte.
44318 $AD1E NEXT
Perform NEXT
NEXT is executed by finding the appropriate FOR data on the stack,
adding the STEP value to the FOR variable, and comparing the result to
the TO value. If the loop is done, the stack entries for that FOR
command are removed from the stack. If the loop hasn't reached its
limit, the pointers to the current statement and text character are
updated from the FOR stack entry, which causes execution to continue
with the statement after the FOR statement.
44426 $AD8A FRMNUM
Evaluate a Numeric Expression and/or Check for Data Type Mismatch
This routine can be called from different entry points to check the
current data against the desired data type (string or numeric) to see
if they match. If they don't, a TYPE MISMATCH error will result.
44446 $AD9E FRMEVAL
Evaluate Expression
This is the beginning point of a very powerful group of subroutines
which are used extensively by BASIC.
The main purpose of these routines is to read in the ASCII text of
BASIC expressions, separate the operators and terms of the expression,
check them for errors, combine the individual terms by performing the
indicated operations, and obtain a single value which the BASIC
program can use.
This can be a very complex task, and expressions an be of the string
or numeric type, and can contain any type of variable, as well as
constants.
At the end, the flag which shows whether the resulting value is string
or numeric at 13 ($D) is set, and if the value is numeric, the flag at
14 ($E) is set as well, to show if it is an integer or floating point
numer.
44675 $AE83 EVAL
Convert a Single Numeric Term from ASCII Text to a Floating Point
Number
This routine reduces a single arithmetic term which is part of an
expression from ASCII text to its floating point equivalent.
If the term is a constant, the routine sets the data type flag to
number, sets the text pointer to the first ASCII numeric character,
and jumps to the routine which converts the ASCII string to a floating
point number.
If the term is a variable, the variable value is retrieved. If it is
the PI character, the value of PI is moved into the Floating Point
Accumulator.
This routine is vectored through RAM at 778 ($30A).
44712 $AEA8 PIVAL
PI Expressed as a Five-Byte Floating Point Number
The value of PI is stored here as a five-byte floating point number.
44785 $AEF1 PARCHK
Evaluate Expression Within Parentheses
This routine evaluates an expression within parentheses by calling the
syntax checking routines that look for opening and closing
parentheses, and then calling FRMEVL (4446, $AD9E) for each level of
parentheses.
44791 $AEF7 CHKCLS
Check for and Skip Closing Parentheses
44794 $AEFA CHKOPN
Check for and Skip Opening Parentheses
44799 $AEFF CHKCOM
Check for and Skip Comma
This syntax checking device is the same in substance as the two
checking routines above. It is used when the next character should be
a comma. If it is not, a SYNTAX ERROR retults. If it is, the
character is skipped and the next character is read. Any character
can be checked for and skipped this way by loading the character into
the Accumulator and entering this routine from SYNCHR at 44799
($AEFF).
44808 $AF08 SNERR
Print Syntax Error Message
44843 $AF2B ISVAR
Get the Value of a Variable
44967 $AFA7 ISFUN
Dispatch and Evaluate a Function
If a BASIC function (like ASC("A")) is part of an expression, this
routine will use the function dispatch table at 42242 ($A502) to set
up the address of th proper function routine, and then branch to that
routine.
45030 $AFE6 OROP
Perform OR
The OR routine sets the .Y register as a flag, and falls through to
the AND routine, which also performs OR.
45033 $AFE9 ANDOP
Perform AND
The AND routine changes the parameters to two-byte integer values, and
performs the appropriate logical operation (AND or OR). A result of 0
signifies false, while a result of -1 signifies true.
45078 $B016 DORE1
Perform Comparisons
This routine does the greater than (>), less than (<), and equal (=)
comparisons for foating point numbers and strings. The result in the
Floating Point Accumulator will be 0 if the comparison is false, and
-1 if it is true.
45185 $B018 DIM
Perform DIM
This command calls the next routine to create an array for every
variable dimensioned (since a statement can take the form DIM A(12),
B(13), C(14)...). If the array element is referenced before a DIM
statement (for example, A(3)=4), the array will be dimensioned to 10
(as if DIM A(10) were executed). Remember, DIMensioning an array to
10 really creates 11 elements (10). The 0 element should always be
considered in calculating the size to DIMension your array.
45195 $B08B PTRGET
Search for a Variable and Set It Up If It Is Not Found
This routine attempts to locate a variable by searching for its name
in the variable area. If an existing variable of that name cannot be
found, one is created with the NOTFNS routine below.
45331 $B113
Check If .A Register Holds Alphabetic ASCII Character
This is part of the check for a valid variable name (it must start
with an alphabetic character).
45341 $B11D NOTFNS
Create a New BASIC Variable
This routine makes space for a seven-byte descriptor by moving the
variable storage area seven bytes higher in memory, and then creates
the descriptor.
45445 $B185 FINPTR
Return the Address of the Variable That Was Found or Created
This routine stores the address of the variable that was found or
created by the preceding routines in a pointer at 71-72 ($47-$48).
45460 $B194 ARYGET
Allocate Space for Array Descriptors
This routine allocates five bytes plus two bytes for every dimension
specified for the array descriptor.
45477 $B1A5 N32768
The Constant -32768 in Five-Byte Floating Point Format
This constant is used for range checking in the conversion of a
floating point number to a signed integer (the minimum inter value is
-32768).
45482 $B1AA
Convert a Floating Point Number to a Signed Integer in .A and .Y Registers
This subroutine calls AYINT, below, which checks to make sure that the
number in the Floating Point Accumulator is between 32767 and -32768,
and converts it to a 16-bit signed integer in 100-101 ($64-$65), high
byte first. It leaves the high byte of the integer in the
Accumulator, and the low byte in the .Y register.
Although this routine does not appear to be referenced anywhere in
BASIC, the vector at locations 3-4 points to its address. Presumably,
it is provided for the benefit of the user who wishes to pass
parameters in a USR call, or the like.
45490 $B1B2 INTIDX
Input and Convert a Floating Point Subscript to a Positive Integer
This routine converts a floating point subscript value to an integer,
making sure first that it is positive.
45503 $B1BF AYINT
Convert a Floating Point Number to a Signed Integer
This subroutine first checks to make sure that the number in the
Floating Point Accumulator is between 32767 and -32768. If it is not,
an ILLEGAL QUANTITY error results. If it is, the routine converts it
to a 16-bit signed integer with the high byte in location 100 ($64),
and the low byte in location 101 ($65).
45521 $B1D1 ISARY
Find Array Element or Create New Array in RAM
This routine searches for an array. If it is found, the subscript
value is checked to see if it is valid, and pointers to the array and
element of the array are set. If it is not found, the array is
created, and the pointers set.
45637 $B245 BSERR
Print BAD SUBSCRIPT Error Message
45640 $B248 FCERR
Print ILLEGAL QUANTITY Error Message
45900 $B34C UMULT
Compute the Size of a Multidimensional Array
This routine calculates the size of a multidimensional array by
multiplying the dimensions.
45949 $B37D FRE
Perform FRE
The FRE function calls the garbage collection routine at 46374 ($B526)
to get rid of unused string text, and calculates the difference
between the bottom of string text and the top of array storage. It
then drops through to the follow routine, which assumes that the free
memory value is a 16-bit signed integer, and converts it to floating
point accordingly.
Of course, while the free memory space on the PET might have always
been 32767 or less (the maximum value of a signed integer), sich is
definitely not the case on the 64. Because conversion is from a
signed integer, any memory value over 32767 will be regarded as
negative (the high bit is treated as a sign bit). Therefore, for
these higher values you must add twice the bit value of the high bit
(65536) in order to come up with the correct value. The expression
FRE(0)-6556*(FRE(0)<0) will always return the correct amount of free
memory.
45969 $B391 GIVAYF
Convert 16-Bit Signed Integer to Floating Point
This routine treats the value in the Accumulator as the high byte of a
16-bit signed integer, and the value in the .Y register as the low
byte, and converts the signed integer into a floating point number in
the Floating Point Accumulator.
The address of this routine is pointed to by the RAM vector at 5-6,
and the routine can be used to return an argument from the USR call in
the Floating Point Accumulator.
45982 $B39E POS
Perform POS
The POS command calls the Kernal PLOT routine (58634, $E50A) to get
the position of the cursor on the logical line. What it really does
is an equivalent of PEEK(211). Remember, since we are dealing with a
logical line, this number can be over 39. The statement "THIS
SENTENCE IS LONGER THAN ONE PHYSICAL LINE";POS(X) will return a value
of 48 for the POS(X).
45990 $B3A6 ERRDIR
Check If the Program is Running in Direct Mode, and If So Issue an Error
This routine is called by statements that prohibit execution in direct
mode. It checks a flag that is set when a line without a linenumber
is entered, and causes an ILLEGAL DIRECT error if the flag is set.
46003 $B3B3 DEF
Perform DEF
DEF performs some syntax checking, and pushes five bytes onto the
stack: the first byte of the function statement, a two-byte pointer
to the dependent variable (the X in FN(X)), and the address of the
first character of the definition itself, where it resides in the
program text.
The DEF statement must fit on one line, but functions can be extended
by nesting them (having one function call another).
46049 $B3E1 GETFNM
Check DEF and FN Syntax
This routine checks to make sure that FN follow SEG, and that the
dependent variable has a valid floating point variable name. It calls
the routine to find or create a variable to get the pointer to its
address.
46068 $B3F4 FNDOER
Perform FN
The FN evaluation is done by evaluating the FN argument (for example,
FN(A+B*C/D)) and then getting the rest of the expression from the text
of the function definition statement. The function variable
descriptor area is used as a work area, and the dependent variable is
not disturbed (so that if the definition used FN(X), the value of X
will not be changed by the function call).
46181 $B465 STRD
Perform STR$
STR$ first checks to make sure that the parameter is a number, and
then calls the routines that convert floating point to ASCII and crate
the pointers to a string constant.
46215 $B487 STRLIT
Scan and Set Up Pointers to a String in Memory
This routine calculates the length of the string, and calls the
routine that allocates space in memory. It then saves the string, or
creates a pointer to its location in the BASIC text input buffer at
512 ($200).
46324 $B4F4 GETSPA
Allocate Space in Memory for String
The amount of space needed for a string is passed to this routine, and
the routine checks if there is that amount of space available in free
memory. If not, it does a garbage collection and tries again.
46374 $B526 GARBAG
String Garbage Collection
Whenever a string is changed in any way, the revised version of the
text is added to the bottom of the string text area, leaving the old
version higher up in memory, wasting space.
In order to reclaim that space, the descriptor for every string whose
text is in the string text area (rather than in the program text area)
must be searched to find the valid text that is highest in memory. If
that string is not as high as it could be, it is moved up to replace
any string that is no longer valid. Then all of the string
descriptors must be searched again to find the next highest string and
move it up. This continues until every string that is un use has been
covered. After all have been moved up, the pointer to the bottom of
string text at 51-52 ($33-$34) is changed to show the new bottom
location.
If there are more than a few strings whose text is in the string text
storage area, rather than in the body of the program, scanning every
string as many times as there are strings can take an awful lot of
time. The computer may seem as if it had died (the STOP key is not
even checked during the procedure).
The collection will take about as long whether there is any spare
space or not; the full collection will be done even if it is done
immediately after the last collection. Although the increased memory
capacity of the 64 helps to forestall the need for garbage collection,
a large program with many string arrays may still experience lengthy
collection delays.
46525 $B5BD
Check for Most Eligible String to Collect
This part of the garbage collection routine checks to see if the
current string is the highest in memory.
46598 $B606
Collect a String
This part of the garbage collection routine moves the string to high
memory and updates the descriptor to point to its new location.
46653 $B63D CAT
Concatenate Two Strings
This routine is used to add the text of one string onto the end of
another (A$+B$). Error checking is done to see if the length of the
combined string is within range, the allocation routine is called to
allocate space, and the new string is built at the bottom of the
string text area.
46714 $B67A MOVINS
Move a String in Memory
This is the routine which is used to move a string to the bottom of
the string text area for the above routine. It is generally used as a
utility routine to move strings.
46755 $B6A3 FRESTR
Discard a Temporary String
This routine calls the following routine which clears an entry from
the temporary descriptor stack. If the descriptor was on the stack,
it exits after setting pointers to the string and its length. If it
wasn't on the temporary stack and is at the bottom of string text
storage, the pointer to the bottom is moved up to deallocate the
string.
46811 $B6DB FRETMS
Remove an Entry from the String Descriptor Stack
If the descriptor of a currently valid string is the same as one of
the entries on the temporary string descriptor stack, the stack entry
is removed.
46828 $B6EC CHRD
Perform CHR$
The CHR$ routine creates a descriptor on the temporary string stack
for the one-byte string whose value is specified in the command, and
sets a pointer to that string.
46848 $B700 LEFTD
Perform LEFT$
LEFT$ creates a temporary string descriptor for a new string which
contains the number of characters from the left side of the string
that is specified in the command.
46892 $B72C RIGHTD
Perform RIGHT$
RIGHT$ manipulates its parameters so that the tail end of LEFT$ can be
used to create a temporary string descriptor for a new string. This
new string contains the number of characters from the right side of
the string that is specified in the command.
46903 $B737 MIDD
Perform MID$
MID$ manipulates its parameters so that the tail end of LEFT$ can be
used to create a temporary string descriptor for a new string. This
new string contains the number of characters from the position in the
middle of the string that is specified in the command.
46945 $B761 PREAM
Pull String Function Parameters from Stack for LEFT$, RIGHT$, and MID$
This routine is used to obtain the first two parameters for all three
of these commands.
46972 $B77C LEN
Perform LEN
The LEN function is performed by obtaining the string length from the
descriptor and converting it to a floating point number.
46987 $B78B ASC
Perform ASC
This routine gets the first character of the string in the .Y register
(if it's not a null string). Then it calls the part of POS that
converts a one- byte integer in .Y to a floating point number.
47003 $B79B GETBYTC
Input a Parameter Whose Value Is Between 0 and 255
This routine reads numeric ASCII program text, converts it to an
integer, checks that it is in the range 0-255, and stores it in the .X
register. This routine can be useful for reading parameters from a
USR statement or new commands.
47021 $B7AD VAL
Perform VAL
The VAL routine obtains the string pointer, and reads the string one
character at a time until an invalid character is found (ASCII
numbers, sign character, a single decimal point, exponent, and spaces
are all valid). Then the string is changed to floating point. If no
valid characters are found, a 0 is returned.
47083 $B7EB GETNUM
Get a 16-Bit Address Parameter and an 8-Bit Parameter (for POKE and WAIT)
This routine gets the next numeric parameter from the current place in
program text. The routine evaluates it, checks that it is a positive
integer within the range 0-65535, and changes it from floating point
to a two-byte integer in 20-21 ($14-$15). It checks for and skips a
comma, then gets a one-byte integer parameter in the .X register. The
routine is used to get the parameters for POKE an WAIT.
47095 $B7F7 GETADR
Convert a Floating Point Number to an Unsigned Two-Byte Integer
This routine checks the number in the Floating Point Accumulator to
make sure that it is a positive number less than 65536, and then calls
the subroutine which conerts floatin point to integer. It is used to
get address parameters, for commands such as PEEK.
47117 $B80D PEEK
Perform PEEK
PEEK reads the address parameter and converts it to a pointer. Then
it gets the byte pointed to into the .Y register, and calls the part
of POS that converts a single integer in .Y to a floating point
number.
47140 $B824 POKE
Perform POKE
POKE gets a pointer to the address parameter, and stores the next
parameter there.
47149 $B82D FUWAIT
Perform WAIT
WAIT gets an address parameter and an integer parameter to use as a
mask. WAIT then looks for an optional parameter to use as a pattern
for the exclusive OR. Then, the address location is read, its value
is exclusive ORed with the optional pattern value (or 0 if there is
none). This value is ANDed with the mask value. The command loops
continuously until the result is not- zero.
The purpose of this command is to allow the program to watch a
location which can be changed by the system or by outside hardware
(such as the software clock or keycode value locations).
The AND function lets you check if a bit changes from 0 to 1, while
the EOR function allows you to check if a bit changes from 1 to 0.
For more information, see the article "All About the Wait
Instruction," by Louis Sander and Doug Ferguson, in COMPUTE!'s First
Book of Commodore 64.
47177 $B849 FADDH
Add .5 to Contents of Floating Point Accumulator #1
47184 $B850 FSUB
Subtract FAC1 from a Number in Memory
This routine is used to subtract the Floating Point Accumulator from a
number in memory. It moves the number in memory into FAC2, and falls
through to the next routine.
47187 $B853 FSUBT
BASIC's Subtraction Operation
This routine subtracts the contents of FAC2 from FAC1 by complementing
its sign and adding.
47207 $B867 FADD
Add FAC1 to a Number in Memory
This routine is used to add the contents of the Floating Point
Accumulator (FAC1) to a number in memory, by moving that number into
FAC2, and falling through to the next routine.
47210 $B86A FADDT
Perform BASIC's Addition Operation
This routine adds the contents of FAC1 and FAC2 and stores the results
in FAC1.
47271 $B8A7 FADD4
Make the Result Negative If a Borrow Was Done
47358 $B8FE NORMAL
Normalize Floating Point Accumulator #1
47431 $B947 NEGFAC
Replace FAC1 with Its 2's Complement
47486 $B97E OVERR
Print Overflow Error Message
47491 $B983 MULSHF
SHIFT Routine
47548 $B9BC FONE
Floating Point Constant with a Value of 1
This five-byte floating point representation of the number 1 is stored
here for use by the floating point routines. It is also used as the
default STEP value for the FOR statement.
47553 $B9C1 LOGCN2
Table of Floating Point Constants for the LOG Function
This table of eight numeric constants in five-byte floating point
representation is used by the LOG function.
47594 $B9EA LOG
Perform LOG to Base E
The LOG to the base e of the number in FAC1 is performed here, and the
result left in FAC1.
47656 $BA28 FMULT
Multiply FAC1 with FAC2
This routine multiplies the contents of FAC1 by the contents of FAC2
and stores the result in FAC1
47705 $BA59 MLTPLY
Multiply a Byte Subroutine
This subroutine is used to repetitively add a mantissa byte of FAC2 to
FAC1 the number of times specified in the .A register.
47756 $BA8C CONUPK
Move a Floating Point Number from Memory into FAC2
This subroutine loads FAC2 from the four-byte number (three mantissa
and one sign) pointed to by the .A and .Y registers.
47799 $BAB7 MULDIV
Add Exponent of FAC1 to Exponent of FAC2
47828 $BAD4 MLDVEX
Handle Underflow or Overflow
47842 $BAE2 MUL10
Multiply FAC1 by 10
This subroutine is called to help convert a floating point number to a
series of ASCII numerals.
47865 $BAF9 TENC
The Constant 10 in Five-Byte Floating Format
47870 $BAFE DIV10
Divide FAC1 by 10
47887 $BB0F FDIV
Divide a Number in Memory by FAC1
This number in memory is stored to FAC2, and this routine falls
through to the next.
47890 $BB12 FDIVT
Divide FAC2 by FAC1
This routine is used to divide the contents of FAC2 by the contents of
FAC1, with the result being stored in FAC1. A check for division by 0
is made before dividing.
48034 $BBA2 MOVFM
Move a Floating Point Number from Memory to FAC1
This routine loads FAC1 with the five-byte floating point number
pointed to by the address stored in the Accumulator (low byte) and the
.Y register (high byte).
48071 $BBC7 MOV2F
Move a Floating Point Number from FAC1 to Memory
This routine is used to move a number from the Floating Point
Accumulator (FAC1) to memory at either 92-96 ($5C-$60) or 87-91
($57-$5B), depending on the entry point to the routine.
48124 $BBFC MOVFA
Move a Floating Point Number from FAC2 to FAC1
48140 $BC0C MOVAF
Round and Move a Floating Point Number from FAC1 to FAC2
48143 $BC0F MOVEF
Copy FAC1 to FAC2 Without Rounding
48155 $BC1B ROUND
Round Accumulator #1 by Adjusting the Rounding Byte
If doubling the rounding byte at location 112 ($70) makes it greater
than 128, the value of FAC1 is increased by 1.
48171 $BC2B SIGN
Put the Sign of Accumulator #1 into .A Register
On exit from this routine the Accumulator will hold a 0 if FAC1 is 0,
a 1 if it is positive, and a value of 255 ($FF) if it is negative.
48185 $BC39 SGN
Perform SGN
The SGN routine calls the above routine to put the sign of FAC1 into
.A, and then converts that value into a floating point number in FAC1.
48216 $BC58 ABS
Perform ABS
The FAC1 sign byte at 102 ($66) is shifted right by this command, so
that the top bit is a 0 (positive).
48219 $BC5B FCOMP
Compare FAC1 to Memory
On entry to this routine, .A and .Y point to a five-byte floating
point number to be compared to FAC1. After the comparison, .A holds 0
if the two are equal, a 1 if the value of FAC1 is greater than that in
the memory location, and 255 ($FF) if the value of FAC1 is less than
that in the memory location.
48283 $BC9B QINT
Convert FAC1 into Integer Within FAC1
This routine converts the value in FAC1 into a four-byte signed
integer in 98- 101 ($62-$65), with the most significant byte first.
48332 $BCCC INT
Perform INT
This routine removes the fractional part of a floating point number by
calling the routine above to change it to an integer, and then
changing the integer back to floating point format.
48371 $BCF3 FIN
Convert an ASCII String to a Floating Point Number FAC1
This routine is called by VAL to evaluate and convert an ASCII string
to a floating point number.
48510 $BD7E FINLOG
Add Signed Integer to FAC1
This routine is used to add an ASCII digit that has been converted to
a signed integer to FAC1.
48563 $BDB3 NO999
This table of three floating point constants holds the values
99,999,999.5, 999,999,999.5 and 1,000,000,000. These values are used
in converting strings to floating point numbers.
48576 $BDC0 INPRT
Print IN Followed by a Line Number
48589 $BDCD LINPRT
Output a Number in ASCII Decimal Digits
This routine is used to output the line number for the routine above.
It converts thenumber whose high byte is in .A and whose low byte is
in .X to a floating point number. It also calls the routine below,
which converts the floating point number to an ASCII string.
48605 $BDDD FOUT
Convert Contents of FAC1 to ASCII String
This routine converts a floating point number to a string of ASCII
digits, and sets a pointer to the string in .A and .Y.
48913 $BF11 FHALF
The Constant Value 1/2 in Five-Byte Floating Point Notation
This constant is used for rounding and SQR.
48924 $BF1C FOUTBL
Powers of Minus Ten Constants Table
This table contains the powers of -10 expressed as four-byte floating
point numbers (that is, -1; +10; -100; +1000; -10,000; +100,000;
-1,000,000; +10,000,000; and -100,000,000).
48954 $BF3A FDCEND
Table of Constants for TI$ Conversion
This table contains the floating point representation of the powers of
-60 multiplied by 1 or 10. These constants are used for converting
TI$ to ASCII.
48978 $BF52
Unused area
This unused area is filled with byts of 170 ($AA).
49009 $BF71 SQR
Perform SQR
This routine moves the contents of FAC1 to FAC2, moves the constant
0.5 to FAC1, and falls through to the exponentation routine.
49019 $BF7B FPWRT
Performs Exponentation (Power Calculation Called for by UPARROW)
This routine raises the value in FAC2 to the power in FAC1 and leaves
the result in FAC1.
49076 $BFB4 NEGOP
Perform NOT and >
This negates the Floating Point Accumulator by exclusive ORing the
sign byte with a constant of 255 ($FF). Zero is left unchanged. The
results of this command follow rom the formula NOT X=-(X+1).
Therefore, if you NOT a tatement that is true (-1), you get 0 (false).
49087 $BFBF EXPCON
Table of Constants for EXP and LOG in Five-Byte Floating Point Format
These tables are used to calculate 2 to the N power.
49133 $BFED EXP
Perform EXP
This routine calculates the natural logarithm e (2.718281828...)
raised to the power in FAC1. The result is left in FAC1.
This routine is split between the BASIC ROM wich ends at 49151 ($BFFF)
and the Kernal ROM which begins at 57344 ($E000). Therefore, a JMP
$E000 instruction is tacked on to the end, which makes the BASIC
routines in the 64 Kernal ROM three bytes higher in memory than the
corresponding VIC-20 routines.
49152-53247 $C000-$CFFF
4K Free RAM
Locations 49152 to 53247 ($C000 to $CFFF) are free RAM. Since this
area is not contiguous with the BASIC program text RAM area, it is not
available for BASIC program or variable storage (it is not counted in
the FRE(0) total).
This area is fully available for any other use, however, sudh as
storing machine language subroutines for use with BASIC, alternate I/O
drivers for parallel or IEEE devices, character graphics or sprite
data, etc.
This large free area is such a tempting spot for system additions that
many such applications may be competing for the same RAM space. For
example, the Universal Wedge DOS Support program that adds easy access
to the disk communications channel is usually loaded at 52224 ($CC00).
Programs that use that part of RAM will therefore overwrite the DOS
support program, with the result that they may not run correctly, or
even at all. Likewise, Simon's BASIC, the extended language which
Commodore has released on cartridge, uses several locations in this
range. Be aware of this potential problem when you buy hardware
additions that use this spot to hook into the system.
::::::::::::::::::::
:: Chapter 6 ::
:: ::
::VIC-II, SID, I/O::
:: Devices, Color ::
:: RAM, and ::
:: Character ROM ::
::::::::::::::::::::
53248-57343 $D000-$DFFF
This 4K block of memory is used for several key functions. Normally,
the 6510 microprocessor addresses the two Complex Interface Adapter
(CIA) Input/Output chips here, along with the VIC-II video controller
chip, the Sound Interface Device (SID) music synthesizer, and the
Color RAM.
Alternatively, the 6510 can address the character ROM here (though
normally only the VIC-II chip has access to it). Finally, there is
also 4K of RAM here, although to use it may require banking it in only
when necessary, as the I/O devices are needed for such niceties as
reading he keyboard, and updating the screen display.
It will appear from the map of the I/O devices below that many of the
locations are not accounted for. That is beause these devices tie up
more addressing space than they actually use. Each of them uses only
a few addresses, mostly on the bit level.
The missing addresses either consist of images of the hardware
registers, or cannot be addressed in this configuration. In addition,
some address space is left open for the use of future hardware devices
which might be plugged into the expansion port, like the CP/M card.
As mentioned above, memory usage by these I/O devices is to intensive
that to work with them often requires that you turn individual bits on
and off. Here is a quick reminder of how to manipulate bits.
The bit values for each bit are:
Bit 0 = 1
Bit 1 = 2
Bit 2 = 4
Bit 3 = 8
Bit 4 = 16
Bit 5 = 32
Bit 6 = 64
Bit 7 = 128
To set a bit to 1 from BASIC, POKE address, PEEK(address) OR Bitvalue.
To reset a bit to 0 from BASIC, POKE address, PEEK(address) AND
255-Bitvalue.
53248-53294 $D000-$D02E
VIC-II Chip Registers
The Video Interface Controller (VIC-II chip) is a specially designed
processor that is in charge of the 64's video display. It is this
chip which makes possible the 64's wide range of graphics
capabilities.
The VIC-II chip's ability to address memory is independent of the 6510
microprocessor. It can address only 16K at a time, and any of the
four blocks of 16K can be chosen for video memory. The system default
is for it to use the first 16K.
All of the video display memory, character dot data, and sprite shapes
must be stored within the chosen 16K block. Locations 53248-53294
($D000-$D02E) are registers which allow the user to communicate with
the VIC-II chip. Although for the most part they can be written to
and read like ordinary memory locations, their contents directly
control the video display. Since many of these locations work in
close conjunction with others, a general overview of some of the
different graphics systems on the 64 is in order.
The most familiar type of graphics display is the ordinary text that
appears when you turn the machine on. The area of RAM which is
displayed on the screen is determined by the Video Matrix Base Address
Nybble of the VIC-II Memory Control Register (53272, $D018). The
address of the dot-data which is used to assign a shape to each text
character based on an 8 by 8 matrix of lit or unlit dots is determined
by the other half of the Memory Control Register at 53272 ($D018).
More information on how the data is used to represent the character
shapes may be found at the alternate entry for 49152 ($C000), the
Character Generator ROM.
Text character graphics may employ one of the two sets of text and
graphics characters in the Character Generator ROM, or the user may
substitute a completely different set of graphics or text characters
in RAM.
Normally, the text graphics screen uses a background color which is
common to all text characters, and that value is stored in Background
Color Register 0 (53281, $D021). The color of the frame around the
screen is determined by the Border Color Register at 53280 ($D020).
The color of each character is determined by one nybble of the Color
RAM which starts at 55296 ($D800). There are, however, two variations
which alter this scheme somewhat.
The first is called multicolor text mode, and is set by Bit 4 of 53270
($D016). Instead of each bit selecting either the foreground or the
background color for each dot in the character, bit-pairs are used to
select one of four colors for each double-width dot. This results in
the horizontal resolution being cut to four dots across per character,
but allows two extra colors to be introduced from Background Color
Registers 1 and 2 (53282-53283, $D022-$D023).
The other text mode is called Extended Background Color Mode. In this
mode, the foreground color is always selected by the Color RAM. The
background color depends on the actual screen code of the character.
In this mode, only the first 64 character shapes are available, but
each can have one of four different background colors.
The background color for each character is determined by its screen
code as follows:
1. If the screen code is from 0-63 (this includes the normal
alphanumerics), the value in Background Color Register 0 (53281,
$D021) will determine the background color, as is usual.
2. Characters with codes 64-255 will have the same shape as the
corresponding character in the group with codes 0-63.
3. For characters with codes 64-127 (SHIFTed characters), the
background colors are deterined by the value in Background Color
Register 1 (53282, $D022).
4. The value in Background Color Register 2 (53283, $D023) is used
for characters with codes 128-191 (reversed alphanumerics).
5. For characters with codes 192-255, the value in Background Color
Register 3 (53284, $D024) is used to determine the background color.
In place of the normal text mode, a bitmap graphics mode is also
abailable by setting Bit 5 of location 53265 ($D011). In this mode,
each bit of data determines whether one dot on the screen will be set
to either the background color or foreground color. Within an 8 by 8
dot area, the foreground and background colors may be individually
selected.
The bitmap area is 320 dots wide and 200 dots high. The area which
contains the graphics data, the bitmap, is determined by the Character
Dot Data Base Address in the lower nybble of the VIC-II Memory Control
Register (53272, $D018). The Video Matrix Base Address in the upper
nybble, which normally determines which area of memory will be
displayed, instead determines where the color memory for each 8 by 8
ground of dots will be located.
The Color RAM is not used for high-resolution bitmap graphics. But
multicolor mode is also available for bitmap graphics, and it uses the
Color RAM to determine the foreground color of each dot.
As with multicolor text mode, the horizontal resolution is but in half
(to 160 dots across), so that in addition to the foreground and
background colors, each dot can be one of two other colors as well.
This mode gets the value for the two extra colors from the two nybbles
of each byte of bitmap color memory, the location of which is
determined by the Video Matrix Base Address.
Multicolor text mode offers four colors, three of which will be common
to all characters, and one of which can be selected individually.
Multicolor bitmap mode offers a choice of four colors, three of which
can be individually selected within an 8 by 8 dot area.
The 64 also contains an entirely separate graphics system, whose
character shapes, colors, and positions are derived and displayed
without any reference to the Video Matrix and Character Dot-Data
addresses. Best of all, these characters may be moved quickly and
easily to any position on the screen, greatly facilitating games and
animated graphics of all types. This system is known as sprite
graphics.
Sprite graphics takes its name from the graphics characters it
displays, each of which is called a sprite. There are eight sprites,
known as Sprites 0-7. Each sprite character is 24 dots wide by 21
dots high. This is about eight times as large as a regular text
character, which is only 8 dots wide by 8 dots high.
A sprite takes its shape from 63 bytes of data in one of the 256 data
blocks, each 64 bytes long, that can fit into the 16K space which the
VIC-II chip can address. The block currently assigned to any given
sprite is determined by the Sprite Data Pointers, which are located at
the last eight bytes of the screen memory area (the default locations
are 2040-2047, $7F8-$7FF).
The first Sprite Data Pointer determines the data block used for the
shape of Sprite 0, the second for the shape of Sprite 1, etc. The
number in the pointer times 64 equals the address of the first byte of
the data block within the VIC-II addressing range.
For example, using the default values for VIC-II addressing area and
screen memory, a value of 11 in location 2040 ($7F8) would mean that
the shape of Sprite0 is determined by the data in the 63-byte block
starting at location 704 (11*64). It should be noted that it is
possible for more than one sprite to take its shape data from the same
block, so that only 64 bytes of data are required to create eight
sprites, each having the same shape.
The dot patterns of each sprite correspond to the bit patterns of the
sprite shape data. Each byte of shape data in memory consists of a
number from 0 to 255. This number can be represented by eight binary
digits of 0 or 1.
Each binary digit has a bit value that is two times greater than the
last. If the digit in the zero bit place is a 1, it has a value of 1
(we count bit places from 0 to 7). A 1 in the first bit place has a
value of 2, the second bit has a value of 4, the third has a value of
8, the fourth has a vlue of 16, the fifth a value of 32, the sixth a
value of 64, and the seventh a value of 128.
By making all of the possible combinations of 0's and 1's in all eight
bit places, and adding the bit values of every bit place that contains
a 1, we can represent every number from 0 to 255 as a series of 1's
and 0's.
If you think of every 0 as a dot having the same color as the
background, and every 1 as a dot which is the color of the sprite, you
can see how a series of bytes could be used to represent the sprite
shape.
Since each line of the sprite is 24 dots wide, it takes 3 bytes of
memory (24 bits) per line to portray its shape. Let's take a look at
a couple of sample sprite lines.
00000000 01111110 00000000 = 0, 126, 0
As you can see, the first and last bytes are all 0's, so nothing will
be displayed there. The middle byte has six 1's, so it will be
displayed as a line six dots long. By adding the values of these dix
bits (64+32+16+8+4+2), we get a byte value of 126. Let's try another
line.
00011111 11111111 11111000 = 21, 255, 248
The first byte has five bits set to 1, having values of 16, 8, 4, 2,
and 1, for a total of 31. The second byte has all bits set to 1, so
it has the maximum value of 255. The third byte also has five bits
set to 1, having values of 128, 64, 32, 16, and 8, for a total of 248.
The result is that this line of sprite data will display a line that
is 18 dots long.
We can put these two kinds of lines together to show how a large cross
might be drawn using bytes of sprite data.
000000000000000000000000 = 0, 0, 0
000000000000000000000000 = 0, 0, 0
000000000111111000000000 = 0, 126, 0
000000000111111000000000 = 0, 126, 0
000000000111111000000000 = 0, 126, 0
000000000111111000000000 = 0, 126, 0
000000000111111000000000 = 0, 126, 0
000000000111111000000000 = 0, 126, 0
000000000111111000000000 = 0, 126, 0
000111111111111111111000 = 21, 255, 248
000111111111111111111000 = 21, 255, 248
000111111111111111111000 = 21, 255, 248
000000000111111000000000 = 0, 126, 0
000000000111111000000000 = 0, 126, 0
000000000111111000000000 = 0, 126, 0
000000000111111000000000 = 0, 126, 0
000000000111111000000000 = 0, 126, 0
000000000111111000000000 = 0, 126, 0
000000000111111000000000 = 0, 126, 0
000000000000000000000000 = 0, 0, 0
000000000000000000000000 = 0,0,0
The 63 numbers, displayed three per line opposite the bit patters they
represent, are the values that would have to be put in the sprite
shape data area in order to display this cross using sprite graphics.
Even after the sprite shape data has been placed in memory, and the
Sprite Data Pointer has been set to display that block of data bytes
as the sprite shape, there are still several steps that must be taken
in order to display the sprite on the screen.
The proper bit of the Sprite Display Enable Register at 53269 ($D015)
must be set to 1 in order to turn on the sprite display. A horizontal
and vertical screen position must be selected for the sprite by means
of the horizontal and vertical position registers (53248-53264,
$D000-$D010). Finally, the color value of the sprite should be placed
in the appropriate Sprite Color Register (53287-53294, $D027-$D02E).
Once you have the sprite on the screen, animation is fairly simple to
achieve. Moving the sprite is as easy as changing the values in the
sprite position registers. Changing the sprite shape can be
accomplished by merely changing the Sprite Data Pointer to point to
another block of shape data in memory.
There are also some optional sprite graphics features available which
enhance its flexibility. Sprite expand registers allow you to make
each sprite twice as wide as normal, twice as tall, or both.
Collision detection registers let you know when a sprite shape
overlaps a regular text character or bitmap dot, or if two sprites are
touching.
If a sprite is positioned in the same place on the screen as a text
character or bitmap dot, a Priority Register allows you to choose
whether the sprite or the normal graphics will by displayed. This
enables three- dimensional effects by letting you choose whether the
sprite goes in front of or behind other objects on the screen.
Finally, any sprite may be selected for multicolor display, using the
register at location 53276 ($D01C). In this mode, as in multicolor
text and bitmap modes, pairs of bits are used to determine the color
of each double- width dot. The possible color values which may be
selected are those of Background Color Register 0, the Sprite Color
Register, or the two color values in the Sprite Multicolor Registers
at 53285-53286 ($D025-$D026).
Location Range: 53248-53264 ($D000-$D010)
Sprite Horizontal and Vertical Position Registers
These locations determine the horizontal and vertical position at
which each sprite will be displayed on the screen. Each sprite has
its own horizontal and vertical position register. In addition, all
of the sprites share a common register which is used to extend the
range of horizontal positions.
Vertical positions for each sprite range from 0 to 255, and these
indicate the vertical position of the top line of the sprite's 21-line
length. Since there are only 200 visible scan lines in the screen
display, some of these vertical positions will result in the sprite
being partially or wholly offscreen.
The visible viewing area starts at line 50 and extends to line 249.
Therefore, any sprite whose vertical psition is 29 ($1D) or less will
be completely above the visible picture. At vertical position 30
($1E), the bottom line of the sprite display becomes visible at the
top of the screen. At position 230 ($E6), the bottom line of the
sprite is lost from view off the bottom of the screen, and at vertical
position 250 ($FA), the entire sprite disappears from view off the
bottom edge of the screen.
Horizontal positioning is somewhat trickier, because the visible
display area is 320 dots wide, and one eight-bit register can hold
only 256 position values. Therefore, an additional register is needed
to hold the ninth bit of each sprite's horizontal position.
Each sprite is assigned a single bit in the Most Significant Bit of
Horizontal Position register (MSB register) at 53264 ($D010). If that
bit is set to 1, the value 256 is added to the horizontal position.
This extends the range of possible horizontal positions to 511.
In order to set a sprite's horizontal position, you must make sure
that both the values in the horizontal position register and the MSB
Register are correct. For example, if you wish to set the horizontal
position of Sprite 5 to a value of 30, you must place a value of 30 in
the Sprite 5 Horizontal Position Register (POKE 53258,30 will do it
from BASIC), and you must also clear Bit 5 of the MSB Register (POKE
53264,PEEK(53264)AND(255-16)). If you forget the MSB register, and
Bit 5 is set to 1, you will end up with position 286 instead of 30.
The horizontal position value indicates the position of the leftmost
dot of the sprite's 24-dot width. The visible display is restricted
to the 320 dot positions between positions 24 and 344. At position 0
the whole sprite is past the left edge of the visible screen. At
position 1 the righmost dot enters the display area, and at position
24 ($18) the entire sprite is displayed on screen. At position 321
($141) the rightmost dot goes past the right edge of the visible
display area, and a position 355 ($158) the whole sprite has moved out
of sight, off the right edge of the screen.
These registers are all intialized to 0 at power-up.
53248 $D000 SP0X
Sprite 0 Horizontal Position
53249 $D001 SP0Y
Sprite 0 Vertical Position
53250 $D002 SP1X
Sprite 1 Horizontal Position
53251 $D003 SP1Y
Sprite 1 Vertical Position
53252 $D004 SP2X
Sprite 2 Horizontal Position
53253 $D005 SP2Y
Sprite 2 Vertical Position
53254 $D006 SP3X
Sprite 3 Horizontal Position
53255 $D007 SP3Y
Sprite 3 Vertical Position
53256 $D008 SP4X
Sprite 4 Horizontal Position
53257 $D009 SP4Y
Sprite 4 Vertical Position
53258 $D00A SP5X
Sprite 5 Horizontal Position
53259 $D00B SP5Y
Sprite 5 Vertical Position
53260 $D00C SP6X
Sprite 6 Horizontal Position
53261 $D00D SP6Y
Sprite 6 Vertical Position
53262 $D00E SP7X
Sprite 7 Horizontal Position
53263 $D00F SP7Y
Sprite 7 Vertical Position
53264 $D010 MSIGX
Most Significant Bits of Sprites 0-7 Horizontal Position
Bit 0: Most significant bit of Sprite 0 horizontal position
Bit 1: Most significant bit of Sprite 1 horizontal position
Bit 2: Most significant bit of Sprite 2 horizontal position
Bit 3: Most significant bit of Sprite 3 horizontal position
Bit 4: Most significant bit of Sprite 4 horizontal position
Bit 5: Most significant bit of Sprite 5 horizontal position
Bit 6: Most significant bit of Sprite 6 horizontal position
Bit 7: Most significant bit of Sprite 7 horizontal position
Setting one of these bites to 1 adds 256 to the horizontal position of
the corresponding sprite. Resetting one of these bits to 0 restricts
the horizontal position of the corresponding sprite to a value of 255
or less
53265 $D011 SCROLY
Vertical Fine Scrolling and Control Register
Bits 0-2: Fine scroll display vertically by X scan lines (0-7)
Bit 3: Select a 24-row or 25-row text display (1=25 rows, 0=24 rows)
Bit 4: Blank the entire screen to the same color as the background
(0=blank)
Bit 5: Enable bitmap graphics mode (1=enable)
Bit 6: Enable extended color text mode (1=enable)
Bit 7: High bit (Bit 8) of raster compare register at 53266 ($D012)
This is one of the two important multifunction control registers on
the VIC-II chip. Its defaule value is 155, which sets the high bit of
the raster compare to 1, selects a 25-row display, disables the
blanking feature, and uses a vertical scrolling offset of three scan
lines.
Bits 0-2. These bits control vertical fine scrolling of the screen
display. This feature allows you to move the entire text display
smoothly up and down, enabling the display area to act as a window,
scrolling over a larger text or character graphics display.
Since each row of text is eight scan lines high, if you simply move
each line of text up one row, the characters travel an appreciable
distance each time they move, which gives the motion a jerky quality.
This is called coarse scrolling, and you can see an example of it when
LISTing a program that is too long to fit on the screen all at one
time.
By placing a number from 1 to 7 into these three bits, you can move
the whole screen display down by from 1 to 7 dot spaces. Stepping
through the values 1 to 7 allows you to smoothly make the transition
from having a character appear in one row on the screen to having it
appear in the next row. To demonstrate this, type in the following
sample program, LIST it, and RUN.
10 FOR I= 1 TO 50:FOR J=0 TO 7
20 POKE 53265, (PEEK(53265)AND248) OR J:NEXTJ,I
30 FOR I= 1 TO 50:FOR J=7 TO 0 STEP-1
40 POKE 53265, (PEEK(53265)AND248) OR J:NEXTJ,I
As you can see, after the display has moved seven dot positions up or
down, it starts over at its original position. In order to continue
the scroll, you must do a coarse scroll every time the value of the
scroll bits goes from 7 to 0, or from 0 to 7. This is accomplished by
moving the display data for each line by 40 bytes in either direction,
overwriting the data for the last line, and introducing a line of data
at the opposite end of screen memory to replace it. Obviously, ony a
machine language program can move all of these lines quickly enough to
maintain the effect of smooth motion. The following BASIC program,
however, will give you an iea of what vertical fine scrolling is like:
10 POKE 53281,0:PRINTCHR$(5);CHR$(147)
20 FORI=1 TO 27:
30 PRINTTAB(15)CHR$(145)" ":POKE 53265,PEEK(53265)AND248
40 WAIT53265,128:PRINTTAB(15)"I'M FALLING"
50 FOR J=1 TO 7
60 POKE53265,(PEEK(53265)AND248)+J
70 FORK=1TO50
80 NEXT K,J,I:RUN
Bit 3. This bit register allows you to select either the normal
25-line text display (by setting the bit to 1), or a shortened 24-row
display (by resetting that bit to 0). This shortened display is
created by extending the border to overlap the top or bottom row. The
characters in these rows are still there; they are just covered up.
The shortened display is designed to aid vertical fine scrolling. It
covers up the line into which new screen data is introduced, so that
the viewer does not see the new data being moved into place.
However, unlink the register at 53270 ($D016) which shortens the
screen by one character space on either side to aid horizontal
scrolling in either direction, this register can blank only one
vertical line at a time. In order to compensate, it blanks the top
line when the three scroll bits in this register are set to 0, and
shifts the blanking one scan line at a time as the value of thee bits
increases. Thus the bottom line is totally blanked when these bits
are set to 7.
Bit 4. Bit 4 of this register controls the screen blanking feature.
When this bit is set to 0, no data can be displayed on the screen.
Instead, the whole screen will be filled with the color of the frame
(which is controlled by th eBorder Color Register at 53280 ($D020)).
Screen blanking is useful because of the way in which the VIC-II chip
interacts with the 6510 microprocessor. Since the VIC-II and the 6510
both have to address the same memory, they must share the system data
bus. Sharing the data bus means that they must take turns whenever
they want to address memory.
The VIC-II chip was designed so that it fetches most of the data it
needs during the part of the cycle in which the 6510 is not using the
data bus. But certain operations, such as reading the 40 screen codes
needed for each line of text from video mmeory, or fetching sprite
data, require that the VIC-II chip get data at a faster rate than is
possible just by using the off half of the 6510 cycle.
Thus, the VIC-II chip must delay the 6510 for a short amount of time
while it is using the data bus to gather display information for text
or bitmap graphics, and must delay it a little more if sprites are
also enabled. When you set the screen blanking bit to 0, these delays
are eliminated, and the 6510 processor is allowed to run at its full
speed. This speeds up any processing task a little.
To demonstrate this, run the following short program. As you will
see, leaving the screen on makes the processor run about 7 percent
slower than when you turn it off. If you perform the same timing test
on the VIC-20, you will find that it runs at the same speed with its
screen on as the 64 does with its screen off. And the same test on a
PET will run substantially slower.
10 PRINT CHR$(147);TAB(13);"TIMING TEST":PRINT:TI$="000000":GOTO 30
20 FOR I=1 TO 10000:NEXT I:RETURN
30 GOSUB 20:DISPLAY=TI
40 POKE 53265,11:TI$="000000"
50 GOSUB 20:NOSCREEN=TI:POKE 53265,27
60 PRINT "THE LOOP TOOK";DISPLAY;" JIFFIES"
70 PRINT "WITH NO SCREEN BLANKING":PRINT
80 PRINT "THE LOOP TOOK";NOSCREEN;" JIFFIES"
90 PRINT "WITH SCREEN BLANKING":PRINT
100 PRINT "SCREEN BLANKING MAKE THE PROCESSOR"
110 PRINT "GO";DISPLAY/NOSCREEN*100-100;"PERCENT FASTER"
The above explanation accounts for the screen being turned off during
tape read and write operations. The timing of these operations is
rather critical, and would be affected by even the relatively small
delay caused by the video chip. It also explains why the 64 has
difficulty loading programs from an unmodified 1540 Disk Drive, since
the 1540 was set up to transfer data from the VIC-20, which does not
have to contend with these slight delays.
If you turn off the 64 display with a POKE 53265,PEEEK(53265) AND 239,
you will be able to load programs correctly from an old 1540 drive.
The new 1541 drive transfers data at a slightly slower rate in the
default setting, and can be set from software to transfer it at the
higher rate for the VIC-20.
Bit 5. Setting Bit 5 of this register to 1 enables the bitmap
graphics mode. In this mode, the screen area is broken down into
64,000 separate dots of light, 320 dots across by 200 dots high. Each
dot corresponds to one bit of display memory. If the bit is set to 1,
the dot will be displayed in the foreground color. If the bit is
reset to 0, it will be displayed in the background color. This allows
the display of high-resolution graphics images for games, charts, and
graphs, etc.
Bitmapping is a common technique for implementing high-resolution
graphics on a microcomputer. There are some features of the Commodore
system which are unusual, however.
Most systems display screen memory sequentially; that is, the first
byte controls the display of the first eight dots in the upper-left
corner of the screen, the second byte controls the eight dots to the
right of that, etc. In the Commodore system, display memory is laid
out more along the lines of how character graphics dot-data is
arranged.
The first byte controls the row of eight dots in the top-left corner
of the screen, but the next byte controls the eight dots below that,
and so on until the ninth byte. The ninth byte controls the eight
dots directly to the right of those controlled by the first byte of
display memory. It is exactly the same as if the screen were filled
with 1000 programmable characters, with display memory taking the
place of the character dot-data.
The 64's bitmap graphics mode also resembles character graphics in
that the foreground color of the dots is set by a color map (although
it does not use the Color RAM for this purpose). Four bits of each
byte of this color memory control the foreground color of one of these
eight-byte groups of display memory (which form an 8 by 8 grid of 64
dots). Unlike character graphics, however, the other four bits
control the background color that will be seen in the eight-byte
display group where a bit has a value of 0.
Setting up a bitmap graphics screen is somewhat more complicated than
just setting this register bit to 1. You must first choose a location
for the display memory area, and for the color memory area. The
display memory area will be 8192 bytes long (8000 of which are
actually used for the display) and can occupy only the first or the
second half of the 16K space which the VIC-II chip can address.
Each byte of bitmap graphics color memory uses four bits for the
background color as well as four bits for the foreground color.
Therefore, the Color RAM nybbles at 55296 ($D800), which are wired for
four bits only, cannot be used. Another RAM location must therefore
be found for color memory.
This color memory area will take up 1K (1000 bytes of which are
actually used to control the foreground and background colors of the
dots), and must be in the opposite half of VIC-II memory as the
display data. Since bitmap graphics require so much memory for the
display, you may want to select a different 16K bank for VIC-II memory
(see the discussion of things to consider in selecting a VIC-II memory
bank at location 56576 ($DD00)).
To keep things simple, however, let's assume that you have selected to
use the default bank of VIC-II memory, which is the first 16K. You
would have to select locations 8192-16383 ($2000-$3FFF) for screen
memory, because the VIC-II chip sees an image of the character ROM in
the first half of the 16K block (at locations 4096-8192
($1000-$1FFF)). Color memory could be placed at the default location
of text display memory, at 1024-2047 ($400-$7FF). Placement of bitmap
display and color memory is controlled by the VIC Memory Control
Register at 53272 ($D018).
When in bitmap mode, the lower four bits of this register, which
normally control the base address of character dot-data, now control
the location of the 8K bitmap. Only Bit 3 is significant. If it is
set to 1, the graphics display memory will be in the second 8K of
VIC-II memory (in this case, starting at 8192 ($2000)). If that bit
contains a 0, the first 8K will be used for the bitmap. The upper
four bits of this register, which normally control the location of the
Video Display Matrix, are used in bitmap mode to establish the
location of the color map within the VIC-II address space. These four
bits can hold a number from 0 to 15, which indicates on which 1K
boundary the color map begins. For example, if color memory began at
1024 (1K), the value of these four bits would be 0001.
Once the bitmap mode has been selected, and the screen and color
memory areas set up, you must establish a method for turning each
individual dot on and off. The conventional method for identifying
each dot is to assign it to a horizontal (X) position coordinate and a
vertical (Y) coordinate.
Horizontal position values will range from 0 to 319, where dot 0 is at
the extreme left-hand side of the screen, and dot 319 at the extreme
right. Vertical positions will range from 0 to 199, where dot 0 is on
the top line, and dot 199 is on the bottom line.
Because of the unusual layout of bitmap screen data on the 64, it is
fairly easy to transfer text characters to a bitmap screen, but it is
somewhat awkward finding the bit which affects the screen dot having a
given X-Y coordinate. First, you must find the byte BY in which the
bit resides, and then you must POKE a vlue into that byte which turns
the desired bit on or off. Given that the horizontal position of the
dot is stored in the variable X, its vertical position is in the
variable Y, and the base address of the bitmap area is in the variable
BASE, you can find the desired byte with the formula:
BY=BASE+40*(Y AND 256)+(Y AND 7)+(X AND 504)
To turn on the desired dot,
POKE BY, PEEK(BY) OR (2^(NOTX AND 7)
To turn the dot off,
POKE BY, PEEK(BY) AND (255-2^(NOTX AND 7))
The exponentation function takes a lot of time. To speed things up,
an array can be created, each of whose elements corresponds to a power
of two.
FOR I=0 TO 7:BIT(I)=2^1:NEXT
After this is done, the expression 2^(I) can be replaced by BI(I).
The following sample program illustrates the bit-graphics concepts
explained above, and serves as a summary of that information.
10 FOR I=0 TO 7:BI(I)=2^I:NEXT: REM SET UP ARRAY OF POWERS OF 2 (BIT VALUE)
20 BASE=2*4096:POKE53272,PEEK(53272)OR8:REM PUT BIT MAP AT 8192
30 POKE53265,PEEK(53265)OR32:REM ENTER BIT MAP MODE
40 A$="":FOR I=1 TO 37:A$=A$+"C":NEXT:PRINT CHR$(19);
50 FOR I=1 TO 27:PRINTA$;:NEXT:POKE2023,PEEK(2022): REM SET COLOR MAP
60 A$="":FOR I=1 TO 27:A$=A$+"@":NEXT:FOR I=32 TO 63 STEP 2
70 POKE648,I:PRINT CHR$(19);A$;A$;A$;A$:NEXT:POKE648,4:REM CLEAR HI-RES SCREEN
80 FORY=0TO199STEP.5:REM FROM THE TOP OF THE SCREEN TO THE BOTTOM
90 X=INT(160+40*SIN(Y/10)): REM SINE WAVE SHAPE
100 BY=BASE+40*(Y AND 248)+(Y AND 7)+(X AND 504): REM FIND HI-RES BYTE
110 POKEBY,PEEK(BY)OR(BI(NOT X AND 7)):NEXT Y:REM POKE IN BIT VALUE
120 GOTO 120: REM LET IT STAY ON SCREEN
As you can see, using BASIC to draw in bit-graphics mode is somewhat
slow and tedious. Machine language is much more suiable for
bit-graphics plotting. For a program that lets you replace some BASIC
ommands with high-res drawing commands, see the article "Hi-Res
Graphics Made Simple," by Paul F. Schatz, in COMPUTE!'s First Book of
Commodore 64 Sound and Graphics.
There is a slightly lower resolution bitmap graphics mode available
which offers up to four colors per 8 by 8 dot matrix. To enable this
mode, you must set the multicolor bit (Bit 4 of 53270 ($D016)) while
in bitmap graphics mode. For more information on this mode, see the
entry for the multicolor enable bit.
Bit 6. This bit of this register enables extended background color
mode. This mode lets you select the background color of each text
character, as well as its foreground color. It is able to increase
the number of background colors displayed, by reducing the number of
characters that can be shown on the screen.
Normally, 256 character shapes can be displayed on the screen. You
can use them either by using the PRINT statement or by POKEing a
display code from 0 to 255 into screen memory. If the POKEing method
is used, you must also POKE a color code from 0 to 15 into color
memory (for example, if you POKE 1024,1, and POKE 55296,1, a white A
appears in the top-left corner of the screen).
The background color of the screen is determined by Background Color
Register 0, and you can change this color by POKEing a new value to
that register, which is located at 53281 ($D021). For example, POKE
53281,0 creates a black background.
When extended background color mode is activated, however, only the
first 64 shapes found in the table of the screen display codes can be
displayed on the screen. This group includes the letters of the
alphabet, numerals, and punctuation marks. If you try to print on the
screen a character having a higher display code, the shape displayed
will be from the first group of 64, but that character's background
will no longer be determined by the register at 53281 ($D021).
Instead, it will be determined by one of the other background color
registers.
When in extended background color mode, characters having display
codes 64- 127 will take their background color from register 1, and
location 53282 ($D022). These characters include various SHIFTed
characters. Those with codes 128-191 will have their background
colors determined by register 2, at 53283 ($D023). These include the
reversed numbers, letters, and punctuation marks. Finally, characters
with codes 192-255 will use register 4, at 53284 ($D024). These are
the reversed graphics characters.
Let's try an experiment to see just how this works. First, we will
put the codes for four different letters in screen memory:
FOR I=0 TO 3:POKE 1230+(I*8),I*64+I:POKE 55502+(I*8),1:NEXT
Four white letters should appear on the screen, an A, a shifted A, a
reversed A, and a reversed, shifted A, all on a blue background.
Next, we will put colors in the other background color registers:
POKE 53282,0:POKE53283,2:POKE53284,5
This sets the registers to black, red, and green, respectively.
Finally, we will activate extended color mode by setting Bit 6 of the
VIC-II register at location 53265 to a 1. The BASIC statement that
turns this mode on is:
POKE 53265,PEEK(53265) OR 64
Notice that two things happened. First, all of the letters took on
the same shape, that of the letter A. Second, each took on the
background color of a different color register. To get things back to
normal, turn off extended color mode with this statement:
POKE 53265,PEEK(53265) AND 191
Extended color mode can be a very useful enhancement for your text
displays. It allows the creation of windows. These windows, because
of their different background colors, make different bodies of text
stand out as visually distinct from one another. For example, a text
adventure program could have one window to display the player's
current location, one to show an inventory of possessions, and one to
accept commands for the next move.
In this mode the background color of these windows can be changed
instantly, just by POKEing a new value to the color register. This
technique lends itself to some dramatic effects. A window can be
flashed to draw attention to a particular message at certain times.
And varying the foreground color can make either the window or the
message vanish and reappear later.
There are, however, a couple of problems involved in using these
windows. The character shape that you want to use might not have a
screen code of less than 64. In that case, the only solution is to
define your own character set, with the shape you want in one of the
first 64 characters.
Another problem is that characters within a PRINT statement in your
program listing are not always going to look the same on the screen.
Having to figure out what letter to print to get the number 4 with a
certain background color can be very inconvenient. The easiest
solution to this problem is to have a subroutine to the translation
for you. Since letters will appear normally in window 1, and window 3
characters are simply window 1 characters reversed, you will only have
problems with characters in windows 2 and 4. To conver these
characters, put your message in A$, and use the following subroutine:
500 B$="":FOR I=1 TO LEN(A$):B=ASC(MID$(A$,I,1))
510 B=B+32:IF B<96 THEN B=B+96
520 B$=B$+CHR$(B):NEXT I:RETURN
This subroutine converts each letter to its ASCII equivalent, adds the
proper offset, and converts it back to part of the new string, B$.
When the conversion is complete, B$ will hold the characters necessary
to PRINT that message in window 2. For window 4, PRINT
CHR$(18);B$;CHR$(146). This will turn reverse video on before
printing the string, and turn it off afterwards.
A practical demonstration of the technique for setting up windows is
given in the sample program below. The program sets up three windows,
and shows them flashing, appearing and disappearing.
5 DIM RO$(25):RO$(0)=CHR$(19):FOR I=1 TO 24:RO$(I)=RO$(I-1)+CHR$(17):NEXT
10 POKE 53265,PEEK(53265) OR 64
20 POKE 53280,0:POKE 53281,0:POKE 53282,1:POKE 53283,2:POKE 53284,13
25 OP$=CHR$(160):FOR I=1 TO 4:OP$=OP$:NEXTI:PRINTCHR$(147);RO$(3);
30 FOR I=1 TO10:PRINTTAB(1);CHR$(18);" ";TAB(23);OP$:NEXT
40 PRINT CHR$(146):PRINT:PRINT:FOR I=1 TO 4:PRINTOP$;OP$;OP$;OP$;OP$;:NEXTI
50 PRINT RO$(5);CHR$(5);CHR$(18);TAB(2);"A RED WINDOW"
60 PRINT CHR$(18);TAB(2);"COULD BE USED"
70 PRINT CHR$(18);TAB(2);"FOR ERROR"
80 PRINT CHR$(18);TAB(2);"MESSAGES"
100 A$="A GREEN WINDOW":GOSUB 300:PRINT RO$(5);CHR$(144);CHR$(18);TAB(24);B$
110 A$="COULD BE USED":GOSUB 300:PRINTTAB(24);CHR$(18);B$
120 A$="TO GIVE":GOSUB 300:PRINTTAB(24);CHR$(18);B$
130 A$="INSTRUCTIONS":GOSUB 300:PRINTTAB(24);CHR$(18);B
140 PRINT CHR$(31);RO$(19);
150 A$=" WHILE THE MAIN WINDOW COULD BE USED":GOSUB 300:PRINT B$
160 A$=" FOR ACCEPTING COMMANDS.":GOSUB 300:PRINT B$
170 FOR I=1 TO 5000:NEXT I:POKE 53284,0
180 FOR I=1 TO 5:FOR J=1 TO 300:NEXT J:POKE 53282,15
190 FOR J=1 TO 300:NEXT J:POKE 53282,1
200 NEXT I:POKE 53283,-2*(PEEK(53283)=240):POKE 53284,-13*(PEEK(53284)=240)
210 GOTO 180
300 B$="":FOR I=1TOLEN(A$):B=ASC(MID$(A$,I,1))
310 B=B+32:IFB<96THENB=B+96
320 B$=B$+CHR$(B):NEXTI:RETURN
Bit 7. Bit 7 of this register is the high-order bit (Bit 8) of the
Raster Compare register at 53266 ($D012). Even though it is located
here, it functions as part of that register (see the description below
for more information on the Raster Compare register).
Machine language programmers should note that its position here at Bit
7 allows testing this bit with the Negative flag. Since scan lines
above number 256 are all off the screen, this provides an easy way to
delay changing the graphics display until the scan is in the vertical
blanking interval and the display is no longer being drawn:
LOOP LDA $D011
BPL LOOP
Sprites should always be moved when the raster is scanning off-screen,
because if they are moved while they are being scanned, their shapes
will waver slightly.
The BASIC equivalent of the program fragment above is the statement
WAIT 53265,128, but BASIC is usually not fast enough to execute the
next statement while still in the blanking interval.
53266 $D012 RASTER
Read Current Raster Scan Line/Write Line to Compare for Raster IRQ
The Raster Compare register has two different functions, depending on
whether you are reading from it or writing to it. When this register
is read, it tells which screen line the electron beam is currently
scanning.
There are 262 horizontal lines which make up the American (NTSC)
standard display screen (312 lines in the European or PAL standard
screen). Every one of these lines is scanned and updated 60 times per
second. Only 200 of these lines (numbers 50-249) are part of the
visible display.
It is sometimes helpful to know just what line is being scanned,
because changing screen graphics on a particular line while that line
is being scanned may cause a slight disruption on the screen. By
reading this register, it is possible for a machine language program
to wait until the scan is off the bottom of the screen before changing
the graphics display.
It is even possible for a machine language program to read this
register, and change the screen display when a certain scan line is
reached. The program below uses this technique to change the
background color in midscreen, in order to show all 256 combinations
of foreground and background text colors at once.
40 FOR I=49152 TO 49188:READ A:POKE I,A:NEXT:POKE 53280,11
50 PRINT CHR$(147):FOR I=1024 TO I+1000:POKE I,160:POKE I+54272,11:NEXT I
60 FOR I=0 TO 15:FOR J=0 TO 15
70 P=1196+(48*I)+J:POKE P,J+I:POKE P+54272,J:NEXT J,I
80 PRINT TAB(15)CHR$(5)"COLOR CHART":FOR I=1 TO 19:PRINT:NEXT
85 PRINT "THIS CHART SHOWS ALL COMBINATIONS OF "
86 PRINT "FOREGROUND AND BACKGROUND COLORS. "
87 PRINT "FOREGROUND INCREASES FROM LEFT TO RIGHT"
88 PRINT "BACKGROUND INCREASES FROM TOP TO BOTTOM"
90 SYS 12*4096
100 DATA 169,90,133,251,169,0,141,33,208,162,15,120,173,17,208,48
105 DATA 251,173,18,208
110 DATA 197,251,208,249,238,33,208,24,105,8,133,251,202,16,233,48,219
Writing to this register designates the comparison value for the
Raster Compare Interrupt. When that interrupt is enabled, a maskable
interrupt request will be issued every time the electron beam scan
reaches the scan line whose number was written here. This is a much
more flexible technique for changing the display in midscreen than
reading this register as the sample program above does. That
technique requires that the program continuously watch the Raster
Register, while the interrupt method will call the program when the
time is right to act. For more information on raster interrupts, see
the entry for the Interrupt Mask Register (53274, $D01A).
It is very important to remember that this register requires nine
bits, and that this location only holds eight of those bits (the ninth
is Bit 7 of 53265 ($D011)). If you forget to read or write to the
ninth bit, your results could be in error by a factor of 256.
For example, some early programs written to demonstrate the raster
interrupt took for granted that the ninth bit of this register would
be set to 0 on power-up. When a later version of the Kernal changed
this initial value to a 1, their interrupt routines, which were
supposed to set the raster interrupt to occur at scan line number 150,
ended up setting it for line number 406 instead. Since the scan line
numbers do not go up that high, no interrupt request was ever issued
and the program did not work.
Location Range: 53267-53268 ($D013-$D014)
Light Pen Registers
A light pen is an input device that can be plugged into joystick
Control Port #1. It is shaped like a pen and has a light-sensitive
device at its tip that causes the trigger switch of the joystick port
to close at the moment the electron beam that updates the screen
display strikes it. The VIC-II chip keeps track of where the beam is
when that happens, and records the corresponding horizontal and
vertical screen coordinates in the registers at these locations.
A program can read the position at which the light pen is held up to
the screen. The values in these registers are updated once every
screen frame (60 times per second). Once the switch is closed and a
value written to these registers, the registers are latched, and
subsequent switch closings during the same screen frame will not be
recorded.
A given light pen may not be entirely accurate (and the operator may
not have a steady hand). It is probably wise to average the positions
returned from a number of samplings, particularly when using a machine
language driver.
53267 $D013 LPENX
Light Pen Horizontal Position
This location holds the horizontal position of the light pen. Since
there are only eight bits available (which give a range of 256 values)
for 320 possible horizontal screen positions, the value here is
accurate only to every second dot position. The number here will
range from 0 to 160 and must be multiplied by 2 in order to get a
close approximation of the actual horizontal dot position of the light
pen.
53268 $D014 LPENY
Light Pen Vertical Position
This location holds the vertical position of the light pen. Since
there are only 200 visible scan lines on the screen, the value in this
register corresponds exactly to the current raster scan line.
53269 $D015 SPENA
Sprite Enable Register
Bit 0: Enable Sprite 0 (1=sprite is on, 0=sprite is off)
Bit 1: Enable Sprite 1 (1=sprite is on, 0=sprite is off)
Bit 2: Enable Sprite 2 (1=sprite is on, 0=sprite is off)
Bit 3: Enable Sprite 3 (1=sprite is on, 0=sprite is off)
Bit 4: Enable Sprite 4 (1=sprite is on, 0=sprite is off)
Bit 5: Enable Sprite 5 (1=sprite is on, 0=sprite is off)
Bit 6: Enable Sprite 6 (1=sprite is on, 0=sprite is off)
Bit 7: Enable Sprite 7 (1=sprite is on, 0=sprite is off)
In order for any sprite to be displayed, the corresponding bit in this
register must be set to 1 (the default for this location is 0). Of
course, just setting this bit along will not guarantee that a sprite
will be shown on the screen. The Sprite Data Pointer must indicate a
data area that holds some values other than 0. The Sprite Color
Register must also contain a value other than that of the background
color. In addition, the Sprite Horizontal and Vertical Position
Registers must be set for positions that lie within the visible screen
range in order for a sprite to appear on screen.
53270 $D016 SCROLX
Horizontal Fine Scrolling and Control Register
Bits 0-2: Fine scroll display horizontally by X dot positions (0-7)
Bit 3: Select a 38-column or 40-column text display (1=40 columns,
0=38 columns)
Bit 4: Enable multicolor text or multicolor bitmap mode (1=multicolor on,
0=multicolor off)
Bit 5: Video chip reset (0=normal operations, 1=video completely off)
Bits 6-7: Unused
This is one of the two important multifunction control registers on
the VIC-II chip. On power-up, it is set to a default value of 8,
which means that the VIC chip Reset line is set for a normal display,
Multicolor Mode is disabled, a 40-column text display is selected, and
no horizontal fine-scroll offset is used.
Bits 0-2. The first three bits of this chip control vertical fine
scrolling of the screen display. This feature allows you to smoothly
move the entire text display back and forth, enabling the display area
to act as a window, scrolling over a larger text or character graphics
display.
Since each text character is eight dots wide, moving each character
over one whole character position (known as coarse scrolling) is a
relatively big jump, and the motion looks jerky. By placing a number
from 1 to 7 into these three bits, you can move the whole screen
display from one to seven dot spaces to the right.
Stepping through values 1 to 7 allows you to smoothly make the
transition from having a character appear at one screen column to
having it appear at the next one over. To demonstrate this, type in
the following program, LIST, and RUN it.
10 FOR I=1 TO 50:FOR J=0 TO 7
20 POKE 53270,(PEEK(53270)AND248) OR J:NEXT J,I
30 FOR I=1 TO 50:FOR J=7 TO 0 STEP-1
40 POKE 53270,(PEEK(53270)AND248) OR J:NEXT J,I
As you can see, after the display has moved over seven dots, it starts
over at its original position. In order to continue with the scroll,
you must do a coarse scroll every time the value of the scroll bits
goes from 7 to 0, or from 0 to 7. This is accomplished by moving each
byte of display data on each line over one position, overwriting the
last character, and introducing a new byte of data on the opposite end
of the screen line to replace it.
Obviously, only a machine language program can move all of these bytes
quickly enough to maintain the effect of smooth motion. The following
BASIC program, however, will give you an idea of what the combination
of fine and coarse scrolling looks like.
10 POKE 53281,0:PRINT CHR$(5);CHR$(147):FOR I=1 TO 5:PRINT CHR$(17):NEXT
20 FOR I=1 TO 30
30 PRINT TAB(I-1)"{UP}{10 SPACES}{UP}"
40 WAIT53265,128:POKE53270,PEEK(53270)AND248:PRINTTAB(I)"AWAY WE GO"
50 FOR J=1 TO 7
60 POKE 53270,(PEEK(53270)AND248)+J
70 FORK=1TO30-I
80 NEXT K,J,I:RUN
Changing the value of the three horizontal scroll bits will affect the
entire screen display. If you wish to scroll only a portion of the
screen, you will have to use raster interrupts (see 53274 ($D01A)
below) to establish a scroll zone, change the value of these scroll
bits only when that zone is being displayed, and change it back to 0
afterward.
Bit 3. Bit 3 of this register allows you to cover up the first and
last columns of the screen display with the border. Since the viewers
cannot see the characters there, they will not be able to see you
insert a new character on the end of the line when you do coarse
scrolling (see explanation of Bits 0-2 above).
Setting this bit to 1 enables the normal 40-column display, while
resetting it to 0 changes the display to 38 columns. This is a purely
cosmetic aid, and it is not necessary to change the screen to the
smaller size to use the scrolling feature.
Bit 4. This bit selects multicolor graphics. The effect of setting
this bit to 1 depends on whether or not the bitmap graphics mode is
also enabled.
If you are not in bitmap mode, and you select multicolor text
character mode by setting this bit to 1, characters with a color
nybble whose value is less than 8 are displyed normally. There will
be one background color and one foreground color. But each dot of a
character with a color nybble whose value is over 7 can have any one
of four different colors.
The two colors in the Background Control Registers 1 and 2 (53282-3,
$D022-3) are available in addition to the colors supplied by the Color
RAM. The price of these extra colors is a reduction in horizontal
resolution. Instead of each bit controlling one dot, in multicolor
mode a pair of bits control the color of a larger dot. A pattern of
11 will light it with the color from the lower three bits of color
RAM. Patterns of 01 and 10 will select the colors from Background
Color Registers 1 and 2, respectively, for the double-width dot.
You can see the effect that setting this bit has by typing in the
following BASIC command line:
POKE 53270,PEEK(53280)OR16:PRINT CHR$(149)"THIS IS MULTICOLOR MODE"
It is obvious from this example that the normal set of text characters
was not made to be used in multicolor mode. In order to take
advantage of this mode, you will need to design custom four-color
characters. For more information, see the alternate entry for 53248
($D000), the Character Generator ROM.
If the multicolor and bitmap enable bits are both set to 1, the result
is a multicolor bitmap mode. As in multicolor text mode, pairs of
graphics data bits are used to set each dot in a 4 by 8 matrix to one
of four colors. This results in a reduction of the horizontal
resolution to 160 double-wide dots across. But while text multicolor
mode allows only one of the four colors to be set individually for
each 4 by 8 dot area, bitmap multicolor mode allows up to three
different colors to be individually selected in each 4 by 8 dot area.
The source of the dot color for each bit-pair combination is shown
below:
00 Background Color Register 0 (53281, $D021)
01 Upper four bits of Video Matrix
10 Lower four bits of Video Matrix
11 Color RAM nybble (area starts at 55296 ($D800))
The fact that bit-pairs are used in this mode changes the strategy for
plotting somewhat. In order to find the byte BY in which the desired
bit-pair resides, you must multiply the horizontal position X, which
has a value of 0- 159, by 2, and then use the same formula as for
hi-res bitmap mode.
Given that the horizontal position (0-159) of the dot is stored in the
variable X, its vertical position is in the variable Y, and the base
address of the bitmap area ia in the variable BASE, you can find the
desired byte with the formula:
BY=BASE+(Y AND 248)*40+(Y AND 7)+(2*X AND 504)
Setting the desired bit-pair will depend on what color you chose.
First, you must set up an array of bit masks.
CA(0)=1:CA(1)=4:CA(2)=16:CA(3)=64
To turn on the desired dot, select a color CO from 0 to 3
(representing the color selected by the corresponding bit pattern) and
execute the following statement:
BI=(NOT X AND 3):POKE BY,PEEK(BY) AND (NOT 3*CA(BI)) OR (CO*CA(BI))
The following program will demonstrate this technique:
10 CA(0)=1:CA(1)=4:CA(2)=16:CA(3)=64:REM ARRAY FOR BIT PAIRS
20 BASE=2*4096:POKE53272,PEEK(53272)OR8:REM PUT BIT MAP AT 8192
30 POKE53265,PEEK(53265)OR32:POKE53270,PEEK(53270)OR16:REM MULTI-COLOR BIT MAP
40 A$="":FOR I=1 TO 37:A$=A$+"C":NEXT:PRINT CHR$(19);
50 FOR I=1 TO 27:PRINT A$;:NEXT:POKE 2023,PEEK(2022): REM SET COLOR MAP
60 A$="":FOR I=1 TO 128:A$=A$+"@":NEXT:FOR I=32 TO 63 STEP 2
70 POKE648,I:PRINTCHR$(19);A$;A$;A$;A$:NEXT:POKE648,4:REM CLR HI-RES SCREEN
80 FOR CO=1TO3:FOR Y=0TO199STEP.5:REM FROM THE TOP OF THE SCREEN TO THE BOTTOM
90 X=INT(10*CO+15*SIN(CO*45+Y/10)): REM SINE WAVE SHAPE
100 BY=BASE+40*(Y AND 248)+(Y AND 7)+(X*2 AND 504): REM FIND HI-RES BYTE
110 BI=(NOT X AND 3):POKE BY,PEEK(BY) AND (NOT 3*CA(BI)) OR(CO*CA(BI))
120 NEXT Y,CO
130 GOTO 130: REM LET IT STAY ON SCREEN
Bit 5: Bit 5 controls the VIC-II chip Reset line. Setting this bit
to 1 will completely stop the video chip from operating. On older
64s, the screen will go black. It should always be set to 0 to insure
normal operation of the chip.
Bits 6 and 7. These bits are not used.
53271 $D017 YXPAND
Sprite Vertical Expansion Register
Bit 0: Expand Sprite 0 vertically (1=double height, 0=normal height)
Bit 1: Expand Sprite 1 vertically (1=double height, 0=normal height)
Bit 2: Expand Sprite 2 vertically (1=double height, 0=normal height)
Bit 3: Expand Sprite 3 vertically (1=double height, 0=normal height)
Bit 4: Expand Sprite 4 vertically (1=double height, 0=normal height)
Bit 5: Expand Sprite 5 vertically (1=double height, 0=normal height)
Bit 6: Expand Sprite 6 vertically (1=double height, 0=normal height)
Bit 7: Expand Sprite 7 vertically (1=double height, 0=normal height)
This register can be used to double the height of any sprite. When
the bit in this register that corresponds to a particular sprite is
set to 1, each dot of the 24 by 21 sprite dot matrix will become two
raster scan lines high instead of one.
53272 $D018 VMCSB
VIC-II Chip Memory Control Register
Bit 0: Unused
Bits 1-3: Text character dot-data base address within VIC-II address
space
Bits 4-7: Video matrix base address within VIC-II address space
This register affects virtually all graphics operations. It
determines the vase address of two very important data areas, the
Video Matrix, and the Character Dot-Data area.
Bits 1-3. These bits are used to set the location of the Character
Dot-Data area. This area is where the data is stored (for more
information on character shape data, see the alternate entry for
location 53248 ($D000), the Character Generator ROM).
Bits 1-3 can represent any even number from 0 to 14. That numer
stands for the even 1K offset of the character data area from the
beginning of VIC-II memory. For example, if these bits are all set to
0, it means that the character memory occupies the first 2K of VIC-II
memory. If they equal 2, the data area starts 2*1K (2*1024) or 2048
bytes from the beginning of VIC memory.
The default value of this nybble is 4. This sets the address of the
Character Dot-Data area to 4096 ($1000), which is the starting address
of where the VIC-II chip addresses the Character ROM. The normal
character set which contains uppercase and graphics occupies the first
2K of that ROM. The alternate character set which contains both
upper- and lowercase letters use the second 2K. Therefore, to shift
to the alternate character set, you must change the value of this
nybble to 6, with a POKE 53272,PEEK(53272)OR2. To change it back,
POKE 53272,PEEK(53272)AND253.
In bitmap mode, the lower nybble controls the location of the bitmap
screen data. Since this data area can start only at an offset of 0 or
8K from the beginning of VIC-II memory, only Bit 3 of the Memory
Control Register is significant in bitmap mode. If Bit 3 holds a 0,
the offset is 0, and if it holds a 1, the offset is 8192 (8K).
Bits 4-7. This nybble determines the starting address of the Video
Matrix area. This is the 1024-byte area of memory which contains the
screen codes for the text characters that are displayed on the screen.
In addition, the last eight bytes of this area are used as pointers
which designate which 64- byte block of VIC-II memory will be used as
shape data for each sprite.
These four bits can represent numbers from 0 to 15. These numbers
stand for the offset (in 1K increments) from the beginning of VIC-II
memory to the Video Matrix.
For example, the default bit pattern is 0001. This indicates that the
Video Matrix is offset by 1K from the beginning of VIC-II memory, the
normal starting place for screen memory. Remember, though, the bit
value of this number will be 16 times what the bit pattern indicates,
because we are dealing with Bits 4-7. Therefore, the 0001 in the
upper nybble has a value of 16.
Using this register, we can move the start of screen memory to any 1K
boundary within the 16K VIC-II memory area. Just changing this
register, however, is not enough if you want to use the BASIC line
editor. The editor looks to location 648 ($288) to determine where to
print screen characters.
If you just change the location of the Video Matrix without changing
the value in 648, BASIC will continue to print characters in the
memory area starting at 1024, even though that area is no longer being
displayed. The result is that you will not be able to see anything
that you type in on the keyboard. To fix this, you must POKE 648 with
the page number of the starting address of screen memory (page
number=location/256). Remember, the actual starting address of screen
memory depends not only on the offset from the beginning of VIC-II
memory in the register, but also on which bank of 16K is used for
VIC-II memory.
For example, if the screen area starts 1024 bytes from the beginning
of VIC- II memory, and the video chip is using Bank 2 (32768-49151),
the actual starting address of screen memory is 32768+1024=33792
($8400). For examples of how to change the video memory area, and of
how to relocate the screen, see the entro for 56576 ($DD00).
53273 $D019 VICIRQ
VIC Interrupt Flag Register
Bit 0: Flag: Is the Raster Compare a possible source of an IRQ?
(1=yes)
Bit 1: Flag: Is a collision between a sprite and the normal graphics
display a possible source of an IRQ? (1=yes)
Bit 2: Flag: Is a collision between two sprites a possible source of
an IRQ? (1=yes)
Bit 3: Flag: Is the light pen trigger a possible source of an IRQ?
(1=yes)
Bits 4-6: Not used
Bit 7: Flag: Is there any VIC-II chip IRQ source which could cause
an IRQ? (1=yes)
The VIC-II chip is capable of generating a maskable request (IRQ) when
certain conditions relating to the video display are fulfilled.
Briefly, the conditions that can cause a VIC-II chip IRQ are:
1. The line number of the current screen line being scanned by the
raster is the same as the line number value written to the Raster
Register (53266, $D012).
2. A sprite is positioned at the same location where normal graphics
data are being displayed.
3. Two sprites are positioned so that they are touching.
4. The light sensor on the light pen has been struck by the raster
beam, causing the fire button switch on joystick Control Port #1 to
close (pressing the joystick fire button can have the same effect).
When one of these conditions is met, the corresponding bit in this
status register is set to 1 and latched. That means that as long as
the corresponding enable bit in the VIC IRQ Mask register is set to 1,
and IRQ requested will be generated, and any subsequent fulfillment of
the same condition will be ignored until the latch is cleared.
This allows you to preserve multiple interrupt requests if more than
one of the interrupt conditions is met at a time. In order to keep an
IRQ source from generating another request after it has been serviced,
and to enable subsequent interrupt conditions to be detected, the
interrupt service routine must write a 1 to the corresponding bit.
This will clear the latch for that bit. The default value written to
this register is 15, which clears all interrupts.
There is only 1 IRQ vector that points to the address of the routine
that will be executed when an IRQ interrupt occurs. The same routine
will therefore be executed regardless of the source of the interrupt.
This status register provides a method for that routine to check what
the source of the IRQ was, so that the routine can take appropriate
action. First, the routine can check Bit 7. Anytime that any of the
other bits in the status register is set to 1, Bit 7 will also be set.
Therefore, if that bit holds a 1, you know that the VIC-II chip
requested an IRQ (the two CIA chips which are the other sources of IRQ
interrupts can be checked in a similar manner). Once it has been
determined that the VIC chip is responsible for the IRQ, the
individual bits can be tested to see which of the IRQ conditions have
been met.
For more information, and a sample VIC IRQ program, see the following
entry.
53274 $D01A IRQMASK
IRQ Mask Register
Bit 0: Enable Raster Compare IRQ (1=interrupt enabled)
Bit 1: Enable IRQ to occure when sprite collides with display of
normal
graphics data (1=interrupt enabled)
Bit 2: Enable IRQ to occur when two sprites collide (1=interrupt
enabled)
Bit 3: Enable light pen to trigger an IRQ (1=interrupt enabled)
Bits 4-7: Not used
This register is used to enable an IRQ request to occur when one of
the VIC-II chip interrupt conditions is met. In order to understand
what that means, and how these interrupts can extend the range of
options available to a programmer, you must first understand what an
interrupt is.
An interrupt is a signal given to the microprocessor (the brains of
the computer) that tells it to stop executing its machine language
program (for example, BASIC), and to work on another program for a
short time, perhaps only a fraction of a second. After finishing the
interrupt program, the computer goes back to executing the main
program, just as if there had never been a detour.
Bit 0. This bit enables the Raster Compare IRQ. The conditions for
this IRQ are met when the raster scan reaches the video line indicated
by the value written to the Raster Register at 53266 ($D012) and Bit 7
of 53265 ($D011). Again, an explanation of the terminology is in
order.
In the normal TV display, a beam of electrons (raster) scans the
screen, starting in the top-left corner, and moving in a straight line
to the right, lighting up appropriate parts of the screen line on the
way. When it comes to the right edge, the beam moves down a line, and
starts again from the left. There are 262 such line that are scanned
by the 64 display, 200 of which form the visible screen area. This
scan updates the complete screen display 60 times every second.
The VIC-II chip keeps track of which line is being scanned, and stores
the scan number in the Raster Register at 53266 and 53265 ($D012 and
$D011). The Raster Register has two functions. When read, it tells
what line is presently being scanned. But when written to, it
designates a particular scan line as the place where a raster
interrupt will occur.
At the exact moment that the raster beam line number equals the number
written to the register, Bit 0 of the status register will be set to
1, showing that the conditions for a Raster Compare Interrupt have
been fulfulled. If the raster interrupt is enabled then,
simultaneously, the interrupt program will be executed. This allows
the user to reset any of the VIC-II registers at any point in the
display, and thus change character sets, background color, or graphics
mode for only a part of the screen display.
The interrupt routine will first check if the desired condition is the
source of the interrupt (see above entry) and then make the changes to
the screen display. Once you have written this interrupt routine, you
must take the following steps to install it.
1. Set the interrupt disable flag in the status register with an SEI
instruction. This will disable all interrupts and prevent th system
from crashing while you are changing the interrupt vectors.
2. Enable the raster interrupt. This is done by setting Bit 0 of the
VIC- II chip interrupt enable register at location 53274 ($D01A) to 1.
3. Indicate the scan line on which you want the interrupt to occur by
writing to the raster registers. Don't forget that this is a nine-bit
value, and you must set both the low byte (in location 53266 ($D012))
and the high bit (in the register at 53265 ($D011)) in order to insure
that the interrupt will start at the scan line you want it to, and not
256 lines earlier or later.
4. Let the computer know where the machine language routine that you
want the interrupt to execute starts. This is done by placing the
address in the interrupt vector at locations 788-789 ($314-$315).
This address is split into two parts, a low byte and a high byte, with
the low byte stored at 788.
To calculate the two values for a given address AD, you may use the
formula HIBYTE=INT(AD/156) and LOWBYTE=AD-(HIBYTE*256). The value
LOWBYTE would go into location 788, and the value HIBYTE would go into
location 789.
5. Reenable interrupts with a CLI instruction, which clears the
interrupt disable flag on the status register.
When the computer is first turned on, the interrupt vector is set to
point to the normal hardware timer interrupt routine, the one that
advances the jiffy clock and reads the keyboard. Since this interrupt
routine uses the same vector as the raster interrupt routine, it is
best to turn off the hardware timer interrupt by putting a value of
127 in location 56333 ($DC0D).
If you want the keyboard and jiffy clock to function normally while
your interrupt is enabled, you must preserve the contents of locations
788 and 789 before you change them to point to your new routine. Then
you must have your interrupt routine jump to the old interrupt routine
exactly once per screen refresh (every 1/60 second).
Another thing that you should keep in mind is that at least two raster
interrupts are required if you want to change only a part of the
screen. Not only must the interrupt routine change the display, but
it must also set up another raster interrput that will change it back.
The sample program below uses a raster-scan interrupt to divide the
display into three sections. The first 80 scan lines are in
high-resolution bitmap mode, the next 40 are regular text, and the
last 80 are in multicolor bitmap mode. The screen will split this way
as soon as a SYS to the routine that turns on the interrupt occurs.
The display will stay split even after the program ends. Only if you
hit the STOP and RESTORE keys together will the display return to
normal.
The interrupt uses a table of values that are POKEd into four key
locations during each of the three interrupts, as well as values to
determine at what scan lines the interrupt will occur. The locations
affected are Control Register 1 (53265, $D011), Control Register 2
(53270, $D016), the Memory Control Register (53272, $D018), and
Background Color 0 (53281, $D021). The data for the interrupt routine
is contained in lines 49152-49276. Each of these line numbers
corresponds to the locations where the first data byte in the
statement is POKEd into memory.
If you look at lines 49264-49276 of the BASIC program, you will see
REMark statements that explain which VIC-II registers are affected by
the DATA statements in each line. The number in these DATA
startements appear in the reverse order in which they are put into the
VIC register. For example, line 49273 holds the data that will go
into Control Register 2. The last number, 8, is the one that will be
placed into Control Register 2 while the top part of the screen is
displayed. The first number, 24, is placed into Control Register 2
during the bottom part of the screen display, and changes that portion
of the display to multicolor mode.
The only tricky part in determining which data byte affects which
interrupt comes in line 49264, which holds the data that determines
the scan line at which each interrupt will occur. Each DATA statement
entry reflects the scan line at which the next interrupt will occur.
The first item in line 49264 is 49. Even though this is the entry for
the third interrupt, the next to be generates is the first interrupt,
which occurs at the top of the screen. Likewise, the last data item
of 129 is used during the first interrupt to start the next interrupt
at scan line 129.
Try experimenting with these values to see what results you come up
with. For example, if you change the number 170 to 210, you will
increase the text area by five lines (40 scan lines).
By changing the values in the data tables, you can alter the effect of
each interrupt. Change the 20 in line 49276 to 22, and you will get
lowercase text in the middle of the screen. Change the first 8 in
line 49273 to 24, and you'll get multicolor text in the center window.
Each of these table items may be used exactly like you would use the
corresponding register, in order to change background color, to obtain
text or bitmap graphics, regular or multicolor modes, screen blanking
or extended background color mode.
It is even possible to change the table values during a program, by
POKEing the new value into the memory location where those table
values are stored. In that way, you can, for example, change the
background color of any of the screen parts while the program is
running.
5 FOR I=0 TO 7:BI(I)=2^I:NEXT
10 FOR I=49152 TO 49278:READ A:POKE I,A:NEXT:SYS12*4096
20 PRINT CHR$(147):FOR I=0 TO 8:PRINT:NEXT
30 PRINT"THE TOP AREA IS HIGH-RES BIT MAP MODE"
40 PRINT:PRINT"THE MIDDLE AREA IS ORDINARY TEXT "
50 PRINT:PRINT"THE BOTTOM AREA IS MULTI-COLOR BIT MAP"
60 FORG=1384 TO 1423:POKE G,6:NEXT
70 FORG=1024 TO 1383:POKEG,114:POKE G+640,234:NEXT
80 A$="":FOR I=1 TO 128:A$=A$+"@":NEXT:FOR I=32 TO 63 STEP 2
90 POKE 648,I:PRINT CHR$(19)CHR$(153);A$;A$;A$;A$:NEXT:POKE 648,4
100 BASE=2*4096:BK=49267
110 H=40:C=0:FORX=0TO319:GOSUB150:NEXT
120 H=160:C=0:FORX=0TO319STEP2:GOSUB150:NEXT:C=40
125 FORX=1TO319STEP2:GOSUB150:NEXT
130 C=80:FOR X=0 TO 319 STEP2:W=0:GOSUB150:W=1:GOSUB150:NEXT
140 GOTO 140
150 Y=INT(H+20*SIN(X/10+C)):BY=BASE+40*(Y AND 248)+(Y AND 7)+(X AND 504)
160 POKE BY,PEEK(BY) OR (BI(ABS(7-(XAND7)-W))):RETURN
49152 DATA 120, 169, 127, 141, 13, 220
49158 DATA 169, 1, 141, 26, 208, 169
49164 DATA 3, 133, 251, 173, 112, 192
49170 DATA 141, 18, 208, 169, 24, 141
49176 DATA 17, 208, 173, 20, 3, 141
49182 DATA 110, 192, 173, 21, 3, 141
49188 DATA 111, 192, 169, 50, 141, 20
49194 DATA 3, 169, 192, 141, 21, 3
49200 DATA 88, 96, 173, 25, 208, 141
49206 DATA 25, 208, 41, 1, 240, 43
49212 DATA 190, 251, 16, 4, 169, 2
49218 DATA 133, 251, 166, 251, 189, 115
49224 DATA 192, 141, 33, 208, 189, 118
49230 DATA 192, 141, 17, 208, 189, 121
49236 DATA 192, 141, 22, 208, 189, 124
49242 DATA 192, 141, 24, 208, 189, 112
49248 DATA 192, 141, 18, 208, 138, 240
49254 DATA 6, 104, 168, 104, 170, 104
49260 DATA 64, 76, 49, 234
49264 DATA 49, 170, 129 :REM SCAN LINES
49267 DATA 0, 6, 0:REM BACKGROUND COLOR
49270 DATA 59, 27,59:REM CONTROL REG. 1
49273 DATA 24, 8, 8:REM CONTROL REG. 2
49276 DATA 24, 20, 24:REM MEMORY CONTROLRUN
Besides enabling the creation of mixed graphics-modes screens, the
Raster Compare Interrupt is also useful for creating scrolling zones,
so that some parts of the screen can be fine-scrolled while the rest
remains stationary.
Bit 1 enables the light pen interrupt. This interrupt can occur when
the light of the raster beam strikes the light-sensitive device in the
pen's tip, causing it to close the fire button switch on joystick
Controller Port #1.
The light pen interrupt affords a method of signaling to a program
that the pen is being held to the screen, and that its position can be
read. Some light pens provide a push-button switch which grounds one
of the other lines on the joystick port. This switch can be pressed
by the user as an additional signal that the pen is properly
positioned. Its location can then be read in the light pen position
registers (53267-8, $D013-4).
Bit 2 enables the sprite-foreground collision interrupt. This
interrupt can occur if one of the srpte character's dots is touching
one of the dots from the foreground display of either text character
or bitmap graphics.
Bit 3 enables the sprite-sprite collision interrupt, which can occur
if one of the sprite character's dots is touching one of the dots of
another sprite character.
These two interrupts are useful for games, where such collisions often
require that some action be taken immediately. Once the interrupt
signals that a collision has occurred, the interrupt routine can check
the Sprite- Foreground Collision Register at 53279 ($D01F), or the
Sprite-Sprite Collision Register at 53278 ($D01E), to see which sprite
or sprites are involved in the collision. See the entry for those
locations for more details on collisions.
53275 $D01B SPBGPR
Sprite to Foreground Display Priority Register
Bit 0: Select display priority of Sprite 0 to foreground (0=sprite
appears in front of foreground)
Bit 1: Select display priority of Sprite 1 to foreground (0=sprite
appears in front of foreground)
Bit 2: Select display priority of Sprite 2 to foreground (0=sprite
appears in front of foreground)
Bit 3: Select display priority of Sprite 3 to foreground (0=sprite
appears in front of foreground)
Bit 4: Select display priority of Sprite 4 to foreground (0=sprite
appears in front of foreground)
Bit 5: Select display priority of Sprite 5 to foreground (0=sprite
appears in front of foreground)
Bit 6: Select display priority of Sprite 6 to foreground (0=sprite
appears in front of foreground)
Bit 7: Select display priority of Sprite 7 to foreground (0=sprite
appears in front of foreground)
If a sprite is positioned to appear at a spot on the screen that is
already occupied by text or bitmap graphics, a conflict arises. The
contents of this register determines which one will be displayed in
such a situation. If the bit that corresponds to a particular sprite
is set to 0, the sprite will be displayed in front of the foreground
graphics data. If that bit is set to 1, the foreground data will be
displayed in front of the sprite. The default value that this
register is set to at power-on is 0, so all sprites start out with
priority over foreground graphics.
Note that for the purpose of priority, the 01 bit-pair of multicolor
graphics modes is considered to display a background color, and
therefore will be shown behind sprite graphics even if the foreground
graphics data takes priority. Also, between the sprites themselves
there is a fixed priority. Each sprite has priority over all
higher-number sprites, so that Sprite 0 is displayed in front of all
the others.
The use of priority can aid in creating three-dimensional effects, by
allowing some objects on the screen to pass in front of or behind
other objects.
53276 $D01C SPMC
Sprite Multicolor Registers
Bit 0: Select multicolor mode for Sprite 0 (1=multicolor, 0=hi-res)
Bit 1: Select multicolor mode for Sprite 1 (1=multicolor, 0=hi-res)
Bit 2: Select multicolor mode for Sprite 2 (1=multicolor, 0=hi-res)
Bit 3: Select multicolor mode for Sprite 3 (1=multicolor, 0=hi-res)
Bit 4: Select multicolor mode for Sprite 4 (1=multicolor, 0=hi-res)
Bit 5: Select multicolor mode for Sprite 5 (1=multicolor, 0=hi-res)
Bit 6: Select multicolor mode for Sprite 6 (1=multicolor, 0=hi-res)
Bit 7: Select multicolor mode for Sprite 7 (1=multicolor, 0=hi-res)
Sprite multicolor mode is very similar to text and bitmap multicolor
modes (see Bit 4 of 53270, $D016). Normally, the color of each dot of
the sprite is controlled by a single bit of sprite shape data. When
thi mode is enabled for a sprite, by setting the corresponding bit of
this register to 1, the bits of sprite shape data are grouped together
in pairs, with each pair of bits controlling a double-wide dot of the
sprite display. By sacrificing some of the horizontal resolution (the
sprite, although the same size, is now only 12 dots wide), you gain
the use of two additional colors. The four possible combinations of
these bit-pairs display dot colors from the following sources:
00 Background Color Register 0 (transparent)
01 Sprite Multicolor Register 0 (53285, $D025)
10 Sprite Color Registers (53287-94, $D027-E)
11 Sprite Multicolor Register 1 (53286, $D026)
Like multicolor text characters, multicolor sprites all share two
color registers. While each sprite can display three foreground
colors, only one of these colors in unique to that sprite. The number
of unique colors may be increated by combining more than one sprite
into a single character.
53277 $D01D XXPAND
Sprite Horizontal Expansion Register
Bit 0: Expand Sprite 0 horizontally (1=double-width sprite, 0=normal
width)
Bit 1: Expand Sprite 1 horizontally (1=double-width sprite, 0=normal
width)
Bit 2: Expand Sprite 2 horizontally (1=double-width sprite, 0=normal
width)
Bit 3: Expand Sprite 3 horizontally (1=double-width sprite, 0=normal
width)
Bit 4: Expand Sprite 4 horizontally (1=double-width sprite, 0=normal
width)
Bit 5: Expand Sprite 5 horizontally (1=double-width sprite, 0=normal
width)
Bit 6: Expand Sprite 6 horizontally (1=double-width sprite, 0=normal
width)
Bit 7: Expand Sprite 7 horizontally (1=double-width sprite, 0=normal
width)
This register can be used to double the width of any sprite. Setting
any bit of this register to 1 will cause each dot of the corresponding
sprite shape to be displayed twice as wide as normal, so that without
changing its horizontal resolution, the sprite takes up twice as much
space. The horizontal expansion feature can be used alone, or in
combination with the vertical expansion register at 53271 ($D017).
Location Range: 53278-53279 ($D01E-$D01F)
Sprite Collision Detection Registers
While Bit 2 of the VIC IRQ Register at 53273 ($D019) is set to 1
anytime two sprites overlap, and Bit 1 is set to 1, when a sprite
shape is touching the foreground text or bit-graphics display, these
registers specify which sprites were involved in the collision. Every
bit that is set to 1 indicates that the corresponding sprite was
involved in the collision. Reading these registers clears them so
that they can detect the next collision. Therefore, if you plan to
make multiple tests on the values stored here, it may be necessary to
copy it to a RAM variable for further reference.
Note that while these registers tell you what sprites were involved in
a collision, they do not necessarily tell you what objects have
collided with each other. It is quite possible to have three sprites
lined up in a row, where Sprite A is on the left, Sprite B is in the
middle, touching Sprite A, and Sprite C is on the right, touching
Sprite B but not touching Sprite A. The Sprite-Sprite Collision
register would show that all three are involved. The only way to make
absolutely certain which collided with which is to check the position
of each sprite, and calculate for each sprite display line if a sprite
of that size would touch either of the others. As you can imagine,
this is no easy task.
There are a few simple rules concerning what does or does not cause a
collision. Though the sprite character consists of 504 dots in a 24
by 21 matrix, does which represent data bits that are equal to 0 (or
multicolor bit- pairs equal to 00), and therefore always displayed in
the background color, do not count when it comes to collision.
A collision can occur only if a dot which represents a sprite shape
data bit of 1 touches another dot of nonzero graphics data. Consider
the case of two invisible sprites. The first sprite is enabled, its
color set to contrast the background, and it is positioned on the
screen, but its shape data bytes are all 0. This sprite can never be
involved in a collision, because it displays no nonzero data. The
second sprite is enabled, positioned on the screen, and its shape
pointer set for a data read that is filled with bytes having a value
of 255. Even if that sprite's color is set to the same value as the
background color, making the sprite invisible, it can still be
involved in collisions. The only exception to this rule is the 01
bit-pair of multicolor graphics data. This bit-pair is considered
part of the background, and the dot it displays can never be involved
in a collision.
The other rule to remember about collisions is that they can occur in
areas that are covered by the screen border. Collision between
sprites can occur when the sprites are offscreen, and collisions
between sprites and foreground display data can occur when that data
is in an area that is covered by the border due to the reduction of
the display to 38 columns or 24 rows.
53278 $D01E SPSPCL
Sprite to Sprite Collision Register
Bit 0: Did Sprite 0 collide with another sprite? (1=yes)
Bit 1: Did Sprite 1 collide with another sprite? (1=yes)
Bit 2: Did Sprite 2 collide with another sprite? (1=yes)
Bit 3: Did Sprite 3 collide with another sprite? (1=yes)
Bit 4: Did Sprite 4 collide with another sprite? (1=yes)
Bit 5: Did Sprite 5 collide with another sprite? (1=yes)
Bit 6: Did Sprite 6 collide with another sprite? (1=yes)
Bit 7: Did Sprite 7 collide with another sprite? (1=yes)
53279 $D01F SPBGCL
Sprite to Foreground Collision Register
Bit 0: Did Sprite 0 collide with the foreground display? (1=yes)
Bit 1: Did Sprite 1 collide with the foreground display? (1=yes)
Bit 2: Did Sprite 2 collide with the foreground display? (1=yes)
Bit 3: Did Sprite 3 collide with the foreground display? (1=yes)
Bit 4: Did Sprite 4 collide with the foreground display? (1=yes)
Bit 5: Did Sprite 5 collide with the foreground display? (1=yes)
Bit 6: Did Sprite 6 collide with the foreground display? (1=yes)
Bit 7: Did Sprite 7 collide with the foreground display? (1=yes)
Location Range: 53280-53294 ($D020-$D02E)
VIC-II Color Register
Although these color registers are used for various purposes, all of
them have one thing in common. Like the Color RAM Nybbles, only the
lower four bits are connected. Therefore, when reading these
registers, you must mask out the upper four bits (that is,
BORDERCOLOR=PEEK(53280)AND15) in order to get a true reading.
53280 $D020 EXTCOL
Border Color Register
The color value here determines the color of the border or frame
around the central display area. The entire screen is set to this
color when the blanking feature of Bit 4 of 53265 ($D011) is enabled.
The default color value is 14 (light blue).
53281 $D021 BGCOL0
Background Color 0
This register sets the background color for all text modes, sprite
graphics, and multicolor bitmap graphics. The default color value is
6 (blue).
53282 $D022 BGCOL1
Background Color 1
This register sets the color for the 01 bit-pair of multicolor
character graphics, and the background color for characters having
screen codes 64-127 in extended background color text mode. The
default color value is 1 (white).
53283 $D023 BGCOL2
Background Color 2
This register sets the color for the 10 bit-pair of multicolor
character graphics, and the background color for characters habing
screen codes 128-191 in extended background color text mode. The
default color value is 2 (red).
53285 $D024 BGCOL3
Background Color 3
This register sets the background color for characters having screen
codes between 192 and 255 in extended background color text mode. The
default color value is 3 (cyan).
53285 $D025 SPMC0
Sprite Multicolor Register 0
This register sets the color that is displayed by the 01 bit-pair in
multicolor sprite graphics. The default color value is 4 (purple).
53286 $D026 SPMC1
Sprite Multicolor Register 1
This register sets the color that is displayed by the 11 bit-pair in
multicolor sprite graphics. The default color value is 0 (black).
Location Range: 53287-53294 ($D027-$D02E)
Sprite Color Registers
These registers are used to set the color to be displayed by bits of
hi-res sprite data having a value of 1, and by bit-pairs of multicolor
sprite data having a value of 10. The color of each sprite is
determined by its own individual color register.
53287 $D027 SP0COL
Sprite 0 Color Register (the default color value is 1, white)
53288 $D028 SP1COL
Sprite 1 Color Register (the default color value is 2, red)
53289 $D029 SP2COL
Sprite 2 Color Register (the default color value is 3, cyan)
53290 $D01A SP3COL
Sprite 3 Color Register (the default color value is 4, purple)
53291 $D01B SP4COL
Sprite 4 Color Register (the default color value is 5, green)
53292 $D01C SP5COL
Sprite 5 Color Register (the default color value is 6, blue)
53293 $D01D SP6COL
Sprite 6 Color Register (the default color value is 7, yellow)
53294 $D01E SP7COL
Sprite 7 Color Register (the default color value is 12, medium gray)
Location Range: 53295-53311 ($D02F-$D03F)
Not Connected
The VIC-II chip has only 47 registers for 64 bytes of possible address
space. Therefore, the remaining 17 addresses do not access any
memory. When read, they will always give a value of 255 ($FF). This
value will not change after writing to them.
Location Range: 53312-54271 ($D040-$D3FF)
VIC-II Register Images
Since the VIC-II requires only enough addressing lines to handle 64
locations (the minimum possible for its 47 registers), none of the
higher bits are decoded when addressing this 1K area. The result is
that every 64 byte area in this 1K block is a mirror of every other.
POKE53281+64,1 has the same effect as POKE53281,1 or
POKE53281+10*64,1; they all turn the screen background to white. For
the sake of clarity in your programs it is advisable to use the base
address of the chip.
54272-54300 $D400-$D41C
Sound Interface Device (SID) Registers
Mmeory locations 54272-54300 ($D400-$D41C) are used to address the
6581 Sound Interface Device (SID).
SID is a custom music synthesizer and sound effects generator chip
that gives the 64 its impressive musical capabilities. It provides
three separate music channels, or voices, as they are called. Each
voice has 16-bit frequency resolution, waveform control, envelope
shaping, oscillator synchronization, and ring modulation. In
addition, programmable high-pass, low-pass, and band-pass filters can
be set and enabled or disabled for each sound channel.
Since quite a few of these locations must be used in concert to
produce sound, a brief summary of the interplay between some of these
registers may be helpful.
Often the first step is to select an overall volume level using the
Volume Register. Then, the desired frequency or pitch of the note is
chosen by writing to each of the two bytes which make up the 16-bit
Frequency Register.
An ADSR envelope setting must be chosen by writing values to the
Attack/ Decay and Sustain/Release Register. These determine the rate
of the rise and fall of the volume of the note from zero volume to
peak volume and back again. These rates have a great influence on the
character of the sound.
Finally, the waveform must be selected, and the note started (or the
oscillator gated, as we say). This is done by writing certain bits to
the Control Register. The waveform control lets you select one of
four different waveforms, each of which has varying harmonic content
that affects the tone quality of the sound. By writing a 1 to the
gate bit, you start the Attack/ Delay/Sustain cycle. Afer rising to a
peak and declining to the Sustain volume, the volume will continue at
the same level until you write a 0 to the gate bit. Then, the Release
cycle will start. Make sure that you keep the same waveform bit set
to 1 while you write the 0 to the gate bit, so that the Release cycle
starts. Otherwise, the sound will stop entirely, as it also will if
the Volume Register or the Frequency Register is set to 0.
It should be noted that except for the last four SID chip registers,
these addresses are write-only. That means that their values cannot
be determined by PEEKing these locations.
Location Range: 54272-54273 ($D400-$D401)
Voice 1 Frequency Control
Together, these two locations control the frequency or pitch of the
musical output of voice 1. Some frequency must be selected in order
for voice 1 to be heard. This frequency may be changed in the middle
of a note to achieve special effects. The 16-bit range of the
Frequency Control Register covers over eight full octaves, and allows
you to vary the pitch from 0 (very low) to about 4000 Hz (very high),
in 65536 steps. The exact frequency of the output can be determined
by the equation
FREQUENCY=(REGISTER VALUE*CLOCK/16777216)Hz
where CLOCK equals the system clock frequency, 1022730 for American
(NTSC) systems, 985250 for European (PAL), and REGISTER VALUE is the
combined value of these frequency registers. That combined value
equals the value of the low byte plus 256 times the value of the high
byte. Using the American (NTSC) clock value, the equation works out
to
FREQUENCY=REGISTER VALUE*.060959458 Hz
54272 $D400 FRELO1
Voice 1 Frequency Control (low byte)
54273 $D401 FREHI1
Voice 1 Frequency Control (high byte)
Location Range: 54274-54275 ($D402-$D403)
Voice 1 Pulse Waveform Width Control
As you will see below under the description of the Control Register at
54276 ($D404), you can select one of four different waveforms for the
output of each voice. If the pulse waveform is selected, these
registers must be set to establish the pulse width.
The pulse width has a 12-bit resolution, being made up of the value in
the first register and the value in the lower nybble of the second
register. The pulse width determines the duty cycle, or proportion of
the time that the rectangular wave will stay at the high part of the
cycle.
The following formula shows the relationship between the value in the
Pulse Width Register and the proportion of time that the wave stays at
the high part of the cycle:
PULSE WIDTH=(REGISTER VALUE/40.95)%
The possible range of the register values (0-4095) covers the range of
the duty cycles from 0 to 100 percent in 4096 steps. Changing the
pulse width will vastly change the sound created with the pulse
waveform.
54274 $D402 PWLO1
Voice 1 Pulse Waveform Width (low byte)
54275 $D403 PWHI1
Voice 1 Pulse Waveform Width (high nybble)
54276 $D404 VCREG1
Voice 1 Control Register
Bit 0: Gate Bit: 1=Start attack/decay/sustain, 0=Start release
Bit 1: Sync Bit: 1=Synchronize Oscillator with Oscillator 3 frequency
Bit 2: Ring Modulation: 1=Ring modulate Oscillators 1 and 3
Bit 3: Test Bit: 1=Disable Oscillator 1
Bit 4: Select triangle waveform
Bit 5: Select sawtooth waveform
Bit 6: Select pulse waveform
Bit 7: Select random noise waveform
Bit 0. Bit 0 is used to gate the sound. Setting this bit to a 1
while selecting one of the four waveforms will start the
attack/decay/sustain part of the cycle. Setting this bit back to 0
(while keeping the same waveform setting) anytime after a note has
started playing will begin the release cycle of the note. Of course,
in order for the gate bit to have an effect, the frequency and
attack/decay/sustain/release (ADSR) registers must be set, as well as
the pulse width, if necessary, and the volume control set to a nonzero
value.
Bit 1. This bit is used to synchronize the fundamental frequency of
Oscillator 1 with the fundamental frequency of Oscillator 3, allowing
you to create a wide range of complex harmonic structures from voice
1. Synchronization occurs when this bit is set to 1. Oscillator 3
must be set to some frequency other than zero, but no other voice 3
parameters will affect the output from voice 1.
Bit 2. When Bit 2 is set to 1, the triangle waveform output of voice
1 is replaced with a ring modulated combination of Oscillators 1 and
3. This ring modulation produces nonharmonic overtone structures that
are useful for creating bell or gong effects.
Bit 3. Bit 3 is the test bit. When set to 1, it disables the output
of the oscillator. This can be useful in generating very complex
waveforms (even speech synthesis) under software control.
Bit 4. When set to 1, Bit 4 selects the triangle waveform output of
Oscillator 1. Bit 0 must also be set for the note to be sounded.
Bit 5. This bit selects the sawtooth waveform when set to 1. Bit 0
must also be set for the sound to begin.
Bit 6. Bit 6 chooses the pulse waveform when set to 1. The harmonic
content of sound produced using this waveform may be varied using the
Pulse Width Registers. Bit 0 must be set to begin the sound.
Bit 7. When Bit 7 is set to 1, the noise output waveform for
Oscillator 1 is set. This creates a random sound output whose
waveform varies with a frequency proportionate to that of Oscillator
1. It can be used to imitate the sound of explosions, drums, and
other unpitched noises.
One of the four waveforms must be chosed in order to create a sound.
Setting more than one of these bits will result in a logical ANDing of
the waveforms. Particularly, the combination of the noise waveform
and another is not recommended.
Location Range: 54277-54278 ($D405-$D406)
Voice 1 Envelop (ADSR) Control
When a note is played on a musical instrument, the volume does not
suddenly rise to a peak and then cut off to zero. Rather, the volume
builds to a peak, levels off to an intermediate value, and then fades
away. This creates what is known as a volume envelope.
The first phase of the envelope, in which the volume builds to a peak,
is known as the attack phase. The second, in which it declines to an
intermediate level, is called the decay phase. The third, in which
the intermediate leve of volume is held, is known as the sustain
period. The final interval, in which the sound fades away, is called
the release part of the cycle.
The SID chip allows the volume envelope of each voice to be
controlled, so that specific instruments may be imitated, or new
sounds created. This is done via the attack/decay and sustain/release
registers. Each register devotes four bits (which can store a number
from 0 to 15) to each phase of the cycle. When a note is gated by
writing a 1 to a waveform bit and to Bit 0 of the Control Register,
the attack cycle begins.
The volume of the sound builds to a peak over the period of time
specified by the high nybble of the attack/decay register. Once it
has reached the peak volume, it falls to the intermediate level during
the period indicated by the low nybble of the attack/decay register
(this is the decay phase). The volume of this intermediate or sustain
level is selected by placing a value in the high nybble of the
sustain/release register. This volume level is held until a 0 is
written to the gate bit of the control register (while leaving the
waveform bit set). When that happens, the release phase begins, and
the volume of the sound begins to taper off during the period
indicated by the low nybble of the sustain/release register.
You may notice the volume of the sound does not quite get to 0 at the
end of the release cycle, and you may need to turn off the sound to
get rid of the residual noise. You can do this either by setting the
waveform bit back to 0, changing the frequency to 0, or setting the
volume to 0.
54277 $D405 ATDCY1
Voice 1 Attack/Decay Register
Bits 0-3: Select decay cycle duration (0-15)
Bits 4-7: Select attack cycle duration (0-15)
Bits 4-7 control the duration of the attack cycle. This is the period
of time over which the volume will rise from 0 to its peak amplitude.
There are 16 durations which may be selected. The way in which the
number placed here corresponds to the elapsed time of this cycle is as
follows:
0 = 2 milliseconds 8 = 100 milliseconds
1 = 8 milliseconds 9 = 250 milliseconds
2 = 16 milliseconds 10 = 500 milliseconds
3 = 24 milliseconds 11 = 800 milliseconds
4 = 38 milliseconds 12 = 1 second
5 = 56 milliseconds 13 = 3 seconds
6 = 68 milliseconds 14 = 5 seconds
7 = 80 milliseconds 15 = 8 seconds
Bits 0-3 control the length of the decay phase, in which the volume of
the note declines from the peak reached in the attack phase to the
sustain level. The number selected corresponds to the length of this
phase as shown below:
0 = 6 milliseconds 8 = 300 milliseconds
1 = 24 milliseconds 9 = 750 milliseconds
2 = 48 milliseconds 10 = 1.5 seconds
3 = 72 milliseconds 11 = 2.4 seconds
4 = 114 milliseconds 12 = 3 seconds
5 = 168 milliseconds 13 = 9 seconds
6 = 204 milliseconds 14 = 15 seconds
7 = 240 milliseconds 15 = 24 seconds
Since the two functions share one register, you must multiply the
attack value by 16 and add it to the decay value in order to come up
with the number to be placed in the register:
REGISTER VALUE=(ATTACK*16)+DECAY
54278 $D406 SUREL1
Voice 1 Sustain/Release Control Register
Bits 0-3: Select release cycle duration (0-15)
Bits 4-7: Select sustain volume level (0-15)
Bits 4-7 select the volume level at which the note is sustained.
Following the decay cycle, the volume of the output of voice 1 will
remain at the selected sustain level as long as the gate bit of the
Control Register is set to 1. The sustain values range from 0, which
chooses no volume, to 15, which sets the output of voice 1 equal to
the peak volume achieved during the attack cycle.
Bits 0-3 determine the length of the release cycle. This phase, in
which the volume fades from the sustain level to near zero volume,
begins when the gate bit of the Control Register is set to 0 (while
leaving the waveform setting that was previously chosen). The
duration of this decline in volume corresponds to the number (0-15)
selected in the same way as for the decay value:
0 = 6 milliseconds 8 = 300 milliseconds
1 = 24 milliseconds 9 = 750 milliseconds
2 = 48 milliseconds 10 = 1.5 seconds
3 = 72 milliseconds 11 = 2.4 seconds
4 = 114 milliseconds 12 = 3 seconds
5 = 168 milliseconds 13 = 9 seconds
6 = 204 milliseconds 14 = 15 seconds
7 = 240 milliseconds 15 = 24 seconds
Location Range: 54279-54292 ($D407-$D414)
Voice 2 and Voice 3 Controls
The various control registers for these two voices correspond almost
exactly to those of voice 1. The one exception is that the sync and
ring-modulation bits of voice 2 operate on Oscillators 1 and 2, while
the same bits of the Control Register for voice 3 uses Oscillators 2
and 3.
54279 $D407 FRELO2
Voice 2 Frequency Control (low byte)
54280 $D408 FREHI2
Voice 2 Frequency Control (high byte)
54281 $D409 PWLO2
Voice 2 Pulse Waveform Width (low byte)
54282 $D40A PWHI2
Voice 2 Pulse Waveform Width (high nybble)
54283 $D40B VCREG2
Voice 2 Control Register
Bit 0: Gate Bit: 1=Start attack/decay/sustain, 0=Start release
Bit 1: Sync Bit: 1=Synchronize oscillator with Oscillator 1 frequency
Bit 2: Ring Modulation: 1=Ring modulate Oscillators 2 and 1
Bit 3: Test Bit: 1=Disable Oscillator 2
Bit 4: Select triangle waveform
Bit 5: Select sawtooth waveform
Bit 6: Select pulse waveform
Bit 7: Select noise waveform
54284 $D40C ATDCY2
Voice 2 Attack/Decay Register
Bits 0-3: Select decay cycle duration (0-15)
Bits 4-7: Select attack cycle duration (0-15)
54285 $D40D SUREL2
Voice 2 Sustain/Release Control Register
Bits 0-3: Select release cycle duration (0-15)
Bits 4-7: Select sustain volume level (0-15)
54286 $D40E FRELO3
Voice 3 Frequency Control (low byte)
54287 $D40F FREHI3
Voice 3 Frequency Control (high byte)
54288 $D410 PWLO3
Voice 3 Pulse Waveform Width (low byte)
54289 $D411 PWHI3
Voice 3 Pulse Waveform Width (high nybble)
54290 $D412 VCREG3
Voice 3 Control Register
Bit 0: Gate Bit: 1=Start attack/decay/sustain, 0=Start release
Bit 1: Sync Bit: 1=Synchronize oscillator with Oscillator 2 frequency
Bit 2: Ring Modulation: 1=Ring modulate Oscillators 3 and 2
Bit 3: Test Bit: 1=Disable Oscillator 3
Bit 4: Select triangle waveform
Bit 5: Select sawtooth waveform
Bit 6: Select pulse waveform
Bit 7: Select noise waveform
54291 $D413 ATDCY3
Voice 3 Attack/Decay Register
Bits 0-3: Select decay cycle duration (0-15)
Bits 4-7: Select attack cycle duration (0-15)
54292 $D414 SUREL3
Voice 3 Sustain/Release Control Register
Bits 0-3: Select release cycle duration (0-15)
Bits 4-7: Select sustain volume level (0-15)
Location Range: 54293-54296 ($D415-$D418)
Filter Controls
In addition to the controls detailed above for each voice, the SID
chip also provides a filtering capability which allows you to
attenuate (make quieter) certain ranges of frequencies. Any one or
all three voices can be filtered, and there is even a provision for
filtering an external signal that is input through pin 5 of the
monitor jack.
A low-pass filter is available, which suppresses the volume of those
frequency components that are above a designated cutoff level. The
high-pass filter reduces the volume of frequency components that are
below a certain level. The band-pass filter reduces the volume of
frequency components on both sides of the chosen frequency, thereby
enhancing that frequency. Finally, the high-pass and low-pass filters
can be combined to form a notch reject filter, which reduces the
folume of the frequency components nearest the selected frequency.
These various filters can dramatically change the quality of the sound
produced.
The first two registers are used to select the filter cutoff
frequency. This is the frequency above or below which any sounds will
be made quieter. The further away from this level any frequency
components are, the more their output volume will be suppresed (high-
and low-pass filters reduce the volume of those components by 12 dB
per octave away from the center frequency, while the band-pass filter
attenuates them by 6 dB per octave).
The cutoff frequency has an 11-bit range (which corresponds to the
numbers 0 to 2047). This is made up of a high-byte and three low
bits. Therefore, to compute the frequency represented by the value in
these registers, you must multiply the value in the high byte by 8,
and add the value of the low three bits. The range of cutoff
freqnencies represented by these 2048 values stretches from 30 Hz to
about 12,000 Hz. The exact frequency may be calculated with the
formula:
FREQUENCY=(REGISTER VALUE*5.8)+30Hz
An additional element in filtering is the resonance control. This
allows you to peak the volume of the frequency elements nearest the
cutoff frequency.
54293 $D415 CUTLO
Bits 0-2: Low portion of filter cutoff frequency
Bits 5-7: Unused
54294 $D416 CUTHI
Filter Cutoff Frequency (high byte)
54295 $D417 RESON
Filter Resonance Control Register
Bit 0: Filter the output of voice 1? 1=yes
Bit 1: Filter the output of voice 2? 1=yes
Bit 2: Filter the output of voice 3? 1=yes
Bit 3: Filter the output from the external input? 1=yes
Bits 4-7: Select filter resonance 0-15
Bits 0-3 are used to control which of the voices will be altered by
the filters. If one of these bits is set to 1, the corresponding
voice will be processed through the filter, and its harmonic content
will be changed accordingly. If the bit is set to 0, the voice will
pass directly to the audio output. Note that there is also a
provision for processing an external audio signal which is brought
through pin 5 of the Audio/Video Port.
Bits 4-7 control the resonance of the filter. By placing a number
from 0 to 15 in these four bits, you may peak the volume of those
frequencies nearest the cutoff. This creates an even sharper
filtering effect. A setting of 0 causes no resonance, while a setting
of 15 gives maximum resonance.
54296 $D418 SIGVOL
Volume and Filter Select Register
Bits 0-3: Select output volume (0-15)
Bit 4: Select low-pass filter, 1=low-pass on
Bit 5: Select band-pass filter, 1=band-pass on
Bit 6: Select high-pass filter, 1=high-pass on
Bit 7: Disconnect output of voice 4, 1=voice 3 off
Bits 0-3 control the volume of all outputs. The possible volume
levels range from 0 (no volume) to 15 (maximum volume). Some level of
volume must be set here before any sound can be heard.
Bits 4-6 control the selection of the low-pass, band-pass, or
high-pass filter. A 1 in any of these bits turns the corresponding
filter on. These filters can be combined, although only one cutoff
frequency can be chosen. In order for the filter to have any effect,
at least one of the voices must be routed through it using the Filter
Resonance Control Register at 54295 ($D417).
When Bit 7 is set to 1, it disconnects the output of voice 3. This
allows you to use the output of the oscillator for modulating the
frequency of the other voices, or for generating random number,
without any undesired audio output.
Location Range: 54297-54298 ($D419-$D41A)
Game Paddle Inputs
These registers allow you to read the game paddles that plug into
joystick Controller Ports 1 and 2. Each paddle uses a variable
resistor (also known as a potentiometer or pot), whose resistance is
controlled by turning a knob. The varying resistance is used to vary
the voltage to two pins of the SID chip between 0 and +5 volts.
Analog-to-digital (A/D) converters in the chip interpret these voltage
levels as binary values and store the values in these registers.
These registers return a number from 0 (minumum resistance) to 255
(maximum resistance) for each paddle in either of the ports, depending
on the position of the paddle knob.
Since these registers will read the paddle values for only one
controller port, there is a switching mechanism which allows you to
select which of the two ports to read. By writing a bit-pair of 01
(bit value of 64) to the last two bits of CIA #1 Data Port A (56320,
$DC00), you select the paddles on joystick Controller Port 1. By
writing a bit-pair of 10 (bit value of 128), you select the paddles on
Controller Port 2.
If you look at the description of Data Port A (56320, $DC00), however,
you will notice that it is also used in the keyboard scanning process.
By writing to this port, you determine which keyboard column will be
read.
Since the IRQ interrupt keyboard scan routine and the routine that
checks for the STOP key are putting values into this location 60 times
per second, you cannot reliable select the pair of paddles you wish to
read from BASIC without first turning off the keyboard IRQ. This can
be done with a POKE 56333,127. You can then read the paddles with the
statements A=PEEK(54297) and B=PEEK(54298). The IRQ can be restored
after a paddle read with a POKE 56333,129. It may, however, be easier
and more accurate in the long run to use a machine language paddle
read subroutine such as that presented on page 347 of the Commodore 64
Programmer's Reference Guide.
The paddle fire buttons are read as Bits 2 and 3 of the Data Ports A
(56320, $DC00) and B (56321, $DC01). On Port A, if Bit 2 is set to 0,
button 1 is pushed, and if Bit 3 is set to 0, button 2 is pushed. On
Port B, if Bit 2 is set to 0, button 3 is pushed, and if Bit 3 is set
to 0, button 4 is pushed.
The BASIC statements to test these buttons, thereore, are:
PB(1)=(PEEK(56321)AND4)/4
PB(2)=(PEEK(56321)AND8)/8
PB(3)=(PEEK(56320)AND4)/4
PB(4)=(PEEK(56320)AND8)/8
If a 0 is returned by the PEEK statement, the button is pushed, and if
a 1 is returned, it is not.
54297 $D419 POTX
Read Game Paddle 1 (or 3) Position
54298 $D41A POTY
Read Game Paddle 2 (or 4) Position
54299 $D41B RANDOM
Read Oscillator 3/Random Number Generator
This register lets you read the upper eight bits of the waveform
output of Oscillator 3. The kinds of numbers generated by this output
depend on the type of waveform selected.
If the sawtooth waveform is chosen, the output read by this register
will be a series of numbers which start at 0 and increase by 1 to a
maximum of 255, at which time they start over at 0.
When the triangle waveform is chosen, they increase from 0 to 255, at
which time they decrease to 0 again. The rate at which these numbers
change is determined by the frequency of Oscillator 3.
If the pulse waveform is selected, the output here will be either 255
or 0.
Finally, selecting the noise waveform will produce a random series of
numbers between 0 and 255. This allows you to use the register as a
random number generator for games.
There are many other uses for reading Oscillator 3, however,
particularly for modulation of the other voices through machine
language software. For example, the output of this register could be
added to the frequency of another voice. If the triangle waveform
were selected for this purpose, it would cause the frequency of the
other voice to rise and fall, at the frequency of Oscillator 3
(perhaps for vibrato effects). This output can also be combined with
the Filter Frequency or Pulse Width Registers to vary the values in
these registers quickly over a short period of time.
Normally, when using Oscillator 3 for modulation, the audio output of
voice 3 should be turned off by setting Bit 7 of the Volume and Filter
Select Register at 54296 ($d418) to 1. It is not necessary to gate
Bit 0 of Control Register 3 to use the oscillator, however, as its
output is not affected by the ADSR envelope cycle.
54300 $D41C ENV3
Envelope Generator 3 Output
This register allows you to read the output of the voice 3 Envelope
generator, in much the same way that the preceding register lets you
read the output of Oscillator 3. This output can also be added to
another oscillator's Frequency Control Registers, Pulse Width
Registers, or the Filter Frequency Control Register. In order to
produce any output from this register, however, the gate bit in
Control Register 3 must be set to 1. Just as in the production of
sound, setting the gate bit to 1 starts the attack/decay/sustain
cycle, and setting it back to 0 starts the release cycle.
Location Range: 54301-54303 ($D41D-$D41F)
Not Connected
The SID chip has been provided with enough addresses for 32 different
registers, but as it has only 29, the remaining three addresses are
not used. Reading them will always return a value of 255 ($FF), and
writing to them will have no effect.
Location Range: 54304-55295 ($D420-$D7FF)
SID Register Images
Since the SID chip requires enough addressing lines for only 32
locations (the minimum possible for its 29 registers), none of the
higher bits are decoded when addressing the 1K area that has been
assigned to it. The result is that every 32-byte area in this 1K
block is a mirror of every other. For the sake of clarity in your
programs, it is advisable not to use these addresses at all.
55296-56319 $D800-$DBFF
Color RAM
The normal Commodore 64 text graphics system uses a screen RAM area to
keep track of the character shapes that are to be displayed. But
since each character can be displayed in any of 16 foreground colors,
there must also be a parallel area which keeps track of the foreground
color. This 1024-byte area is used for that purpose (actually, since
there are only 1000 screen positions, only 1000 byte actually affect
screen color).
These 1000 bytes each control the foreground color of one character,
with the first byte controlling the foreground color of the character
in the upper- left corner, and subsequent bytes controlling the
characters to the right and below that character.
Because only four bits are needed to represent the 16 colors
available, only the low four bits of each Color RAM location are
connected (this is why they are sometimes referred to as Color RAM
Nybbles). Writing to the high bits will not affect them, and these
four bits will usually return a random value when read (a small number
of 64s return a constant value).
Therefore, in order to read Color RAM correctly, you must mask out the
top bits by using the logical AND function. In BASIC, you can read
the first byte of Color RAM with the statement CR=PEEK(55296)AND15.
This will always return a color value between 0 and 15. These color
values correspond to the following colors:
0 = BLACK
1 = WHITE
2 = RED
3 = CYAN (LIGHT BLUE-GREEN)
4 = PURPLE
5 = GREEN
6 = BLUE
7 = YELLOW
8 = ORANGE
9 = BROWN
10 = LIGHT RED
11 = DARK GRAY
12 = MEDIUM GRAY
13 = LIGHT GREEN
14 = LIGHT BLUE
15 = LIGHT GRAY
Color mapping affords a convenient method of changing the color of the
text display without changing the letters. By POKEing the appropriate
section of Color RAM, you can change the color of a whole section of
text on the screen without affecting the content of the text. You can
even use this method to make letters disappear by changing their
foreground colors to match the background (or by changing the
background to match the foreground), and later make them reappear by
changing them back, or by changing the background to a contrasting
color. An interesting example program which changes Color RAM quickly
in BASIC can be found under the entry for 648 ($288).
A change in the Operating System causes newer 64s to set all of the
Color RAM locations to the same value as the current background color
whenever the screen is cleared. Therefore, POKEing character codes to
the Screen RAM area will not appear to have any effect, because the
letters will be the same color as the background. This can easily be
turned to your advantage, however, because it means that all you have
to do to set all of Color RAM to a particular value is to set the
background color to that value (using the register at 53281 ($D021)),
clear the screen, and return the background color in the desired
value.
The various garphics modes use this area differently than does the
regular text mode. In high-resolution bitmap mode, this area is not
used at all, but in multicolor bitmap mode it is used to determine the
color of the 11 bit-pair for a given 8 by 8 dot area.
In multicolor text mode, only the lowest three bits are used, so only
colors 0-7 may be selected. The fourth bit is used to determine
whether a character will be displayed in regular text or multicolor
text. Characters with a color value over 7 are displayed as
multicolor characters, with the color of the 11 bit-pair determined by
the color value minus 8. Characters with a color value under 8 are
displayed normally.
It should be noted that unlike the Screen RAM area, which can be moved
to any RAM location, the Color RAM area is fixed, and will function
normally regardless of where screen memory is located.
56320-56335 $DC00-$DC0F
Complex Interface Adapter (CIA) #1 Registers
Locations 56320-56335 ($DC00-$DC0F) are used to communicate with the
Complex Interface Adapter chip #1 (CIA #1). This chip is a successor
to the earlier VIA and PIA devices used on the VIC-20 and PET. This
chip functions the same way as the VIA and PIA: It allows the 6510
microprocessor to communicate with peripheral input and output
devices. The specific devices that CIA #1 reads data from and sends
data to are the joystick controllers, the paddle fire buttons, and the
keyboard.
In addition to its two data ports, CIA #1 has two timers, each of
which can count an interval from a millionth of a second to a
fifteenth of a second. Or the timers can be hooked together to count
much longer intervals. CIA #1 has an interrupt line which is
connected to the 6510 IRQ line. These two timers can be used to
generate interrupts at specified intervals (such as the 1/60 second
interrupt used for keyboard scanning, or the more complexly timed
interrupts that drive the tape read and write routines). As you will
see below, the CIA chip has a host of other features to aid in
Input/Output functions.
Location Range: 56320-56321 ($DC00-$DC01)
CIA #1 Data Ports A and B
These registers are where the actual communication with outside
devices takes place. Bits of data written to these registers can be
sent to external devices, while bits of data that those devices send
can be read here.
The keyboard is so necessary to the computer's operation that you may
have a hard time thinking of it as a peripheral device. Nonetheless,
it cannot be directly read by the 6510 microprocessor. Instead, the
keys are connected in a matrix of eight rows by eight columns to CIA
#1 Ports A and B. The layout of this matrix is shown below.
WRITE TO PORT A READ PORT B (56321, $DC01)
56320/$DC00
Bit 7 Bit 6 Bit 5 Bit 4 Bit 3 Bit 2 Bit 1 Bit 0
Bit 7 STOP Q C= SPACE 2 CTRL <- 1
Bit 6 / ^ = RSHIFT HOME ; * LIRA
Bit 5 , @ : . - L P +
Bit 4 N O K M 0 J I 9
Bit 3 V U H B 8 G Y 7
Bit 2 X T F C 6 D R 5
Bit 1 LSHIFT E S Z 4 A W 3
Bit 0 CRSR DN F5 F3 F1 F7 CRSR RT RETURN DELETE
As you can see, there are two keys which do not appear in the matrix.
The SHIFT LOCK key is not read as a separate key, but rather is a
mechanical device which holds the left SHIFT key switch in a closed
position. The RESTORE key is not read like the other keys either. It
is directly connected to the NMI interrupt line of the 6510
microprocessor, and causes an NMI interrupt to occur whenever it is
pressed (not just when it is pressed with the STOP key).
In order to read the individual keys in the matrix, you must first set
Port A for all outputs (255, $FF), and Port B for all inputs (0),
using the Data Direction Registers. Note that this is the default
condition. Next, you must write a 0 in the bit of Data Port A that
corresponds to the column that you wish to read, and a 1 to the bits
that correspond to columns you wish to ignore. You will then be able
to read Data Port B to see which keys in that column are being pushed.
A 0 in any bit position signifies that the key in the corresponding
row of the selected column is being pressed, while a 1 indicates that
the key is not being pressed. A value of 255 ($FF) means that no keys
in that column are being pressed.
Fortunately for us all, an interrupt routine causes the keyboard to be
read, and the results are made available to the Operating System
automatically every 1/60 second. And even when the normal interrupt
routine cannot be used, you can use the Kernal SCNKEY routine at 65439
($FF9F) to read the keyboard.
These same data ports are also used to read the joystick controllers.
Although common sense might lead you to believe that you could read
the joystick that is plugged into the port marked Controller Port 1
from Data Port A, and the second joystick from Data Port B, there is
nothing common about the Commodore 64. Controller Port 1 is read from
Data Port B, and Controller Port 2 is read from CIA #1 Data Port A.
Joysticks consist of five switches, one each for up, down, right, and
left directions, and another for the fire button. The switches are
read like the key switches--if the switch is pressed, the
corresponding bit will read 0, and if it is not pressed, the bit will
be set to 1. From BASIC, you can PEEK the ports and use the AND and
NOT operators to mask the unused bits and inverse the logic for easier
comprehension. For example, to read the joystick in Controller Port
1, you could use the statement:
S1=NOT PEEK(56321)AND15
The meaning of the possible numbers returned are:
0 = none pressed
1 = up
2 = down
4 = left
5 = up left
6 = down left
8 = right
9 = up right
10 = down right
The same technique can be used for joystick 2, by substituting 56320
as the number to PEEK. By the way, the 3 and 7 aren't listed because
they represent impossible combinations like up-down.
To read the fire buttons, you can PEEK the appropriate port and use
the AND operator to mask all but bit 4:
T1=(PEEK(56321)AND16)/16
The above will return a 0 if the button is pressed, and a 1 if it is
not. Substitute location 56320 as the location to PEEK for Trigger
Button 2.
Since CIA #1 Data Port B is used for reading the keyboard as well as
joystick 1, some confusion can result. The routine that checks the
keyboard has no way of telling whether a particular bit was set to 0
by a keypress or one of the joystick switches. For example, if you
plug the joystick into Controller Port 1 and push the stick to the
right, the routine will interpret this as the 2 key being pressed,
because both set the same bit to 0. Likewise, when you read the
joystick, it will register as being pushed to the right if the 2 key
is being pressed.
The problem of mistaking the keyboard for the joystick can be solved
by turning off the keyscan momentarily when reading the stick with a
POKE 56333, 127:POKE 56320,255, and restoring it after the read with a
POKE 56333,129. Sometimes you can use the simpler solution of
clearing the keyboard buffer after reading the joystick, with a POKE
198,0.
The problem of mistaking the joystick for a keypress is much more
difficult--there is no real way to turn off the joystick. Many
commercially available games just use Controller Port 2 to avoid the
conflict. So, if you can't beat them, sit back and press your
joystick to the left in order to slow down a program listing (the
keyscan routine thinks that it is the CTRL key).
As if all of the above were not enough, Port A is also used to control
which set of paddles is read by the SID chip, and to read the paddle
fire buttons. Since there are two paddles per joystick Controller
Port, and only two SID registers for reading paddle positions, there
has to be a method for switching the paddle read from joystick Port 1
to joystick Port 2.
When Bit 7 of Port A is set to 1 and Bit 6 is cleared to 0, the SID
registers will read the paddles on Port 1. When Bit 7 is set to 0 and
Bit 6 is set to 1, the paddles on Port 2 are read by the SID chip
registers. Note that this also conflicts with the keyscan routine,
which is constantly writing different values to CIA #1 Data Port A in
order to select the keyboard column to read (most of the time, the
value for the last column is written to this port, which coincides
with the selection of paddles on joystick Port 1). Therefore, in
order to get an accurate reading, you must turn off the keyscan IRQ
and select which joystick port you want to read. See POTX at 54297
($D419), which is the SID register where the paddles are read, for the
exact technique.
Although the SID chip is used to read the paddle settings, the fire
buttons are read at CIA #1 Data Ports A and B. The fire buttons for
the paddles plugged into Controller Port 1 are read at Data Port B
(56321, $DC01), while those for the paddles plugged into Controller
Port 2 are read from Data Port A (56320, $DC00). The fire buttons are
read at Bit 2 and Bit 3 of each port (the same as the joystick left
and joystick right switches), and as usual, the bit will read 0 if the
corresponding button is pushed, and 1 if it is not.
Although only two of the rout paddle values can be read at any one
time, you can always read all four paddle buttons. See the game
paddle input description at 54297 ($D419) for the BASIC statements
used to read these buttons.
Finally, Data Port B can also be used as an output by either Timer A
or B. It is possible to set a mode in which the timers do not cause
an interrupt when they run down (see the descriptions of Control
Registers A and B at 56334-5 ($DC0E-F)). Instead, they cause the
output on Bit 6 or 7 of Data Port B to change. Timer A can be set
either to pulse the output of Bit 6 for one machine cycle, or to
toggle that bit from 1 to 0 or 0 to 1. Timer B can use Bit 7 of this
register for the same purpose.
56320 $DC00 CIAPRA
Data Port Register A
Bit 0: Select to read keyboard column 0
Read joystick 2 up direction
Bit 1: Select to read keyboard column 1
Read joystick 2 down direction
Bit 2: Select to read keyboard column 2
Read joystick 2 left direction
Read paddle 1 fire button
Bit 3: Select to read keyboard column 3
Read joystick 2 right direction
Read paddle 2 fire button
Bit 4: Select to read keyboard column 4
Read joystick 2 fire button
Bit 5: Select to read keyboard column 5
Bit 6: Select to read keyboard column 6
Select to read paddles on Port A or B
Bit 7: Select to read keyboard column 7
Select to read paddles on Port A or B
56321 $DC01 CIAPRB
Data Port Register B
Bit 0: Read keyboard row 0
Read joystick 1 up direction
Bit 1: Read keyboard row 1
Read joystick 1 down direction
Bit 2: Read keyboard row 2
Read joystick 1 left direction
Read paddle 1 fire button
Bit 3: Read keyboard row 3
Read joystick 1 right direction
Read paddle 2 fire button
Bit 4: Read keyboard row 4
Read joystick 1 fire button
Bit 5: Read keyboard row 5
Bit 6: Read keyboard row 6
Toggle or pulse data output for Timer A
Bit 7: Read keyboard row 7
Toggle or pulse data output for Timer B
Location Range: 56322-56323 ($DC02-$DC03)
CIA #1 Data Direction Registers A and B
These Data Direction Registers control the direction of data flow over
Data Ports A and B. Each bit controls the direction of the data on
the corresponding bit of the port. If teh bit of the Direction
Register is set to a 1, the corresponding Data Port bit will be used
for data output. If the bit is set to a 0, the corresponding Data
Port bit will be used for data input. For example, Bit 7 of Data
Direction Register A controls Bit 7 of Data Port A, and if that
direction bit is set to 0, Bit 7 of Data Port A will be used for data
input. If the direction bit is set to 1, however, data Bit 7 on Port
A will be used for data output.
The default setting for Data Direction Register A is 255 (all
outputs), and for Data Direction Register B it is 0 (all inputs).
This corresponds to the setting used when reading the keyboard (the
keyboard column number is written to Data Port A, and the row number
is then read in Data Port B).
56322 $DC02 CIDDRA
Data Direction Register A
Bit 0: Select Bit 0 of Data Port A for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 1: Select Bit 1 of Data Port A for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 2: Select Bit 2 of Data Port A for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 3: Select Bit 3 of Data Port A for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 4: Select Bit 4 of Data Port A for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 5: Select Bit 5 of Data Port A for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 6: Select Bit 6 of Data Port A for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 7: Select Bit 7 of Data Port A for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
56323 $DC03 CIDDRB
Data Direction Register B
Bit 0: Select Bit 0 of Data Port B for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 1: Select Bit 1 of Data Port B for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 2: Select Bit 2 of Data Port B for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 3: Select Bit 3 of Data Port B for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 4: Select Bit 4 of Data Port B for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 5: Select Bit 5 of Data Port B for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 6: Select Bit 6 of Data Port B for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 7: Select Bit 7 of Data Port B for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Location Range: 56324-56327 ($DC04-$DC07)
Timers A and B Low and High Bytes
These four timer registers (two for each timer) have different
functions depending on whether you are reading from them or writing to
them. When you read from these registers, you get the present value
of the Timer Counter (which counts down from its initial value to 0).
When you write data to these registers, it is stored in the Timer
Latch, and from there it can be used to load the Timer Counter using
the Force Load bit of Control Register A or B (see 56334-5 ($DC0E-F)
below).
These interval timers can hold a 16-bit number from 0 to 65535, in
normal 6510 low-byte, high-byte format (VALUE=LOW BYTE+256*HIGH BYTE).
Once the Timer Counter is set to an initial value, and the timer is
started, the timer will count down one number every microprocessor
clock cycle. Since the clock speed of the 64 (using the American NTSC
television standard) is 1,022,730 cycles per second, every count takes
approximately a millionth of a second. The formula for calculating
the amount of time it will take for the timer to count down from its
latch value to 0 is:
TIME=LATCH VALUE/CLOCK SPEED
where LATCH VALUE is the value written to the low and high timer
registers (LATCH VALUE=TIMER LOW+256*TIMER HIGH), and CLOCK SPEED is
1,022,370 cycles per second for American (NTSC) standard television
monitors, or 985,250 for European (PAL) monitors.
When Timer Counter A or B gets to 0, it will set Bit 0 or 1 in the
Interrupt Control Register at 56333 ($DC0D). If the timer interrupt
has been enabled (see 56333 ($DC0D)), an IRQ will take place, and the
high bit of the Interrupt Control Register will be set to 1.
Alternately, if the Port B output bit is set, the timer will write
data to Bit 6 or 7 of Port B. After the timer gets to 0, it will
reload the Timer Latch Value, and either stop or count down again,
depending on whether it is in one-shot or continuous mode (determined
by Bit 3 of the Control Register).
Although usually a timer will be used to count the microprocessor
cycles, Timer A can count either the microprocessor clock cycles or
external pulses on the CTN line, which is connected to pin 4 of the
User Port.
Timer B is even more versatile. In addition to these two sources,
Timer B can count the number of times that Timer A goes to 0. By
setting Timer A to count the microprocessor clock, and setting Timer B
to count the number of times that Timer A zeros, you effectively link
the two timers into one 32-bit timer that can count up to 70 minutes
with accuracy within 1/15 second.
In the 64, CIA #1 Timer A is used to generate the interrupt which
drives the routine for reading the keyboard and updating the software
clock. Both Timers A and B are also used for the timing of the
routines that read and write tape data. Normally, Timer A is set for
continuous operation, and latched with a value of 149 in the low byte
and 66 in the high byte, for a total Latch Value of 17045. This means
that it is set to count to 0 every 17045/1022730 seconds, or
approximately 1/60 second.
For tape reads and writes, the tape routines take over the IRQ
vectors. Even though the tape write routines use the on-chip I/O port
at location 1 for the actual data output to the cassette, reading and
writing to the cassette uses both CIA #1 Timer A and Timer B for
timing the I/O routines.
56324 $DC04 TIMALO
Timer A (low byte)
56325 $DC05 TIMAHI
Timer A (high byte)
56326 $DC06 TIMBLO
Timer B (low byte)
56327 $DC07 TIMBHI
Timer B (high byte)
Location Range: 56328-56331 ($DC08-$DC0B)
Time of Day Clock (TOD)
In addition to the two general-purpose timers, the 6526 CIA chip has a
special-purpose Time of Day Clock, which keeps time in a format that
humans can understand a little more easily than microseconds.
This Time of Day Clock even has an alarm, which can cause an interrupt
at a specific time. It is organized in four registers, one each for
hours, minutes, seconds, and tenths of seconds. Each register reads
out in Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) format, for easier conversion to
ASCII digits. A BCD byte is divided into two nybbles, each of which
represents a single digit in base 10. Even though a four-bit nybble
can hold a number from 0 to 15, only the base 10 digits of 0-9 are
used. Therefore, 10 0'clock would be represented by a byte in the
hours register with the nybbles 0001 and 0000, which stand for the
digits 1 and 0. The binary value of this byte would be 16 (16 times
the high nybble plus the low nybble). Each of the other registers
operates in the same manner. In addition, Bit 7 of the hours register
is used as an AM/PM flag. If that bit is set to 1, it indicates PM,
and if it is set to 0, the time is AM.
The Time of Day Clock Registers can be used for two purposes,
depending on whether you are reading them or writing to them. If you
are reading them, you will always be reading the time. There is a
latching feature associated with reading the hours register in order
to solve the problem of the time changing while you are reading the
registers. For example, if you were reading the hours register just
as the time was changing from 10:59 to 11:00, it is possible that you
would read the 10 in the hours register, and by the time you read the
minutes register it would have changed from 59 to 00. Therefore, you
would read 10:00 instead of either 10:59 or 11:00.
To prevent this kind of mistake, the Time of Day Clock Registers stop
updating as soon as you read the hours register, and do not start
again until you read the tenths of seconds register. Of course, the
clock continues to keep time internally even though it does not update
the registers. If you want to read only minutes, or seconds or tenths
of seconds, there is no problem, and no latching will occur. But
anytime you read hours, you must follow it by reading tenths of
seconds, even if you don't care about them, or else the registers will
not continue to update.
Writing to these registers either sets the time or the alarm,
depending on the setting of Bit 7 of Control Register B (56335,
$DC0F). If that bit is set to 1, writing to the Time of Day registers
sets the alarm. If the bit is set to 0, writing to the Time of Day
registers sets the Time of Day clock. In either case, as with reading
the registers, there is a latch function. This function stops the
clock from updating when you write to the hours register. The clock
will not start again until you write to the tenths of seconds
registers.
The only apparent use of the Time of Day Clock by the 64's Operating
System is in the BASIC RND statement. There, the seconds and tenths
of seconds registers are read and their values used as part of the
seed value for the RND(0) command.
Nonetheless, this clock can be an invaluable resource for the 64 user.
It will keep time more accurately than the software clock maintained
at locations 60-162 ($A0-$A2) by the Timer A interrupt routine. And
unlike that software clock, the Time of Day Clock will not be
disturbed when I/O operations disrupt the Timer A IRQ, or when the IRQ
vector is diverted elsewhere. Not even a cold start RESET will
disrupt the time. For game timers, just set the time for 00:00:00:0
and it will keep track of elapsed time in hours, minutes, seconds and
tenths of seconds format.
The following digital clock program, written in BASIC, will
demonstrate the use of these timers:
10 PRINT CHR$(147):GOSUB 200
20 H=PEEK(56331):POKE 1238,(H AND 16)/16+48:POKE 1239,(H AND 15)+48
30 M=PEEK(56330):POKE 1241,(M AND 240)/16+48:POKE 1242,(M AND 15)+48
40 S=PEEK(56329):POKE 1244,(S AND 240)/16+48:POKE 1245,(S AND 15)+48
50 T=PEEK(56328)AND15:POKE 1247,T+48:GOTO 20
200 INPUT"WHAT IS THE HOUR";H$:IF H$="" THEN 200
210 H=0:IF LEN(H$)>1 THEN H=16
220 HH=VAL(RIGHT$(H$,1)):H=H+HH:POKE56331,H
230 INPUT "WHAT IS THE MINUTE";M$:IF M$=""THEN 200
240 M=0:IF LEN(M$)>1 THEN M=16*VAL(LEFT$(M$,1))
250 MM=VAL(RIGHT$(M$,1)):M=M+MM:POKE56330,M
260 INPUT "WHAT IS THE SECOND";S$:IF S$=""THEN 200
270 S=0:IF LEN(S$)>1 THEN S=16*VAL(LEFT$(S$,1))
280 SS=VAL(RIGHT$(S$,1)):S=S+SS:POKE56329,S:POKE56328,0
290 POKE 53281,1:PRINT CHR$(147):POKE 53281,6
300 POKE 1240,58:POKE 1243,58:POKE 1246,58:GOTO 20
56328 $DC08 TODTEN
Time of Day Clock Tenths of Seconds
Bits 0-3: Time of Day tenths of second digit (BCD)
Bits 4-7: Unused
56329 $DC09 TODSEC
Time of Day Clock Seconds
Bits 0-3: Second digit of Time of Day seconds (BCD)
Bits 4-6: First digit of Time of Day seconds (BCD)
Bit 7: Unused
56330 $DC0A TODMIN
Time of Day Clock Minutes
Bits 0-3: Second digit of Time of Day minutes (BCD)
Bits 4-6: First digit of Time of Day minutes (BCD)
Bit 7: Unused
56331 $DC0B TODHRS
Time of Day Clock Hours
Bits 0-3: Second digit of Time of Day hours (BCD)
Bit 4: First digit of Time of Day hours (BCD)
Bits 5-6: Unused
Bit 7: AM/PM Flag (1=PM, 0=AM)
56332 $DC0C CIASDR
Serial Data Port
The CIA chip has an on-chip serial port, which allows you to send or
receive a byte of data one bit at a time, with the most significant
bit (Bit 7) being transferred first. Control Register A at 56334
($DC0E) allows you to choose input or output modes. In input mode, a
bit of data is read from the SP line (pin 5 of the User Port) whenever
a signal on the CNT line (pin 4) appears to let you know that it is
time for a read. After eight bits are received this way, the data is
placed in the Serial Port Register, and an interrupt is generated to
let you know that the register should be read.
In output mode, you write data to the Serial Port Register, and it is
sent out over the SP line (pin 5 of the User Port), using Timer A for
the baud rate generator. Whenever a byte of data is written to this
register, transmission will start as long as Timer A is running and in
continuous mode. Data is sent at half the Timer A rage, and an output
will appear on the CNT line (pin 4 of the User Port) whenever a bit is
sent. After all eight bits have been sent, an interrupt is generated
to indicate that it is time to load the next byte to send into the
Serial Register.
The Serial Data Register is not used by the 64, which does all of its
serial I/O through the regular data ports.
56333 $DC0D CIAICR
Interrupt Control Register
Bit 0: Read / did Timer A count down to 0? (1=yes)
Write/ enable or disable Timer A interrupt (1=enable, 0=disable)
Bit 1: Read / did Timer B count down to 0? (1=yes)
Write/ enable or disable Timer B interrupt (1=enable, 0=disable)
Bit 2: Read / did Time of Day Clock reach the alarm time? (1=yes)
Write/ enable or disable TOD clock alarm interrupt (1=enable,
0=disable)
Bit 3: Read / did the serial shift register finish a byte? (1=yes)
Write/ enable or disable serial shift register interrupt (1=enable,
0=disable)
Bit 4: Read / was a signal sent on the flag line? (1=yes)
Write/ enable or disable FLAG line interrupt (1=enable, 0=disable)
Bit 5: Not used
Bit 6: Not used
Bit 7: Read / did any CIA #1 source cause an interrupt? (1=yes)
Write/ set or clear bits of this register (1=bits written with 1 will
be set, 0=bits written with 1 will be cleared)
This register is used to control the five interrupt sources on the
6526 CIA chip. These sources are Timer A, Timer B, the Time of Day
Clock, the Serial Register, and the FLAG line. Timers A and B cause
an interrupt when they count down to 0. The Time of Day Clock
generates an interrupt when it reaches the ALARM time. The Serial
Shift Register interrupts when it compiles eight bits of input or
output. An external signal pulling the CIA hardware line called FLAG
low will also cause an interrupt (on CIA #1, this FLAG line is
connected to the Cassette Read line of the Cassette Port).
Even if the condition for a particular interrupt is satisfied, the
interrupt must still be enabled for an IRQ actually to occur. This is
done by writing to the Interrupt Control Register. What happens when
you write to this register depends on the way that you set Bit 7. If
you set it to 0, any other bit that was written to with a 1 will be
cleared, and the corresponding interrupt will be disabled. If you set
Bit 7 to 1, any bit written to with a 1 will be set, and the
corresponding interrupt will be enabled. In either case, the
interrupt enable flags for those bits written to with a 0 will not be
affected.
For example, in order to disable all interrupts from BASIC, you could
POKE 56333, 127. This sets Bit 7 to 0, which clears all of the other
bits, since they are all written with 1's. Don't try this from BASIC
immediate mode, as it will turn off Timer A which causes the IRQ for
reading the keyboard, so that it will in effect turn off the keyboard.
To turn on the Timer A interrupt, a program could POKE 56333,129. Bit
7 is set to 1 and so is Bit 0, so the interrupt which corresponds to
Bit 0 (Timer A) is enabled.
When you read this register, you can tell if any of the conditions for
a CIA Interrupt were satisfied because the corresponding bit will be
set to a 1. For example, if Timer A counts down to 0, Bit 0 of this
register will be set to 1. If, in addition, the mask bit that
corresponds to that interrupt source is set to 1, and an interrupt
occurs, Bit 7 will also be set. This allows a multi-interrupt system
to read one bit and see if the source of a particular interrupt was
CIA #1. You should note, however, that reading this register clears
it, so you should preserve its contents in RAM if you want to test
more than one bit.
56334 $DC0E CIACRA
Control Register A
Bit 0: Start Timer A (1=start, 0=stop)
Bit 1: Select Timer A output on Port B (1=Timer A output appears on Bit 6 of
Port B)
Bit 2: Port B output mode (1=toggle Bit 6, 0=pulse Bit 6 for one cycle)
Bit 3: Timer A run mode (1=one-shot, 0=continuous)
Bit 4: Force latched value to be loaded to Timer A counter (1=force load
strobe)
Bit 5: Timer A input mode (1=count microprocessor cycles, 0=count signals on
CNT line at pin 4 of User Port)
Bit 6: Serial Port (56332, $DC0C) mode (1=output, 0=input)
Bit 7: Time of Day Clock frequency (1=50 Hz required on TOD pin, 0=60 Hz)
Bits 0-3. This nybble controls Timer A. Bit 0 is set to 1 to start
the timer counting down, and set to 0 to stop it. Bit 3 sets the
timer for one-shot or continuous mode.
In one-shot mode, the timer counts down to 0, sets the counter value
back to the latch value, and then sets Bit 0 back to 0 to stop the
timer. In continuous mode, it reloads the latch value and starts all
over again.
Bits 1 and 2 allow you to send a signal on Bit 6 of Data Port B when
the timer counts. Setting Bit 1 to 1 forces this output (which
overrides the Data Direction Register B Bit 6, and the normal Data
Port B value). Bit 2 allows you to choose the form this output to Bit
6 of Data Port B will take. Setting Bit 2 to a value of 1 will cause
Bit 6 to toggle to the opposite value when the timer runs down (a
value of 1 will change to 0, and a value of 0 will change to 1).
Setting Bit 2 to a value of 0 will cause a single pulse of a one
machine-cycle duration (about a millionth of a second) to occur.
Bit 4. This bit is used to load the Timer A counter with the value
that was previously written to the Timer Low and High Byte Registers.
Writing a 1 to this bit will force the load (although there is no data
stored here, and the bit has no significance on a read).
Bit 5. Bit 5 is used to control just what it is Timer A is counting.
If this bit is set to 1, it counts the microprocessor machine cycles
(which occur at the rate of 1,022,730 cycles per second). If the bit
is set to 0, the timer counts pulses on the CNT line, which is
connected to pin 4 of the User Port. This allows you to use the CIA
as a frequency counter or an event counter, or to measure pulse width
or delay times of external signals.
Bit 6. Whether the Serial Port Register is currently inputting or
outputting data (see the entry for that register at 56332 ($DC0C) for
more information) is controlled by this bit.
Bit 7. This bit allows you to select from software whether the Time
of Day Clock will use a 50 Hz or 60 Hz signal on the TOD pin in order
to keep accurate time (the 64 uses a 60 Hz signal on that pin).
56335 $DC0F CIACRB
Control Register B
Bit 0: Start Timer B (1=start, 0=stop)
Bit 1: Select Timer B output on Port B (1=Timer B output appears on
Bit 7 of Port B)
Bit 2: Port B output mode (1=toggle Bit 7, 0=pulse Bit 7 for one
cycle)
Bit 3: Timer B run mode (1=one-shot, 0=continuous)
Bit 4: Force latched value to be loaded to Timer B counter (1=force
load strobe)
Bits 5-6: Timer B input mode
00 = Timer B counts microprocessor cycles
01 = Count signals on CNT line at pin 4 of User Port
10 = Count each time that Timer A counts down to 0
11 = Count Timer A 0's when CNT pulses are also present
Bit 7: Select Time of Day write (0=writing to TOD registers sets
alarm, 1=writing to TOD registers sets clock)
Bits 0-3. This nybble performs the same functions for Timer B that
Bits 0-3 of Control Register A perform for Timer A, except that Timer
B output on Data Port B appears at Bit 7, and not Bit 6.
Bits 5 and 6. These two bits are used to select what Timer B counts.
If both bits are set to 0, Timer B counts the microprocessor machine
cycles (which occur at the rate of 1,022,730 cycles per second). If
Bit 6 is set to 0 and Bit 5 is set to 1, Timer B counts pulses on the
CNT line, which is connected to pin 4 of the User Port. If Bit 6 is
set to 1 and Bit 5 is set to 0, Timer B counts Timer A underflow
pulses, which is to say that it counts the number of times that Timer
A counts down to 0. This is used to link the two numbers into one
32-bit timer that can count up to 70 minutes with accuracy to within
1/15 second. Finally, if both bits are set to 1, Timer B counts the
number of times that Timer A counts down to 0 and there is a signal on
the CNT line (pin 4 of the User Port).
Bit 7. Bit 7 controls what happens when you write to the Time of Day
registers. If this bit is set to 1, writing to the TOD registers sets
the ALARM time. If this bit is cleared to 0, writing to the TOD
registers sets the TOD clock.
Location Range: 56336-56575 ($DC10-$DCFF)
CIA #1 Register Images
Since the CIA chip requires only enough addressing lines to handle 16
registers, none of the higher bits are decoded when addressing the
256-byte area that has been assigned to it. The result is that every
16-byte area in this 256-byte block is a mirror of every other. Even
so, for the sake of clarity in your programs it is advisable to use
the base address of the chip, and not use the higher addresses to
communicate with the chip.
56576-56591 $DD00-$DD0F
Complex Interface Adapter (CIA) #2 Registers
Locations 56576-56591 ($DD00-$DD0F) are used to address the Complex
Interface Adapter chip #2 (CIA #2). Since the chip itself is
identical to CIA #1, which is addressed at 56320 ($DC00), the
discussion here will be limited to the use which the 64 makes of this
particular chip. For more general information on the chip registers,
please see the corresponding entries for CIA #1.
One of the significant differences between CIA chips #1 and #1 is the
use to which Data Ports A and B are put. The peripheral input and
output devices that CIA #2 controls are those on the Serial Bus (such
as the 1541 Disk Drive and 1525 printer), the RS-232 device (which is
used for telecommunications), and the User Port, an eight-bit parallel
port that can be turned to whatever purpose the user desires. In
addition, Data Port A has the important task of selecting the 16K bank
ofmemory that will be used by the VIC-II chip for graphics.
Another significant difference between CIA chips #1 and #2 is that the
interrupt line of CIA #1 is wired to the 6510 IRQ line, while that of
CIA #2 is wired to the NMI line. This means that interrupts from this
chip cannot be masked by setting the Interrupt disable flag (SEI).
They can be disabled from CIA's Mask Register, though. Be sure to use
the NMI vector when setting up routines to be driven by interrupts
generated by this chip.
Location Range: 56576-56577 ($DD00-$DD01)
CIA #2 Data Ports A and B
These registers are where the communication with the Serial Bus,
RS-232 device, and User Port take place. The Serial Bus is like the
IEEE bus which is used by the PET, in that it allows more than one
device to be connected to the port at a time, in a daisychain
arrangement. Since each byte of data is sent one bit at a time,
however, the Serial Bus is at least eight times slower than the IEEE.
It is presently used to control the 1541 Disk Drive and 1525 printer,
and other devices (such as printer interface for Centronics- type
parallel pritners and stringy floppy wafer tape storage units) can be
placed on this bus.
Data Port A is used for communication with the Serial Bus. Bits 5 and
7 are used for Serial Bus Data Output and Input, respectively, and
Bits 4 and 6 are used for the Serial Bus Clock Pulse Output and Input.
Bit 3 of Data Port A is used to send the ATN signal on the Serial Bus.
The 64 has built-in software to handle RS-232 communications through a
modem or other device plugged in the RS-232/User Port. The RS-232
device uses Bit 2 of Data Port A for data output (it is the only line
from Port A that is connected to the RS-232/User Port jack). It also
makes heavy use of Port B, using Bit 7 for the Data Set Ready (DSR)
signal, Bit 6 for the Clear to Send (CTS), Bit 4 for the Carrier
Detect (DCD), Bit 3 for the Ring Indicator (RI), Bit 2 for Data
Terminal Ready (DTR), Bit 1 for Request to Send (RTS), and Bit 0 for
data input. See locations 659-660 ($293-$294) for more details on the
RS-232 device.
All of the data lines which the RS-232 device uses are also available
to the user as part of the User Port. All of the Port B data lines,
and Bit 2 of Port A, are brought out to the User Port connector on the
back of the 64. These data bits are utilized in the normal way: The
port connections are made to TTL-level input or output devices, and
the direction of data is determined by the Data Direction Registers.
In addition, the User Port has pins connected to the two CIA Serial
Ports (whose eight-bit shift registers are well-suited for
serial-to-parallel and parallel-to-serial conversion),and the two CNT
lines which aid in the operation of the Serial Ports. The CNT lines
can also be used in conjunction with the CIA Timers, and allow them to
be used as frequency counters, event counters, interval timers, etc.
The advanced features of the CIA chip make almost any type of
interfacing application possible, and in the near future we will
probably see many interesting applications for the User Port on the
64. A pin description of tthe User Port connector is provided below:
User RS-232
Port CIA DB-25
Pin Line Pin Description
1 Ground
2 +5 Volts (100 milliamps maximum)
3 RESET (grounding this pin causes a cold start)
4 CNT1 CIA #1 Serial Port and Timer Counter
5 SP1 CIA #1 Serial Data Port
6 CNT2 CIA #2 Serial Port and Timer Counter
7 SP2 CIA #2 Serial Data Port
8 PC2 CIA #2 handshaking line
9 Connected to the ATN line of the Serial Bus
10 9 Volts AC (+ phase, 50 milliamps maximum)
11 9 volts AC (- phase, 50 milliamps maximum)
12 Ground
A 1 Ground
B FLAG2 CIA #2 handshaking line
C PB0 3 Port B Bit 0--RS-232 Received Data (SIN)
D PB1 4 Port B Bit 1--RS-232 Request to Send (RTS)
E PB2 20 Port B Bit 2--RS-232 Data Terminal Ready (DTR)
F PB3 22 Port B Bit 3--RS-232 Ring Indicator (RI)
H PB4 8 Port B Bit 4--RS-232 Carrier Detect (DCD)
J PB5 Port B Bit 5
K PB6 5 Port B Bit 6--RS-232 Clear to Send (CTS)
L PB7 6 Port B Bit 7--RS-232 Data Set Ready (DSR)
M PA2 2 Port A Bit 2--RS-232 Transmitted Data (Sout)
N 7 Ground
One of the handshaking lines on the above chart, PC2, was not covered
in the discussion of CIA #1, because that line of CIA #1 is not
connected to anything. The CIA #2 PC line is accessible from the User
Port, however. This line will go low for one cycle following a read
or write of Port B on CIA #2. This signal lets external devices know
when data has been read or written.
Bits 0 and 1 of CIA #2 Port A have an extremely important function.
As mentioned in the section on the VIC-II chip (53248, $D000), the
video chip can address only 16K of memory at a time, and all graphics
data must be stored in that 16K block in order to be displayed.
Within this area, sprite graphics data may be placed in any of 256
groups of 64 bytes each. Character data can be stored in any of eight
2K blocks. Text screen memory may be in any of 16 1K areas, and
bitmap screen memory may be in either of two 8K sections.
When you turn the power on, the VIC-II uses the bottom 16K of memory
for graphics. Unfortunately, this block of memory is also used
extensively for other important purposes. Though some means of
eliminating these conflicts are discussed above, in many situations
you will want to change from the default 16K bank at the low end of
memory.
Bits 0 and 1 select the current 16K bank for video memory from the
four possible choices using the following bit patterns:
00 (bit value of 0) Bank 3 (49152-65535, $C000-$FFFF)
01 (bit value of 1) Bank 2 (32768-49151, $8000-$BFFF)
10 (bit value of 2) Bank 1 (16384-32767, $4000-$7FFF)
11 (bit value of 3) Bank 0 (0-16383, $0-$3FFF)
The technique for making this change from BASIC is discussed below.
But before we go ahead and start changing banks, let's briefly review
the contents of these areas, and the considerations for using them for
graphics.
Block 0. This is normally used for system variables and BASIC program
text. Locations 1024-2047 ($400-$7FF) are reserved for the default
position of screen memory.
There is an addition limitation on memory usage of this block, as the
VIC-II sees the character generator ROM at 4096-8191 ($1000-$1FFF),
making this portion of memory unavailable for other graphics data.
Generally, there is little free space here for graphics display data.
Locations 679-767 ($2A7- $2FF) are unused, and could hold one sprite
shape (number 11) or data for 11 characters. The area from 820-1023
($334-$3FF), which includes the cassette I/O buffer, is available for
graphics memory, and is large enough to hold three sprite shapes
(numbers 13, 14, and 15), or data for 25 characters (numbers 103-127).
But getting enough memory for bitmap graphics requires that you either
reserve memory after the end of BASIC text by lowering the end of
BASIC pointer at 56 ($38), or raise the start of BASIC pointer at 44
($2C). See the entries for these pointers for more details.
Block 1. Block 1 is normally used for BASIC program storage. When
using this bank, the VIC-II does not have access to the character
generator ROM. Providing that you lower the top of memory so that
BASIC programs do not interfere, this area is wide open for sprite
shapes, character graphics, and bitmap graphics.
The drawbacks to useing this bank are the unavailability of the
character ROM and the limitation on BASIC program space (as little as
14K). The absence of the character ROM is a relatively minor
nuisance, because you can always switch in the ROM and copy any or all
of the characters to RAM (see the entries for location 1 and the
alternate entry for 53248 ($D000), the Character ROM, for details).
This block may be a good alternate choice to avoid potential conflicts
with other applications that use higher memory.
Block 2. The third block (Block 2) consists of 8K of RAM, half of
which is seen by the VIC-II chip as character ROM, and the 8K BASIC
interpreter ROM. The BASIC ROM area is available for graphics. This
is possible because of the 64's special addressing. The VIC-II chip
reads only from RAM, and thus sees the RAM underneath the BASIC ROM,
even if the 6510 has ROM switched in. The 6510, on the other hand,
always writes to RAM, even when dealing with memory it reads as ROM.
Whatever is written to the RAM underlying the BASIC ROM is displayed
normally by the VIC-II chip. This opens up an extra 8K are for
sprites and character data under the BASIC ROM.
You should keep in mind that while you can write to this area, you
cannot read it from BASIC. This may not be a serious problem when it
comes to character sets and sprite data, but it's more of a drawback
if you want to use this RAM for screen memory.
For example, the Operating System has to read the text screen to move
the cursor properly, and if it reads the ROM value instead of the RAM
screen data, it gets hopelessly confused, making it impossible to type
in any commands.
Likewise, you would not be able to read the high-resolution screen if
it were placed here, without some machine language trickery. With
locations 36863-40959 ousted by the character ROM, only 4K of true RAM
remains for use as screen memory, not enough for a complete
high-resolution screen. Therefore, this block is not recommended for
use in bitmap mode if your program needs to check the screen.
Otherwise, this is a good place for graphics memory, particularly if
you need to emulate the screen configuration of the PET.
Block 3. Normally Block 3 contains 4K of RAM that is completely
unused by the system, 4K if I/O registers, and the 8K Operating System
Kernal ROM. It is very convenient to use when you need a lot of
memory space for both graphics and a BASIC program. Although the
character ROM is not available, it can be copied to RAM. The area
under the Kernal ROM can be used as explained above. One possible
conflict that you should be aware of is that the current version of
the DOS support program is written to reside at 52224 ($CC00). It
would be safest to avoid using 52224-53247 for graphics if you plan to
use DOS support.
Changing banks. Once you have selected a bank of 16K to use, the
procedure for making the change from BASIC is as follows:
1. Set the Data Direction Register if necessary. In order to use
Bits 0 and 1 of Port A to change banks, these bits must be set as
outputs in Data Direction Register A. Since this is the default
condition on powering-up, this step normally will not be needed.
2. Select a bank. Banks 0-3 can be chosen by entering the following
lines:
POKE 56578,PEEK(56578) OR 3: REM SET FOR OUTPUT IF NOT ALREADY
POKE 56576,(PEEK(56576) AND 252) OR (3-BANK): REM BANK IS BANK #, MUST
BE 0-3
3. Set the VIC-II register for character memory. As explained at the
entry for location 53272 ($D018), the formula for this is:
POKE 53272,(PEEK(53272) AND 240) OR TK: REM TK IS 2 KBYTE OFFSET FROM
BEGINNING OF BLOCK
4. Set the VIC-II register for display memory. As explained at the
entry for location 53272 ($D018), the formula for this is:
POKE 53272,(PEEK(53272) AND 15) OR K*16: REM K IS KBYTE OFFSET FROM
BEGINNING OF BLOCK
Since steps 3 and 4 operate on the same register, you could combine
these steps and just POKE 53272,(16*K+TK).
5. Set the Operating System pointer for display memory at 648 ($288).
Even though you have just told the VIC-II chip where to display memory
for the screen, the Operating System does not yet know where to write
its text characters. Let it know with this statement:
POKE 648,AD/256: REM AD IS THE ACTUAL ADDRESS OF SCREEN MEMORY
After you make this change, you must watch out for the STOP/RESTORE
key combination. The BRK initialization changes the screen display
default to location 1024 in Bank 0, but not the Operating System
pointer at 648 ($288). As a result, what you are typing will not be
displayed on the screen. The computer will lock up until you turn the
power off and back on again. The simplest way to avoid this problem
is to disable the RESTORE key entirely (see the entries for 792 ($318)
and 808 ($328) for more information).
Below is a sample program which switches to Bank 3. It includes a
machine language transfer routine to move the ROM character set to
RAM, and a short interrupt routine to correct the RESTORE key problem.
After the switch is made, a loop isused to POKE characters into the
new screen memory area. Next, the character data is slowly erased, to
show that the character set is now in RAM. Then, a loop is used to
read the locations of the character set, and write to the same
locations. This demonstrates that the 6510 reads the Kernal ROM when
you PEEK those locations, but POKEs to the RAM which is being
displayed. Finally, the machine language move is used again to show
how quickly the set is restored.
20 FOR I=1 TO 33:READ A:POKE 49152+I,A:NEXT: REM SET UP ML ROUTINE
30 GOSUB 200: REM ML COPY OF ROM CHARACTER SET TO RAM
40 POKE 56576,PEEK(56576) AND 252: REM STEP 1, ENABLE BANK 3
50 POKE 53272,44: REM STEPS 2-3, POINT VIC-II TO SCREEN AND CHARACTER MEMORY
60 REM SCREEN OFFSET IS 2*16, CHARACTER OFFSET IS 12
70 POKE 648,200: REM STEP 4, POINT OS TO SCREEN AT 51200 (200*256)
80 PRINT CHR$(147): REM CLEAR SCREEN
90 FOR I=53236 TO 53245:READ A:POKE I,A:NEXT: REM NEW INTERRUPT ROUTINE
100 POKE 53246,PEEK(792):POKE 53247,PEK(793): REM SAVE OLD NMI VECTOR
110 POKE 792,244:POKE 793,207: REM ROUTE THE INTERRUPT THROUGH THE NEW ROUTINE
120 FOR I=0 TO 255:POKE 51400+I,I:POKE 55496+I,1:NEXT
125 REM POKE CHARACTERS TO SCREEN
130 FOR J=1 TO 8:FOR I=61439+J TO I+2048 STEP 8
140 POKE I,0:NEXT I,J: REM ERASE CHARACTER SET
150 FOR I=61440 TO I+2048:POKE I,PEEK(I):NEXT: REM POKE ROM TO RAM
160 GOSUB 200:END: REM RESTORE CHARACTER SET
200 POKE 56334,PEEK(56334) AND 254: REM DISABLE INTERRUPTS
210 POKE 1,PEEK(1) AND 251:REM SWITCH CHARACTER ROM INTO 6510 MEMORY
220 SYS 49152: REM COPY ROM CHARACTER SET TO RAM AT 61440
230 POKE 1,PEEK(1) OR 4: REM SWITCH CHARACTER ROM OUT OF 6510 MEMORY
240 POKE 56334,PEEK(56334)OR 1: REM ENABLE INTERRUPTS
250 RETURN
300 REM DATA FOR ML PROGRAM TO COPY CHARACTER SET TO RAM
310 DATA169,0,133,251,133,253,169,208,133,252,169,240,133,254,162,16
320 DATA160,0,177,251,145,253,136,208,249,230,252,230,254,202,208,240,96
330 REM NEXT IS ML PROGRAM TO MAKE THE RESTORE KEY RESET OS POINTER TO SCREEN
340 DATA 72,169,4,141,136,02,104,108,254,207
See also the sample program showing how to configure your 64 like a
PET at location 43 ($2B).
56576 $DD00 CI2PRA
Data Port Register A
Bits 0-1: Select the 16K VIC-II chip memory bank (11=bank 0, 00=bank 3)
Bit 2: RS-232 data output (Sout)/Pin M of User Port
Bit 3: Serial bus ATN signal output
Bit 4: Serial bus clock pulse output
Bit 5: Serial bus data output
Bit 6: Serial bus clock pulse input
Bit 7: Serial bus data input
56577 $DD01 CI2PRB
Data Port B
Bit 0: RS-232 data input (SIN)/ Pin C of User Port
Bit 1: RS-232 request to send (RTS)/ Pin D of User Port
Bit 2: RS-232 data terminal ready (DTR)/ Pin E of User Port
Bit 3: RS-232 ring indicator (RI)/ Pin F of User Port
Bit 4: RS-232 carrier detect (DCD)/ Pin H of User Port
Bit 5: Pin J of User Port
Bit 6: RS-232 clear to send (CTS)/ Pin K of User Port
Toggle or pulse data output for Timer A
Bit 7: RS-232 data set ready (DSR)/ Pin L of User Port
Toggle or pulse data output for Timer B
Location Range: 56578-56579 ($DD02-$DD03)
CIA #2 Data Direction Registers A and B
These Data Direction registers control the direction of data flow over
Data Ports A and B. For more details on the operation of these
registers, see the entry for the CIA #1 Data Direction Registers at
56322 ($DC02).
The default setting for Data Direction Register A is 63 (all bits
except 6 and 7 are outputs), and for Data Direction Register B the
default setting is 0 (all inputs). Bits 1 and 2 of Port B are changed
to output when the RS-232 device is opened.
56578 $DD02 C2DDRA
Data Direction Register A
Bit 0: Select Bit 0 of data Port A for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 1: Select Bit 1 of data Port A for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 2: Select Bit 2 of data Port A for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 3: Select Bit 3 of data Port A for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 4: Select Bit 4 of data Port A for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 5: Select Bit 5 of data Port A for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 6: Select Bit 6 of data Port A for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 7: Select Bit 7 of data Port A for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
56579 $DD03 C2DDRB
Data Direction Register B
Bit 0: Select Bit 0 of data Port B for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 1: Select Bit 1 of data Port B for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 2: Select Bit 2 of data Port B for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 3: Select Bit 3 of data Port B for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 4: Select Bit 4 of data Port B for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 5: Select Bit 5 of data Port B for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 6: Select Bit 6 of data Port B for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Bit 7: Select Bit 7 of data Port B for input or output (0=input, 1=output)
Location Range: 56580-56583 ($DD04-$DD07)
Timer A and B Low and High Bytes
These four timer registers are used to control Timers A and B. For
details on the operation of these timers, see the entry for Location
Range 56324-56327 ($DC04-$DC07).
The 64 Operating System uses the CIA #2 Timers A and B mostly for
timing RS-232 send and receive operations. Serial Bus timing uses CIA
#1 Timer B.
56580 $DD04 TI2ALO
Timer A (low byte)
56581 $DD05 TI2AHI
Timer A (high byte)
56582 $DD06 TI2BLO
Timer B (low byte)
56583 $DD07 TI2BHI
Timer B (high byte)
Location Range: 56584-56587 ($DD08-$DD0B)
Time of Day Clock
In addition to the two general purpose timers, the 6526 CIA chip has a
special purpose Time of Day Clock, which keeps time in a format that
humans can understand a little more easily than microseconds. For
more information about this clock, see the entry for Location Range
56328-56331 ($DC08-$DC0B). The 64's Operating system does not make
use of these registers.
56584 $DD08 TO2TEN
Time of Day Clock Tenths of Seconds
Bits 0-3: Time of Day tenths of second digit (BCD)
Bits 4-7: Unused
56585 $DD09 TO2SEC
Time of Day Clock Seconds
Bits 0-3: Second digit of Time of Day seconds (BCD)
Bits 4-6: First digit of Time of Day seconds (BCD)
Bit 7: Unused
56586 $DD0A TO2MIN
Time of Day Clock Minutes
Bits 0-3: Second digit of Time of Day minutes (BCD)
Bits 4-6: First digit of Time of Day minutes (BCD)
Bit 7: Unused
56587 $DD0B TO2HRS
Time of Day Clock Hours
Bits 0-3: Second digit of Time of Day hours (BCD)
Bit 4: First digit of Time of Day hours (BCD)
Bits 5-6: Unused
Bit 7: AM/PM flag (1=PM, 0=AM)
56588 $DD0C CI2SDR
Serial Data Port
The CIA chip has an on-chip serial port, which allows you to send or
receive a byte of data one bit at a time, with the most significant
bit (Bit 7) being transferred first. For more information about its
use, see the entry for location 56332 ($DC0C). The 64's Operating
System does not use this facility.
56589 $DD0D CI2ICR
Interrupt Control Register
Bit 0: Read / did Timer A count down to 0? (1=yes)
Write/ enable or disable Timer A interrupt (1=enable, 0=disable)
Bit 1: Read / did Timer B count down to 0? (1=yes)
Write/ enable or disable Timer B interrupt (1=enable, 0=disable)
Bit 2: Read / did Time of Day Clock reach the alarm time? (1=yes)
Write/ enable or disable TOD clock alarm interrupt (1=enable,
0=disable)
Bit 3: Read / did the serial shift register finish a byte? (1=yes)
Write/ enable or disable serial shift register interrupt (1=enable,
0=disable)
Bit 4: Read / was a signal sent on the FLAG line? (1=yes)
Write/ enable or disable FLAG line interrupt (1=enable, 0=disable)
Bit 5: Not used
Bit 6: Not used
Bit 7: Read / did any CIA #2 source cause an interrupt? (1=yes)
Write/ set or clear bits of this register (1=bits written with 1 will
be set, 0=bits written with 1 will be cleared)
This register is used to control the five interrupt sources on the
6526 CIA chip. For details on its operation, see the entry for 56333
($DC0D). The main difference between these two chips pertaining to
this register is that on CIA #2, the FLAG line is connected to Pin B
of the User Port, and thus is available to the user who wishes to take
advantage of its ability to cause interrupts for handshaking purposes.
Location Range: 56590-$56591 ($DD0E-$DD0F)
See locations 56334 and 56334 for details
56590 $DD0E CI2CRA
Control Register A
Bit 0: Start Timer A (1=start, 0=stop)
Bit 1: Select Timer A output on Port B (1=Timer A output appears on
Bit 6 of Port B)
Bit 2: Port B output mode (1=toggle Bit 6, 0=pulse Bit 6 for one
cycle)
Bit 3: Timer A run mode (1=one-shot, 0=continuous)
Bit 4: Force latched value to be loaded to Timer A counter (1=force
load strobe)
Bit 5: Timer A input mode (1=count microprocessor cycles, 0=count
signals on CNT line at pin 4 of User Port)
Bit 6: Serial Port (56588, $DD0C) mode (1=output, 0=input)
Bit 7: Time of Day Clock frequency (1=50 Hz required on TOD pin,
0=60 Hz)
56591 $DD0F CI2CRB
Control Register B
Bit 0: Start Timer B (1=start, 0=stop)
Bit 1: Select Timer B output on Port B (1=Timer B output appears on
Bit 7 of Port B)
Bit 2: Port B output mode (1=toggle Bit 7, 0=pulse Bit 7 for one
cycle)
Bit 3: Timer B run mode (1=one shot, 0=continuous)
Bit 4: Force latched value to be loaded to Timer B counter (1=force
load strobe)
Bits 5-6: Timer B input mode
00 = Timer B counts microprocessor cycles
01 = Count signals on CNT line at pin 4 of User Port
10 = Count each time that Timer A counts down to 0
11 = Count Timer A 0's when CNT pulses are also present
Bit 7: Select Time of Day write (0=writing to TOD registers sets
alarm, 1=writing to ROD registers sets clock)
Location Range: 56592-56831 ($DD10-$DDFF)
CIA #2 Register Images
Since the CIA chip requires only enough addressing lines to handle 16
registers, none of the higher bits are decoded when addressing the
256-byte area that has been assigned to it. The result is that every
16-byte area in this 256-byte block is a mirror of every other. For
the sake of clarity in your programs, it is advisable not to use these
addresses.
Location Range: 56832-57087 ($DE00-$DEFF)
Reserved for I/O Expansion
This range of locations is not used directly by the 64's internal
hardware. It is, however, accessible via pin 7 of the Expansion Port.
It can be used to control cartridges which are connected to this port.
For example, the CP/M module uses this space to control which
microprocessor is in control of the system. The Z-80 microprocessor
is turned on and off by writing to 56832 ($DE00).
Another cartridge which uses this space is Simon's BASIC. This 16K
cartridge is addressed at memory locations 32768-49151 ($8000-$BFFF),
which means that it overlaps the regular BASIC ROM at 40960-49151
($A000-$BFFF). But since it contains additions to BASIC, it must use
the BASIC ROM as well. This problem is solved by copying the
cartridge at 32768-40959 ($8000-$9FFF) to RAM, and turning the
cartridge on and off by writing to or reading from location 56832
($DE00).
Location Range: 57088-57343 ($DF00-$DFFF)
CIA #2 Register Images
This range of locations is not used directly by the 64's internal
hardward, but is accessible via pin 10 of the Expansion Port. One
possible use for this I/O memory that Commodore has mentioned is an
inexpensive parallel disk drive (which presumable would be much faster
than the current serial model).
Alternate 53248-57343 ($D000-$DFFF)
Character Generator ROM
The character generator ROM supplies the data which is to form the
shapes of the text and graphics characters that are displayed on the
screen. Each character requires eight bytes of shape data, and these
eight-byte sequences are arranged in order in which the characters
appear in the screen code chart (see Appendix G). For example, the
first eight bytes of data in the ROM hold the shape information for
the commercial at sign (@), the next eight hold the shape of the
letter A, etc. In all, there are 4096 bytes, representing shape data
for two complete character sets of 256 characters each--1K each for
uppercase/graphics, reverse uppercase/reverse graphics, lowercase/
uppercase, and reverse lowercase/reverse uppercase.
The shape of each character is formed by an 8 by 8 matrix of screen
dots. Whether any of the 64 dots is lit up or not is determined by
the bit patterns of the character data. Each byte of the Character
ROM holds a number from 0 to 255. This number can be represented by
eight binary digits of 0 or 1. The leftmost bit of these eight is
known as Bit 7, while the rightmost bit is called Bit 0. Each of
these binary digits has a bit value that is two times greater than the
last. The values of a bit set to 1 in each of the bit places are:
Bit 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Value 1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128
A byte whose value is 255 has every bit set to 1
(128+64+32+16+8+4+2+1=255), while a byte whose value is 0 is made up
of all zero bits. Numbers in between are made up of combinations of
bits set to 1 and bits set to 0. If you think of every bit that holds
0 as a dot on the screen which is the color of the screen background,
and every bit that holds a 1 as a dot whose color is that of the
appropriate nybble in Color RAM, you can begin to get an idea of how
the byte values relate to the shape of the character. For example, if
you PEEK at the first eight bytes of the character ROM (the technique
is explained in the entry for location 1), you will see the numbers
60, 102, 110, 110, 96, 98, 60, 0. Breaking these data bytes down into
their bit values gives us a picture that looks like the following:
00111100 0 + 0 + 32 + 16 + 8 + 4 + 0 + 0 = 60
01100110 0 + 64 + 32 + 0 + 0 + 4 + 2 + 0 = 101
01101110 0 + 64 + 32 + 0 + 8 + 4 + 2 + 0 = 110
01101110 0 + 64 + 32 + 0 + 8 + 4 + 2 + 0 = 110
01100000 0 + 64 + 32 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 96
01100010 0 + 64 + 32 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 2 + 0 = 98
00111100 0 + 0 + 32 + 16 + 8 + 4 + 0 + 0 = 60
00000000 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 0
If you look closely, you will recognize the shape of the commercial at
sign (@) as it's displayed on your screen. The first byte of data is
60, and you can see that Bits 5, 4, 3, and 2 are set to 1. The chart
above shows that the bit values for these bits are 32, 16, 8, and 4.
Adding these together, you get 32+16+8+4=60. This should give you an
idea of how the byte value corresponds to the patterns of lit dots.
For an even more graphic display, type in the following program, which
shows the shape of any of the 512 characters in the ROM, along with
the number value of each byte of the shape.
10 DIM B%(7),T%(7):FOR I=0 TO 7:T%(I)=2^I:NEXT
20 POKE 53281,2:PRINT CHR$(147):POKE 53281,1:POKE 53280,0:POKE 646,11
30 POKE 214,20:PRINT:INPUT" CHARACTER NUMBER (0-511)";C$
40 C=VAL(C$):GOSUB 80:FOR I=0 TO 7
50 POKE 214,6+I:PRINT:PRINT TAB(23);B%(I);CHR$(20);" "
60 FOR J=7 TO 0 STEP-1:POKE 1319+(7-J)+I*40,32-128*((B%(I)ANDT%(J))=T%(J))
70 NEXT J,I:POKE 214,20:PRINT:PRINT TAB(27)" ":GOTO 30
80 POKE 56333,127:POKE 1,51:FOR I=0 TO 7
90 B%(I)=PEEK(53248+C*8+I):NEXT:POKE 1,55:POKE 56333,129:RETURN
If you have read about the VIC-II video chip, you know that it can
address only 16K of memory at a time, and that all display data such
as screen memory, character shape data, and sprite shape data must be
stored within that 16K block.
Since it would be very inconvenient for the VIC-II chip to be able to
access the character data only at the 16K block which includes
adresses 53248-57343 ($D000-$DFFF), the 64 uses an addressing trick
that makes the VIC-II chip see an image of the Character ROM at
4096-8191 ($1000-$1FFF) and at 36864-40959 ($9000-$9FFF). It is not
available in the other two blocks. To generate characters in these
blocks, you must supply your own user-defined character set, or copy
the ROM data to RAM. A machine language routine for doing this is
included in a sample program at the entry for 56576 ($DD00).
As indicated above, you are by no means limited to useing the
character data furnished by the ROM. The availability of user-defined
characters greatly extends the graphics power of the 64. It allows
you to create special text characters, like math or chemistry symbols
and foreign language alphabets. You can also develop special graphics
characters as a substitute for plotting points in bitmap graphics.
You can achieve the same resolution using a custom character as in
high-resolution bitmap mode, but with less memory. Once you have
defined the character, it is much faster to print it to the screen
than in would be to plot out all of the individual points.
To employ user-defined characters, you must first pick a spot to put
the shape data. This requires choosing a bank of 16K for video chip
memory (see the entry under Bits 0-1 of 56576 ($DD00) for the
considerations involved), and setting the pointer to the 2K area of
character memory in 53272 ($D018). It is then up to you to supply the
shape data for the characters. You can use part of the ROM character
set by reading the ROM and transferring the data to your character
shape area (see the entry for location 1 for a method of reading the
ROM).
Your original characters may be created by darkening squares on an 8
by 8 grid, converting all darkened squares to their bit values, and
then adding the bit values for each of the eight bytes. Or, you may
use one of the many character graphics editor programs that are
available commercially to generate the data interactively by drawing
on the screen.
One graphics mode, multicolor text mode, almost requires that you
define your own character set in order to use it effectively.
Multicolor mode is enabled by Bit 4 of location 53270 ($D016).
Instead of using each bit to control whether an individual dot will be
foreground color (1) or background color (0), that mode breaks down
each byte of shape data in four bit-pairs. These bit pairs control
whether a dot will be the color in Background Color Register #0 (00),
the color in Background Color Register #1 (01), the color in
Background Color Register #2 (10), or the color in the appropriate
nybble of Color RAM (11). Since each pair of bits controls one dot,
each character is only four dots across. To make up for this, each
dot is twice as wide as a normal high-resolution dot.
::::::::::::::::
:: Chapter 7 ::
:: ::
::8K Operating::
:: System ::
:: Kernal ROM ::
::::::::::::::::
As with the section on the BASIC ROM, this section is not meant to be
a complete explanation of the Kernal ROM, but rather a guidepost for
further exploration. Where the exact instructions the Kernal ROM
routines use are important to your programming, it will be necessary
for you to obtain a disassembly listing of those routines and look at
the code itself.
Keep in mind that there is 8K of RAM underlying the Kernal ROM that
can be used by turning off interrupts and switching out the Kernal ROM
temporarily. Even without switching out the Kernal ROM, this RAM may
be read by the VIC-II chip if it is banked to use the top 16K of
memory, and may be used for graphics data. The Kernal and BASIC ROMs
may be copied to RAM, and the RAM versions modified to change existing
features or add new ones.
There are some differences between the version of the Kernal found on
the first few Commodore 64s and those found on the majority of newer
models. Those differences are discussed in the entries for the
sections on later Kernal additions (patches) at 58541-58623
($E4AD-$E4FF) an 65371-67407 ($FF5B-$FF7F).
The most obvious change causes the Color RAM at 55296 ($D800) to be
initialized to the background color when the screen is cleared on
newer models, instead of white as on the original models. Other
changes allow the new Kernal software to be used by either U.S. or
European 64s. Keep in mind that the Kernal is always subject to
change, and that the following discussion, while accurate at the time
written (mid-1983), may not pertain to later models. If future
changes are like past ones, however, they are likely to be minor ones.
The first place to look for these changes would be in the patch
sections identified above.
57344 $E000
Continuation of EXP Routine
This routine is split, with part on the BASIC ROM and the other part
here. Since the two ROMs do not occupy contiguous memory as on most
Commodore machines, the BASIC ROM ends with a JMP $E000 instruction.
Thus, while the BASIC interpreter on the 64 is for the most part the
same as on the VIC, the addresses for routines in this ROM are
displaced by three bytes from their location on the VIC.
57411 $E043 POLY1
Function Series Evaluation Subroutine 1
This routine is used to evaluate more comples expressions, and calls
the following routine to do the intermediate evaluation.
57433 $E059 POLY2
Function Series Evaluation Subroutine 2
This is the main series evaluation routine, which evaluates
expressions by using a table of the various values that must be
operated on in sequence to obtain the proper result.
57485 $E08D RMULC
Multiplicative Constant for RND
A five-byte floating point number which is multiplied by the seed
value as part of the process of obtaining the next value for RND>
57490 $E092 RADDC
Additive Constant for RND
The five-byte floating point number stored here is added to the seed
as part of the process of obtaining the value for RND.
57495 $E097 RND
Perform RND
This routine comes up with a random number in one of three ways,
depending on the argument X of RND(X). If the argument is positive,
the next RND value is obtained by multiplying the seed value in
location 139 ($8B) by one of the constants above, adding the other
constant, and scrambling the resulting bytes. This produces the next
number in a sequence. So many numbers can be produced in this way
before the sequence begins to repear that it can be considered random.
If the argument is negative, the argument itself is scrambled, and
made the new seed. This allows creation of a sequence that can be
duplicated.
If the argument is 0, four bytes of the Floating Point Accumulator are
loaded from the low and high byte of Timer A, and the tenths of second
and second Time of Day Clock registers, all on CIA #1. This provides
a somewhat random value determined by the setting of those timers at
the moment that the command is executed, which becomes the new seed
value. The RND(1) command should then be used to generate further
random numbers.
The RND(0) implementation on the 64 has serious problems which make it
unusable for generating a series of random numbers when used by
itself. First of all, the Time of Day Clock on CIA #1 (see
56328-56331 ($DC08-$DC0B)) does not start running until you write to
the tenth of second register. The Operating System never starts this
clock, and therefore the two registers used as part of the floating
point RND(0) value always have a value of 0. Even if the clock was
started, however, these registers keep time in Binary Coded Decimal
(BCD) format, which means that they do not produce a full range of
numbers from 0 to 255. In addition, the Timer A high register output
ranges only from 0 to 66, which also imits the range of the final
floating point value so that certain numbers are never chosen.
57593 $E0F9
Call Kernal I/O Routines
This section is used when BASIC wants to call the Kernal I/O routines
CHROUT, CHRIN, CHKOUT, CHKIN, and GETIN. It handles any errors that
result from the call, and creates a 512-byte buffer space at the top
of BASIC and executes a CLR if the RS-232 device is opened.
57642 $E12A SYS
Perform SYS
Before executing the machine language subroutine (JSR) at the address
indicated, the .A, .X, .Y, and .P registers are loaded from the
storage area at 780-783 ($30C-$30F). After the return from subroutine
(RTS), the new values of those registers are stored back at 780-783
($30C-$30F).
57686 $E156 SAVE
Perform SAVE
This routine sets the range of addresses to be saved from the start of
BASIC program text and end of BASIC program text pointers at 43 ($2B)
and 45 ($2D), and calls the Kernal SAVE routine. This means that any
area of memory can be saved by altering these two pointers to point to
the starting and ending address of the desired area, and then changing
them back.
57701 $E165 VERIFY
Perform VERIFY
This routine sets the load/verify flag at 10 ($A), and falls through
to the LOAD routine.
57704 $E168 LOAD
Perform LOAD
This routine sets the load address to the start of BASIC (from pointer
at 43 ($2B)), and calls the Kerneal LOAD routine. If the load is
successful, it relinks the BASIC program so that the links agree with
the address to which it is loaded, and it resets the end of BASIC
pointer to reflect the new end of program text. If the LOAD was done
while a program was running, the pointers are reset so that the
program starts executing all over again from the beginning. A CLR is
not performed, so that the variables build so far are retained, and
their values are still accessible. The pointer to the variable area
is not changed, but if the new program is longer than the one that
loaded it, the variable table will be partially overwritten. This
will cause errors when the overwritten variables are referenced.
Likewise, strings whose text was referenced at its location within the
original program listing will be incorrect.
Since a LOAD from a program causes the program execution to continue
at the first line, when loading a machine language routine or data
file with a nonrelocating load (for example, LOAD"FILE",8,1) from a
program, you should read a flag and GOTO the line after the LOAD if
you don't want the program to keep rerunning indefinitely:
10 IF FLAG=1 THEN GOTO 30
20 FLAG=1:LOAD"FILE",8,1
30 REM PROGRAM CONTINUES HERE
57790 $E1BE OPEN
Perform OPEN
The BASIC OPEN statement calls the Kernal OPEN routine.
57799 $E1C7 CLOSE
Perform CLOSE
The BASIC CLOSE statement calls the Kernal CLOSE routine.
57812 $E1D4
Set Parameters for LOAD, VERIFY, and SAVE
This routine is used in common by LOAD, SAVE, and VERIFY for setting
the filename, the logical file, device number, and secondary address,
all of which must be done prior to these operations.
57856 $E200
Skip Comma and Get Integer in .X
This subroutine is used to skip the comma between parameters and get
the following integer value in the .X register.
57862 $E206
Fetch Current Character and Check for End of Line
This subroutine gets the current character, and if it is 0 (end of
line), it pulls its own return address off the stack and returns.
This terminates both its own execution and that of the subroutine
which called it.
57870 $E20E
Check for Comma
This subroutine checks for a comma, moves the text pointer past it if
found, and returns an error if it is not found.
57881 $E219
Set Parameters for OPEN and CLOSE
This routine is used in common by OPEN and CLOSE for setting the
filename, the logical file, device number, and secondary address, all
of which must be done prior to these operations.
57956 $E264 COS
Perform COS
COS is executed by adding PI/2 to the contents of FAC1 and dropping
through to SIN.
57960 $E268 SIN
Perform SIN
This routine evaluates the SIN of the number in FAC1 (which represents
the angle in radians), and leaves the result there.
58036 $E2B4 TAN
Perform TAN
This routine evaluates the tangent of the number in FAC1 (which
represents the angle in radians) by dividing its sine by its cosine.
Location Range: 58080-58125 ($E2E0-$E30D)
Table of Constants for Evaluation of SIN, COS, and TAN
58080 $E2E0 PI2
The Five-Byte Floating Point Representation of the Constant PI/2
58085 $E2E5 TWOPI
The Five-Byte Floating Point Representation of the Constant 2*PI
58090 $E2EA FR4
The Five-Byte Floating Point Representation of the Constant 1/4
58095 $E2EF SINCON
Table of Constants for Evaluation of SIN, COS, and TAN
This table starts with a counter byte of 5, indicating that there are
six entries in the table. This is followed by the six floating point
constants of five bytes each.
58126 $E30E ATN
Perform ATN
The arc tangent of the number in FAC1 (which represents the angle in
radians) is evaluated using the 12-term series of operations from the
constant table which follows. The answer is left in FAC1.
58174 $E33E ATNCON
Table of Constants for ATN Evaluation
The table begins with a count byte of 11, which is followed by 12
constants in five-byte floating point representation.
58235 $E37B
Warm Start BASIC
This is the entry point into BASIC from the BRK routine at 65126
($FE66), which is executed when the STOP and RESTORE keys are both
pressed. It first executes the Kernal CLRCHN routine which closes all
files. It then sets the default devices, resets the stack and BASIC
program pointers, and jumps through the vector at 768 ($300) to the
next routine to print the READY prompt and enter the main BASIC loop.
58251 $E38B
Error Message Handler
This routine to print error messages is pointed to by the vector at
768 ($300). Using the .X register as an index, it either prints an
error message from the table at 41363 ($A193) or the READY prompt, and
continues through the vector at 770 ($302) to the main BASIC loop.
58260 $E394
Cold Start BASIC
This initialization routine is executed at the time of power-up. The
RAM vectors to important BASIC routines are set up starting at 768
($300), the interpreter is initialized, the start-up messages are
printed, and the main loop entered through the end of the warm start
routine.
58274 $E3A2 INITAT
Text of the CHRGET Routine Which Runs at 115 ($73)
The text of the CHRGET routine is stored here, and moved to Page 0 by
the BASIC initialization routine. When creating a wedge in CHRGET, it
is possible to execute all or part of this code in place of the RAM
version.
59298 $E3BA
Initial RND Seed Value
At power-up time, this five-byte floating point constant is
transferred to 139 ($8B), where it functions as the starting RND seed
number. Thus, if RND is not initialized with a negative or zero
argument, it will always return the same sequence of numbers.
58303 $E3BF INIT
Initialize BASIC
This routine is called by the cold start routine to initialize all of
the BASIC zero-page locations which have a fixed value. This includes
copying the CHRGET routine from the ROM location above, to 115 ($73).
58402 $E422
Print BASIC Start-Up Messages
This routine prints the start-up message "**** COMMODORE 64 BASIC V2
****", calculates the amount of free memory, and prints the BYTES FREE
message.
58439 $E447
Table of Vectors to Important BASIC Routines
This table contains the vectors which point to the addresses of some
important BASIC routines. The contents of this table are moved to the
RAM table at 768 ($300).
58451 $E453
Copy BASIC Vectors to RAM
The cold start routine calls this subroutine to copy the table of
vectors to important BASIC routines to RAM, starting at location 768
($300).
58464 $E460 WORDS
Power-Up Messages
The ASCII text of the start-up messages "**** COMMODORE 64 BASIC V2
****" and "BYTES FREE" is stored here.
Location Range: 58551-58623 ($E4B7-E4FF)
Patches Added to Later Kernal Versions
This area contains code that was not found in the original version of
the Kernal. These additions were made to fix some bugs and to
increase Kernal compatibility between U.S. and European 64s.
58541 $E4AD
Patch for BASIC Call of CHKOUT
This patch was made to preserve the .A register if there was no error
returned from BASIC's call of the Kernal CHKOUT routine. Apparently,
the first version could cause a malfunction of the CMD and PRINT#
commands.
58551 $E4B7
35 Unused Bytes (all have the value of 170 ($AA)
Locaiton Range: 58586-65535 ($E4DA-$FFFF)
Kernal I/O Routines
After the conclusion of BASIC comes the part of this ROM which can be
considered the Kernal proper. This part contains all of the vectored
routines found in the jump table starting at 65409 ($FF81).
58586 $E4DA
Clear Color RAM to the Color in Background Color Register 0
This routine is a patch added to the more recent versions of the
Kernal. It is called by the routine which clears a screen line
(59903, $E9FF), and it places the color value in Background Color
Register 0 (53281, $D021) into the current byte of Color RAM pointed
to by USER (243, $F3).
In the original version of the Kernal, the routine that cleared a
screen line set the corresponding Color RAM to a value of 1, which
gives text characters a white foreground color. This was changed when
the white color was found to sometimes cause light flashes during
screen scrolling. It was that white foreground color, however, that
enabled the user to POKE the screen code for a character into screen
RAM, and make that character appear on the screen in a color that
contrasted the blue background. This change to the Operating System
causes colors POKEd to screen RAM to be the same color as the
background, and thus they are invisible.
This is a fairly serious problem, because the technique of POKEing
characters to screen RAM has long been a staple of Commodore graphics
programming. Fortunately, the problem has an easy colution. Since
the Color RAM will be set to whatevere color is in Background Color
Register 0, what you have to do to initialize Color RAM to the color
you desire is change the background color to the desired foreground
color, clear the screen, and then change the background color back
again:
C=PEEK(53281):POKE 53281,HUE:PRINT CHR$(147):POKE 53281,C
58592 $E4E0
Pause after Finding a File on Cassette
This routine is a patch to the routine which finds a file on cassette.
After the file is found, the message FILETITLE FOUND appears on the
screen. On the original versions of the Kernal, the user would then
have to hit the Commodore key to continue the load. On the newer
versions, this patch causes a slight pause after the tape file is
round, during which time a keypress is looked for. If a key is
pressed, the loading process continues immediately. If it is not, the
load continues by itself after the end of the pause.
58604 $E4EC
Baud Rate Table for European (PAL) Standard Monitors
This table of prescaler values was added to later Kernal versions to
allow the same Kernal software to be used with either U.S. or European
64s. It contains the values which are required to obtain interrupts
at the proper frequency for the standard RS-232 baud rates, and
corresponds exactly in format to the table of values for the U.S.
(NTSC) monitor format at 65218 ($FEC2). Separate tables are required
because the prescaler values are derived from dividing the system
clock rate by the baud rate, and PAL machines operate with a slightly
slower clock frequency.
58624 $E500 IOBASE
Store Base Address of Memory-Mapped I/O Devices in .X and .Y Registers
This is one of the documented Kernal routines for which there is a
vector in the jump table at 65523 ($FFF3).
When called, this routine sets the .X register to the low byte of the
base address of the memory-mapped I/O devices, and puts the high byte
in the .Y register. This allows a user to set up a zero-page pointer
to the device, and to load and store indirectly through that pointer.
A program which uses this method, rather than directly accessing such
devices could be made to function without change on future Commodore
models, even though the I/O chips may be addressed at different
locations. This of course assumes that the CIA or a similar chip will
be used. This routine is of limited value for creating software that
is compatible with both the VIC-20 and the 64 because of the
differences in the VIA I/O chip that the VIC uses.
The current version of this routine loads the .X register with a 0,
and the .Y register with 220 ($DC), thus pointing to CIA #1, which is
at 56320 ($DC00).
58629 $E505 SCREEN
Store Number of Screen Rows and Columns in .Y and .X
This is a documented Kernal routine which is vectored in the jump
table at 65517 ($FFED), and is provided to allow for program
compatibility between computers.
When called, this subroutine returns the number of screen columns in
the .X register, and the number of screen rows in .Y. Thus, a program
can detect the screen format of the machine on which it is running,
and make sure that text output is formatted accordingly.
The present version of this routine loads the .X register with 40
($28) and the .Y register with 25 ($19).
58634 $E50A PLOT
Read/Set Location of the Cursor
The jump table entry for this documented Kernal is at 65520 ($FFF0).
The routine allows the user to read or set the position of the cursor.
If the carry flag is set with the SEC instruction before calling this
subroutine, cursor column (X position) will be returned in the .X
register, and the cursor row (Y position) will be returned in the .Y
register. If the carry flag is cleared with a CLC instruction before
entering this routine, and the .Y and .X registers are loaded with the
desired row and column positions respectively, this routine will set
the cursor position accordingly.
The current read routine loads .X and .Y from locations 214 ($D6) and
211 ($D3) respectively. The cursor set routine stores .X and .Y in
these locations, and calls the routine that sets the screen pointers
at 58732 ($E56C).
The user can access this routine from BASIC by loading the .X, .Y, and
.P register values desired to the save area starting at 780 ($30C).
58648 $E518
Initialize Screen and Keyboard
This is the original CINT Kernal routine, to which additions were made
in later versions of the Kernal.
After calling the routine at 58784 ($E5A0) to set up default I/O
values, this routine initializes the cursor blink flags, the keyboard
decode vector, the key repeat delay and frequency counters, the
current color code, and maximum keyboard buffer size. It then falls
through to the next routine.
58692 $E544
Initialize the Screen Line Link Table and Clear the Screen
This routine initializes the screen line link table at 217 ($D9),
clears the screen, and clears the Color RAM to the background color.
It falls through to the next routine.
58726 $E566
Home the Cursor
This routine sets PNTR (211, $D3) and TBLX (214, $D6) to 0, and falls
through to the next routine.
58732 $E56C
Set Pointer to Current Screen Line
This routine sets the pointer PNT (209, $D1) to the address of the
first byte of the current logical line. In figuring this address, it
takes into account the status of the screen line link table, which can
indicate that two physical lines should be joined as one logical line.
58784 $E5A0
Set Default I/O Devices and Set Default Values for VIC-II Chip
Registers
This routine sets the keyboard and screen as the current input and
output devices. It then writes the default values found in the table
at 60601 ($ECB9) to the VIC-II chip.
58804 $E5B4 LP2
Get a Character from the Keyboard Buffer
This routine transfers the first character from the keybard buffer to
the .A register, bumps the rest of the characters one place up in
line, and decrements the pointer, showing how many characters are
waiting in the buffer.
58826 $E5CA
Wait for a Carriage Return from the Keyboard
This subroutine is called by the portion of the CHKIN routine that
handles keyboard input. It turns the cursor on, gets characters, and
echoes them to the screen until a carriage return has been entered.
It also looks for the shifted RUN/STOP key, and forces the output of
the commands LOAD and RUN if it finds it.
58930 $E632
Input a Character from Screen or Keyboard
This routine is the portion of the Kernal CHRIN routine that handles
input from the keyboard and screen devices. CHRIN gets one byte at a
time from the current screen position, or inputs a whole line from the
keyboard and returns it one byte at a time.
59012 $E684
Test for Quote Marks
This subroutine checks if the current character is a quotation mark,
and if it is, toggles the quote switch at 212 ($D4).
59025 $E691
Add a Character to the Screen
This is part of the routine that outputs a character to the screen.
It puts printable characters into screen memory.
59048 $E6A8
Return from Outputting a Character to the Screen
This is the common exit point for the screen portion of the CHROUT
routine.
59062 $E6B6
Advance the Cursor
This routine advances the cursor, and provides for such things as
scrolling at the end of the screen, and inserting a blank line in
order to add another physical line to the current logical line.
59137 $E701
Move Cursor Back over a 40-Column Line Boundary
59158 $E716
Output to the Screen
This is the main entry point for the part of CHROUT that handles
output to the screen device. It takes an ASCII character number, and
tests if the character is printable. If it is, it prints it (taking
into consideration the reverse flag, if any inserts are left, etc.).
If it is a nonprinting character, the routine performs the appropriate
cursor movement, color change, screen clearing, or whatever else might
be indicated.
59516 $E87C
Move Cursor to Next Line
This subroutine moves the cursor down to the next line if possible, or
scrolls the screen if the cursor is on the last line.
59537 $E891
Output a Carriage Return
A carriage return is performed by clearing insert mode, reverse video,
and quote mode, and moving the cursor to the next line.
59553 $E8A1
If at the Beginning of a Screen Line, Move Cursor to Previous Line
59571 $E8B3
If at the End of a Screen Line, Move Cursor to the Next Line
59595 $E8CB
Check for a Color Change
This routine is used by the screen CHROUT routine to check if the
character to be printed is one that causes the current foreground
color to change (such as the CTRL-1 combination).
59601 $E8D1
PETASCII Color Code Equivalent Table
This table gives the PETASCII values of the color change characters
for each of the 16 possible colors. These values are:
144 ($90) Change to color 0 (black)
5 ($05) Change to color 0 (white)
28 ($1C) Change to color 0 (red)
159 ($9F) Change to color 0 (cyan)
156 ($9C) Change to color 0 (purple)
30 ($1E) Change to color 0 (green)
31 ($1F) Change to color 0 (blue)
158 ($9E) Change to color 0 (yellow)
129 ($81) Change to color 0 (orange)
149 ($95) Change to color 0 (brown)
150 ($96) Change to color 0 (light red)
151 ($97) Change to color 0 (dark gray)
152 ($98) Change to color 0 (medium gray)
153 ($99) Change to color 0 (light green)
154 ($9A) Change to color 0 (light blue)
155 ($9B) Change to color 0 (light gray)
59626 $E8EA
Scroll Screen
This subroutine moves all of the screen lines up, so that a blank line
is created at the bottom of the screen and the top screen line is
lost. If the top logical line is two physical lines long, all lines
are moved up two lines. Holding down the CTRL key will cause a brief
pause after the scroll.
59749 $E965
Insert a Blank Line on the Screen
This subroutine is used when INSERTing to add a blank physical line to
a logical line.
59848 $E9C8
Move Screen Line
This subroutine is used by the scroll routine to move one screen line
(and its associated Color RAM) up a line.
59872 $E9E0
Set Temporary Color Pointer for Scrolling
This subrouting sets up a pointer in 17-175 ($AE-$AF) to the Color RAM
address that corresponds to the temporary screen line address in
172-173 ($AC-$AD).
59888 $E9F0
Set Pointer to Screen Address of Start of Line
This subroutine puts the address of the first byte of the screen line
designated by the .X register into locations 209-210 ($D1-$D2).
59903 $E9FF
Clear Screen Line
This subroutine writes space characters to an entire line of screen
memory, and clears the corresponding line of color memory to color in
Background Color Register 0 (53281, $D021).
59923 $EA13
Set Cursor Blink Timing and Color Memory Address for Print to Screen
This subroutine sets the cursor blink countdown and sets the pointer
to Color RAM. It then falls through to the next routine.
59932 $EA1C
Store to Screen
This routine stores the character in the .A register to the screen
address pointed to by 209 ($D1), and stores the color in the .X
register to the address pointed to by 243 ($F3).
59940 $EA24
Synchronize Color RAM Pointer to Screen Line Pointer
This subroutine sets the pointer at 243 ($F3) to the address of the
beginning of the line of Color RAM which corresponds to the current
line of screen RAM (whose pointer is at 209 ($D1)).
59953 $EA31
IRQ Interrupt Entry
This is the entry point to the standard IRQ interrupt handler. Timer
A of CIA #1 is set at power-on to cause an IRQ interrupt to occur
every 1/60 second. When the interrupt occurs, program flow is
transferred here via the CINV vector at 788 ($314). This routine
updates the software clock at 160-162 ($A0-$A2), handles the cursor
flash, and maintains the tape interlock which keeps the cassette motor
on if a button is pushed and the interlock flag is on. Finally, it
calls the keyboard scan routine, which checks the keyboard and puts
any character it finds into the keyboard buffer.
60039 $EA87 SCNKEY
Read the Keyboard
This subroutine is called by the IRQ interrupt handler above to read
the keyboard device which is connected to CIA #1 (see entry for 56320
($DC00) for details on how to read the keyboard).
It is the Kernal routine SCNKEY which can be entered from the jump
table at 65439 ($FF9F). This routine returns the keycode of the key
currently being pressed in 203 ($CB), sets the shift/control flag if
appropriate, and jumps through the vector at 655 ($28F) to the routine
that sets up the proper table to translate the keycode to PETASCII.
It concludes with the next routine, which places the PETASCII value of
the character in the keyboard buffer.
60128 $EAE0
Decode the Keystroke and Place its ASCII Value in the Keyboard Buffer
This is the continuation of the IRQ keyscan routine. It decodes the
keycode with the proper PETASCII table, and compares it with the last
keystroke. If if is the same, it checks to see if it is okay to
repeat the character without waiting for the key to be let up. If the
character should be printed, it is moved to the end of the keyboard
buffer at 631 ($277).
60232 $Eb48
Set Up the Proper Keyboard Decode Table
This routine is pointed to by the vector at 655 ($28F). Its function
is to read the shift/control flag at 653 ($28D), and set the value of
the decode table pointer at 245 ($F5) accordingly.
First it checks if the SHIFT/Commodore logo combination was pressed,
and if the toggle enable at 657 (291) will allow a change, the
character set will be changed to lowercase/uppercase or
uppercase/graphics by changing the VIC Memory Control Register at
53272 ($D018), and no character will be printed.
Next it sets the decode table pointer. There are 64 keys, and each
can have four different PETASCII values, depending on whether the key
is pressed by itself, or in combination with the SHIFT, CTRL, or
Commodore logo keys. Therefore, there are four tables of 64 entries
each to translate the keycode to PETASCII: the standard table, the
SHIFT table, the Commodore logo table, and the CONTROL table. The
routine will set up the pointer for the appropriate table, depending
on whether the SHIFT, CTRL, or logo key was pressed. The CTRL key
takes precedence, so that if another of these keys is pressed along
with the CTRL key, the CONTROL table is used.
60281 $EB79
Keyboard Decode Table Vectors
This table contains the two-byte addresses of the four keyboard decode
tables in low-byte, high-byte format.
60289 $EB81
Standard Keyboard Matrix Decode Table
This table contains the 64 PETASCII values for the standard keyboard,
one for each key which is struck by itself. The table is in keycode
order (see the keycode table in Appendix H for the correspondence of
keycode to key). A 65th byte with the value of 255 ($FF) marks the
end of the table (this corresponds to a keypress value of 64, no key
pressed).
60354 $EBC2
SHIFTed Keyboard Matrix Decode Table
This table contains the 64 PETASCII values for the shifted keyboard,
one for each key which is struck while the SHIFT key is pressed. The
table is in keycode order (see the keycode table in Appendix H for the
correspondence of keycode to key). A 65th byte with the value of 255
($FF) marks the end of the table (this corresponds to a keypress value
of 64, no key pressed).
60419 $EC03
Commodore Logo Keyboard Matrix Decode Table
This table contains the 64 PETASCII values for the logo keyboard, one
for each key which is struck while the Commodore logo key is pressed.
The table is in keycode order (see the keycode table in Appendix H for
the correspondence of keycode to key). A 65th byte with the value of
255 ($FF) marks the end of the table (this corresponds to a keypress
value of 64, no key pressed).
60484 $EC44
Set Lowercase/Uppercase or Uppercase/Graphics Character Set
The part of the Kernal CHROUT routine that outputs to the screen uses
this subroutine to check for the special nonprinting characters that
switch the character set (CHR$(14) and CHR$(142)). If one of these is
the character to be printed, this routine makes the switch by setting
the location 53272 ($D018) accordingly.
60510 $EC5E
Set Flag to Enable or Disable Switching Character Sets
This subroutine is also used to check for special characters to print.
In this case, it checks for the characters that enable or disable the
SHIFT/logo combination from toggling the character set currently in
use (CHR$(8) and CHR$(9)). If one of these is to be printed, the flag
at 657 ($291) is changed.
60536 $EC78
Control Keyboard Matrix Decode Table
This table contains the 64 PETASCII values for the Control keyboard,
one for each key which is struck while the CTRL key is pressed. The
table is in keycode order (see the keycode table in Appendix H for the
correspondence of keycode to key). A 65th byte with the value of 255
($FF) marks the end of the table (this corresponds to a keypress value
of 64, no key pressed).
The only keys generally struck in combination with the CTRL key are
the ones that change the colors on the top row of the keyboard, but
this doesn't necessarily mean that the other CTRL key combinations
don't do anything. On the contrary, looking at the values in this
table, you can see that any of the first 32 values in the PETASCII
table can be produced by some combination of the CTRL key and another
key. CTRL-@ produces a CHR$(0). CTRL-A through CTRL-Z produce
CHR$(1) through CHR$(26). Ctrl-: is the same as CHR$(27), CTRL-Lira
(that's the slashed-L British pound sign) produces CHR$(28), CTRL-;
equals CHR$(29), CTRL-up arrow produces CHR$(30), and CTRL-= produces
CHR$(31).
Any of these combinations produce the same effect as the CHR$(X)
statement. For examble, CTRL-; moves the cursor over to the right,
CTRL-N switches to lowercase, CTRL-R turns on reverse video, and
CTRL-E changes the printing to white.
60601 $ECB9
Video Chip Register Default Table
This table contains the default values that are stored in the 47
VIC-II chip registers. It is interesting to note that this table
appears to be incomplete. While Sprite Color Registers 0-6 are
initialized to values of 1-7, Sprite Color Register 7 is initialized
to 76--the ASCII value of the letter L which begins on the next table.
60647 $ECE7
Text for Keyboard Buffer When SHIFT/RUN is Pressed
When the SHIFT and RUN keys are pressed, the ASCII text stored here is
forced into the keyboard buffer. That text is LOAD, carriage return,
RUN, carriage return.
60656 $ECF0
Low Byte Table of Screen Line Addresses
This table holds the low byte of the screen address for lines 0-24.
The high byte is derived from combining a value from the screen line
link table at 217 ($D9) with the pointer to screen memory at 648
($288).
60681 $ED09 TALK
Send TALK to a Device on the Serial Bus
This is a documented Kernal routine whose entry in the jump table is
65460 ($FFB4). When called, it ORs the device number in the
Accumulator with the TALK code (64, $40) and sends it on the serial
bus. This commands the device to TALK.
60684 $ED0C LISTEN
This is a documented Kernal routine whose entry in the jump table is
65457 ($FFB1). When called, it ORs the device number in the
Accumulator with the LISTEN code (32, $20) and sends it on the serial
bus. This commands the device to LISTEN.
60689 $ED11
Send Command Code to a Device on the Serial Bus
This subroutine is used in common by many Kernal routines to send the
command code in the Accumulator to a device on the serial bus.
60736 $ED40
Send a Byte on the Serial Bus
This subroutine is used in common by several Kernal routines to send
the byte in the serial bus character buffer at 149 ($95) on the serial
bus.
60848 $EDB0
Time-Out Error on Serial Bus
This subroutine handles the case when the device does not respond by
setting the DEVICE NOT PRESENT error code and exiting.
60857 $EDB9 SECOND
Send a Secondary Address to a Device on the Serial Bus after LISTEN
This is a documented Kernal routine that can be entered from the jump
table at 65427 ($FF93). It sends a secondary address from the
Accumulator to the device on the serial bus that has just been
commanded to LISTEN. This is usually done to give the device more
particular instructions on how the I/O is to be carried out before
information is sent.
60871 $EDC7 TKSA
Send a Secondary Address to a Device on the Serial Bus after TALK
This is a documented Kernal routine that can be entered from the jump
table at 65430 ($FF96). It sends a secondary address from the
Accumulator to the device on the serial bus that has just been
commanded to TALK. This is usually done to give the device more
particular instructions on how the I/O is to be carried out before
information is sent.
60893 $EDDD CIOUT
Send a Byte to an I/O Device over the Serial Bus
This is a documented Kernal routine which can be entered from the jump
table at 65448 ($FFA8). Its purpose is to send a byte of data over
the serial bus. In order for the data to be received, the serial
device must have first been commanded to LISTEN and been given a
secondary address if necessary. This routine always buffers the
current character, and defers sending it until the next byte is
buffered. When the UNLISTEN command is sent, the last byte will be
sent with an End or Identify (EOI).
60911 $EDEF UNTLK
Send UNTALK to a Device on the Serial Bus
This is a documented Kernal routine whose entry in the jump table is
65451 ($FFAB). When called, it sends the UNTALK code (95, $5F) on the
serial bus. This commands any TALKer on the bus to stop sending data.
60926 $EDFE UNLSN
Send UNLISTED to a Device on the Serial Bus
This is a documented Kernal routine whose entry in the jump table is
65454 ($FFAE). It sends the UNLISTEN code (63, $3F) on the serial
bus. This commands any LISTENers to get off the serial bus, and frees
up the bus for other users.
60947 $EE13 ACPTR
Receive a Byte of Data from a Device on the Serial Bus
This is a documented Kernal routine whose entry point in the jump
table is 65445 ($FFA5). When called, it will get a byte of data from
the current TALKer on the serial bus and store it in the Accumulator.
In order to receive the data, the device must have previously been
sent a command to TALK and a secondary address if it needs one.
61061 $EE85
Set the Serial Clock Line Low (Active)
This subroutine clears the serial bus clock pulse output bit (Bit 4 of
CIA #2 Data Port A at 56576 ($DD00)).
61070 $EE8E
Set the Serial Clock Line High (Inactive)
This subroutine sets the serial bus clock pulse output bit to 1 (Bit 4
of CIA #2 Data Port A at 56576 ($DD00)).
61079 $EE97
Set Serial Bus Data Output Line Low
This subroutine clears the serial bus data output to 0 (Bit 5 of CIA
#2 Data Port A at 56576 ($DD00)).
61097 $EEA9
Get Serial Bus Data Input Bit and Clock Pulse Input Bit
This subroutine reads the serial bus data input bit and clock pulse
input bit (Bits 7 and 6 of CIA #2 Data Port A at 56576 ($DD00)), and
returns the data bit in the Carry flag and the clock bit in the
Negative flag.
61107 $EEB3
Perform a One-Millisecond Delay
61115 $EEBB
Send Next RS-232 Bit (NMI)
This subroutine is called by the NMI interrupt handler routine to send
the next bit of data to the RS-232 device.
61230 $EF2E
Handle RS-232 Errors
This subroutine sets the appropriate error bits in the status register
at 663 ($297).
61258 $#F4A
Set the Word Length For the Current RS-232 Character
This routine takes the number of data bits to send per RS-232
character from the control register and puts it into the .X register
for use by the RS-232 routines.
61273 $EF59
Receive Next RS-232 Bit (NMI)
This routine is called by the NMI interrupt handler routine to receive
the next bit of data from the RS-232 device.
61310 $EF7E
Setup to Receive a New Byte from RS-232
61328 $EF90
Test If Start Bit Received from RS-232
61335 $EF97
Put a Byte of Received Data into RS-232 Receive Buffer
This routine checks for a Receive Buffer Overrun, stores the byte just
received in the RS-232 receive buffer, and checks for Parity Error,
Framing Error, or Break Detected Error. It then sets up to receive
the next byte.
61409 $EFE1
CHKOUT for the RS-232 device
The Kernal CHKOUT routine calls this subroutine to define the RS-232
device's logical file as an output channel. Before this can be done,
the logical file must first be OPENed.
61460 $F014
CHROUT for the RS-232 Device
The Kernal CHROUT routine calls this subroutine to output a character
to the RS-232 device. After the logical file has been OPENed and set
for output using CHKOUT, the CHROUT routine is used to actually send a
byte of data.
61517 $F04D
CHKIN for the RS-232 Device
The Kernal CHKIN routine calls this subroutine to define the RS-232
device's logical file as an input channel. A prerequisite for this is
that the logical file first be OPENed.
61574 $F086
GETIN for the RS-232 Device
The Kernal GETIN routine calls this subroutine to remove the next byte
of data from the RS-232 receive buffer and return it in the
Accumulator. The routine checks for the Receive Buffer Empty Error.
It is also called by the Kernal CHRIN routine, which essentially does
the same thing as GETIN for the RS-232 device.
61604 $F0A4
Stop CIA #2 RS-232 NMIs for Serial/Cassette Routines
This subroutine turns off the NMIs that drive the RS-232 routines
before any I/O is done using the serial bus or cassette device. Such
interrupts could throw off the timing of those I/O routines, and
interfere with the transmission of data.
61629 $F0BD
Kernal Control Messages
The ASCII text of the Kernal I/O control messages is stored here. The
last byte of every message has Bit 7 set to 1 (ASCII value + 128).
The messages are:
I/O ERROR
SEARCHING
FOR
PRESS PLAY ON TAPE
PRESS RECORD & PLAY ON TAPE
LOADING
SAVING
VERIFYING
FOUND
OK
61739 $F12B
Print Kernal Error Message if in Direct Mode
This routine first checks location 157 ($9D) to see if the messages
are enabled. If they are, it prints the message indexed by the .Y
register.
61758 $F13E GETIN
Get One Byte from the Input Device
This is a documented Kernal routine whose jump table entry point is at
65508 ($FFE4). The routine jumps through a RAM vector at 810 ($32A).
Its function is to get a character from the current input device
(whose device number is stored at 153 ($99)). In practive, it
operates identically to the CHRIN routine below for all devices except
for the keyboard. If the keyboard is the current input device, this
routine gets one character from the keyboard buffer at 631 ($277). It
depends on the IRQ interrupt routine to rad the keyboard and put
characters into the buffer.
61783 $F157 CHRIN
Input a Character from the Current Device
This is a documented Kernal routine whose jump table entry point is at
65487 ($FFCF).
The routine jumps through a RAM vector at 804 ($324). Its function is
to get a character from the current input device (whose device number
is stored at 153 ($99)). This device must first have been OPENed and
then designated as the input channel by the CHKIN routine.
When this routine is called, the next byte of data available from this
device is returned in the Accumulator. The only exception is the
routine for the keyboard device (which is the default input device).
It the keyboard is the current input device, this routine blinks the
cursor, fetches characters from the keyboard buffer, and echoes them
to the screen until a carriage return is encountered. When a carriage
return is round, the routine sets a flag to indicate the length of the
last logical line before the return character, and reads the first
character of this logical line from the screen.
Subsequent calls to this routine will cause the next character in the
line to be read from the screen and returned in the Accumulator, until
the carriage return character is returned to indicate the end of the
line. Any call after this character is received will start the whole
process over again.
Note that only the last logical line before the carriage return is
used. Any time you type in more than 80 characters, a new logical
line is started. This routine will ignore any characters on the old
logical line, and process only the most recent 80-character group.
61898 $F1CA CHROUT
Output a Byte
This is a documented Kernal routine whose jump table entry point is at
65490 ($FFD2). The routine jumps through a RAM vector at 806 ($326).
It is probably one of the best known and most used Kernal routines,
because it sends the character in the Accumulator to the current
output device. Unless a device has been OPENed and designated as the
current output channel using the CHKOUT routine, the character is
printed to the screen, which is the default output device. If the
cassette is the current device, outputting a byte will only add it to
the buffer. No actual transmission of data will occur until the
192-byte buffer is full.
61966 $F20E CHKIN
Designate a Logical File As the Current Input Channel
This is a documented Kernal routine which can be entered from the jump
table at 65478 ($FFC6).
The routine jumps through a RAM vector at 798 ($31E). If you wish to
get data from any device other than the keyboard, this routine must be
called after OPENing the device, before you can get a data byte with
the CHRIN or GETIN routine. When called, the routine will designate
the logical file whose file number is in the .X register as the
current file, its device as the current device, and its secondary
address as the current secondary address. If the device on the
channel is a serial device, which requires a TALK command and
sometimes a secondary address, this routine will send them over the
serial bus.
62032 $F250 CHKOUT
Designate a Logical File As the Current Output Channel
This is a documented Kernal routine which can be entered from the jump
table at 65481 ($FFC9).
The routine jumps through a RAM vector at 800 ($320). If you wish to
output data to any device other than the screen, this routine must be
called after OPENing the device, and before you output a data byte
with the CHROUT routine. When called, the routine will designate the
logical file whose file number is in the .X register as the current
file, its device as the current device, and its secondary address as
the current secondary address. If the device on the channel uses the
serial bus, and therefore requires a LISTEN command and possibly a
secondary address, this information will be sent on the bus.
62097 $F291 CLOSE
Close a Logical I/O File
CLOSE is a documented Kernal routine which can be entered via the jump
table at 65475 ($FFC3).
The routine jumps through a RAM vector at 796 ($31C). It is used to
close a logical file after all I/O operations involving that file have
been completed. This is accomplished by loading the Accumulator with
the logical file number of the file to be closed, and calling this
routine.
Closing an RS-232 file will de-allocate space at the top of memory for
the receiving and trasmit buffers. Closing a cassette file that was
opened for writing will force the last block to be written to
cassette, even if it is not a full 192 bytes. Closing a serial bus
device will send an UNLISTEN command on the bus. Remember, it is
necessary to properly CLOSE a cassette or disk data file in order to
retrieve the file later.
For all types of files, CLOSE removes the file's entry from the tables
of logical files, device, and secondary address at 601, 611, and 621
($259, $263, $26D), and moves all higher entries in the table down one
space.
62223 $F30F
Find the File in the Logical File Table
This subroutine is used by many Kernal routines to find the position
of the logical file in the logical file table at 601 ($259).
62239 $F31F
Set Current Logical File, Current Device, and Current Seconday Address
This subroutine is used to update the Kernal variables at 184-186
($B8-$BA) which holds the current logical file number, current device
number, and current secondary address number.
62255 $F32F CLALL
Close All Logical I/O Files
CLALL is a documented Kernal routine whose entry point in the jump
table is 65511 ($FFE7).
The routine jumps through a RAM vector at 812 ($32C). It closes all
open files, by resetting the index into open files at 152 ($98) to
zero. It then falls through to the next routine, which restores the
default I/O devices.
62259 $F333 CLRCHN
Restore Current Input and Output Devices to the Default Devices
This is a documented Kernal Routine which can be entered at location
65484 ($FFCC) in the jump table.
The routine jumps through a RAM vector at 802 ($322). It sets the
current input device to the keyboard, and the current output device to
the screen. Also, if the current input device was formerly a serial
device, the routine sends it an UNTALK command on the serial bus, and
if a serial device was formerly the current output device, the routine
sends it an UNLISTEN command.
62282 $F34A OPEN
Open a Logical I/O File
OPEN is a documented Kernal I/O routine. It can be entered from the
jump table at 65472 ($FFC0).
The routine jumps through a RAM vector at 794 ($31A). This routine
assigns a logical file to a device, so that it can be used for
Input/Output operations. In order to specify the logical file number,
the device number, and the secondary address if any, the SETLFS
routine must first be called. Likewise, in order to designate the
filename, the SETNAM routine must be used first. After these two
routines are called, OPEN is then called.
62622 $F49E LOAD
Load RAM from a Device
This is a documented Kernal routine, whose entry in the jump table
appears at 65493 ($FFD5).
The routine jumps through a RAM vector at 816 ($330). LOAD is used to
transfer data froma device directly to RAM. It can also be used to
verify RAM, comparing its contents to those of a disk or tape file.
To choose between these operations you must set the Accumulator with a
0 for LOAD, or a 1 for VERIFY.
Since the LOAD routine performs an OPEN, it must be preceded by a call
to the SETLFS routine to specify the logical file number, device
number, and secondary address, and a call to the SETNAM routine to
specify the filename (a LOAD from tape can be performed without a
filename being specified). Then the .X and .Y registers should be set
with the starting address for the load, and the LOAD routine called.
If the secondary address specified was a 1, this starting address will
be ignored, and the header information will be used to supply the load
address. If the secondary address was a 0, the address supplied by
the call will be used. In either case, upon return from the
subroutine, the .X and .Y registers will contain the address of the
highest RAM location that was loaded.
62885 $F5A5
Print SEARCHING Message if in Direct Mode
62930 $F5D2
Print LOADING or VERIFYING
62941 $F5DD SAVE
Save RAM to a Device
This is a documented Kernal routine, whose entry in the jump table
appears at 65496 ($FFD8).
The routine jumps through a RAM vector at 818 ($332). SAVE is used to
transfer data directly from RAM to an I/O device. Since the SAVE
routine performs an OPEN, it must be preceded by a call to the SETLFS
routine to specify the logical file number, device number, and
secondary address, and a call to the SETNAM routine to specify the
filename (although a SAVE to the cassette can be performed without
giving a filename). A Page 0 pointer to the starting address of the
area to be saved should be set up, with the low byte of the address
first. The accumulator should be loaded with the Page 0 offset of
that pointer, then the .X and .Y registers should be set with the
ending address for the save, and the SAVE routine called.
63119 $F68F
If in Direct Mode, Print SAVING and Filename
63131 $F69B UDTIM
Update the Software Clock and Check for the STOP Key
UDTIM is a documented Kernal routine which can be entered through the
jump table at 65514 ($FFEA).
It is normally called by the IRQ interrupt handler once every sixtieth
of a second. It adds one to the value in the three-byte software
jiffy clock at 160-162 ($A0-$A2), and sets the clock back to zero when
it reaches the 24 hour point. In addition, it scans the keyboard row
in which the STOP key is located, and stores the current value of that
key in location 145 ($91). This variable is used by the STOP routine
which checks for the STOP key.
63197 $F6DD RDTIM
Read the Time From the Software Clock into the .A, .X, and .Y
Registers
This is a documented Kernal routine whose entry point in the jump
table is 65502 ($FFDE).
It reads the software clock (which counts sixtieths of a second) into
the internal registers. The .Y register contains the most significant
byte (from location 160 ($A0)), the .X register contains the middle
byte (from location 161 ($A1)), and the Accumulator contains the least
significant byte (from location 162 ($A2)).
63204 $F6E4 SETTIM
Set the Software Clock from the .A, .X, and .Y Registers
This documented Kernal routine can be entered from location 65499
($FFDB).
It performs the reverse operation from RDTIM, storing the value in the
.Y register into location 160 ($A0), the .X register into 161 ($A1),
and the Accumulator into 162 ($A2). Interrupts are first disabled, to
make sure that the clock will not be updated while being set.
63213 $F6ED STOP
Test STOP Key
STOP is a documented Kernal routine which can be entered from the jump
table at location 65505 ($FFE1).
It is vectored through RAM at 808 ($328). The routine checks to see
if the STOP key was pressed during the last UDTIM call. If it was,
the Zero flag is set to 1, the CLRCHN routine is called to set the
input and output devices back to the keyboard and screen, and the
keyboard queue is emptied.
63227 $F6FB
Set Kernal I/O Error Messages
This subroutine is used to handle I/O errors from Kernal I?O routines.
It calls CLRCHN to restore default I/O devices. If Bit 6 of the flag
at 157 ($9D) is set, it prints I/O ERROR followed by the error number,
and then sets the Carry flag to indicate an error, with the error
number in the Accumulator. The Kernal error messages are not used by
BASIC, but may be used by machine language monitors and other
applications.
63276 $F72C
Get Next Tape File Header from Cassette
This routine reads in tape blocks until it finds a file header block.
It then prints out the FOUND message along with the first 16
characters of the filename.
63338 $F76A
Write Tape File Header Block
63440 $F7D0
Put Pointer to Tape Buffer in .X and .Y Registers
63447 $F7D7
Set I/O Area Start and End Pointers to Tape Buffer Start and End
Address
63466 $F7EA
Search Tape for a Filename
63511 $F817
Test Cassette Buttons and Handle Messages for Tape Read
This routine tests the sense switch, and if no buttons are depressed
it prints the PRESS PLAY ON TAPE message, and loops until a cassette
button is pressed, or until the STOP key is pressed. If a button is
pressed, it prints the message OK.
Since the message printing routine is entered after the test for
direct mode, these messages cannot be superseded by changing the flag
at 157 ($9D). You could have them harmlessly printed to ROM, however,
by changing the value of HIBASE at 648 ($288) temporarily to 160, and
then back to 4.
63534 $F82E
Check Cassette Switch
This subroutine is used to check if a button on the recorder has been
pressed.
63544 $F838
Test Cassette Buttons and Handle Messages for Tape Write
This routine tests the sense switch, and if no buttons are depressed
it prints the PRESS PLAY & RECORD message, and loops until a cassette
button is pressed, or until the STOP key is pressed. If a button is
pressed, it prints the message OK. These messages cannot be supressed
by changing the flag at 157 ($9D). See the entry for 63511 ($F817)
for more information.
63553 $F841
Start Reading a Block of Data from the Cassette
This subroutine tests the cassette switch and initializes various
flags for reading a block of data from cassette.
63588 $F864
Start Writing a Block of Data to the Cassette
This subroutine tests the cassette switch and initializes various
flags for writing a block of data to cassette.
63605 $F875
Common Code for Reading a Data Block from Tape and Writing a Block to Tape
This routine sets the actual reading or writing of a block of data.
It sets CIA #1 Timer B to call the IRQ which drives the actual reading
or writing routine, saves the old IRQ vector, and sets the new IRQ
vector to the read or write routine. It also blanks the screen so
that the video chip's memory addressing (which normally takes away
some of the 6510 microprocessor's addressing time) will not interfere
with the timing of the routines.
63696 $F8D0
Test the STOP Key during Cassette I/O Operations
This subroutine is used to test the STOP key during tape I/O
oeprations, and to stop I/O if it is pressed.
63714 $F8E2
Adjust CIA #1 Timer A for Tape Bit Timing
63788 $F92C
Read Tape Data (IRQ)
This is the IRQ handler routine that is used for reading data from the
cassette. At the end of the read, the IRQ vector is restored to the
normal IRQ routine.
64096 $FA60
Receive and Store the Next Character from Cassette
This is the part of the cassette read IRQ routine that actually gets
the next byte of data from the cassette.
64398 $FB8E
Move the Tape SAVE/LOAD Address into the Pointer at 172
64407 $FB97
Reset Counters for Reading or Writing a New Byte of Cassette Data
64422 $FBA6
Toggle the Tape Data Output Line
This routine sets the CIA #1 Timer B, and toggles the Tape Data Output
line on the 6510 on-chip I/O port (Bit 3 of location 1).
64456 $FBC8
Write Data to Cassette--Part 2 (IRQ)
This IRQ handler routine is one part of the write data to cassette
routine
64618 $FC6A
Write Data fo Cassette--Part 1 (IRQ)
This IRQ handler routine is the other part of the write data to
cassette routine.
64659 $FC93
Restores the Default IRQ Routine
At the end of the tape I/O operations, this subroutine is used to turn
the screen back on and stop the cassette motor. It then resets the
CIA #1 Timer A to generate an interrupt every sixtieth of a second,
and restores the IRQ vector to point to the normal interrupt routine
that updates the software clock and scans the keyboard.
64696 $FCB8
Terminate Cassette I/O
This routine calls the subroutine above and returns from the
interrupt.
64714 $FCCA
Turn Off the Tape Motor
64721 $FCD1
Check the Tape Read/Write Pointer
This routine compares the current tape read/write address with the
ending read/write address.
64731 $FCDB
Advance the Tape Read/Write Pointer
This routine is used to move the pointer to the current read/write
address up a byte.
64738 $FCE2
Power-On Reset Routine
This is the RESET routine which is pointed to by the 6510 hardware
RESET vector at 65532 ($FFFC).
This routine is automatically executed when the computer is first
turned on. First, it sets the Interrupt disable flag, sets the stack
pointer, and clears the Decimal mode flag. Next, it tests for an
autostart cartridge. If one is found, the routine immediately jumps
through the cartridge cold start vector at 32768 ($8000). If no
cartridge is found, the Kernal initialization routines IOINIT, RAMTAS,
RESTOR, and CINT are called, the Interrupt disable flag is cleared,
and the BASIC program is entered through the cold start vector at
40960 ($A000).
64770 $FD02
Check for an Autostart Cartridge
This routine tests for an autostart cartridge by comparing the
characters at location 32772-6 ($8004-8) to the text below. The Zero
flag will be set if they match, and cleared if they don't.
64784 $FD10
Text for Autostart Cartridge Check
The characters stored here must be the fifth through the ninth
characters in the cartridge in order for it to be started on power-up.
These characters are the PETASCII values for CBM, each with the high
bit set (+128), and the characters "80".
64789 $FD15 RESTOR
Restore RAM Vectors for Default I/O Routines
This documented Kernal routine can be entered through the jump table
at 65418 ($FF8A).
It sets the values for the 16 RAM vectors to the interrupt and
important Kernal I/O routines in the table that starts at 788 ($314)
to the standard values held in the ROM table at 64816 ($FD30).
64794 $FD1A VECTOR
Set the RAM Vector Table from the Table Pointed to by .X and .Y
This documented Kernal routine can be entered through the jump table
at 65421 ($FF8D).
It is used to read or change the values for the 16 RAM vectors to the
interrupt and important Kernal I/O routines in the table that starts
at 788 ($314). If the Carry flag is set when the routine is called,
the current value of the 16 vectors will be stored at a table whose
address is pointed to by the values in the .X and .Y registers. If
the Carry flag is cleared, the RAM vectors will be loaded from the
table whose address is pointed to by the .X and .Y registers. Since
this routine can change the vectors for the IRQ and NMI interrupts,
you might expect that the Interrupt disable flag would be set at its
beginning. Such is not the case, however, and therefore it would be
wise to execute an SEI before calling it and a CLI afterwards (as the
power-on RESET routine does) just to be safe.
64816 $FD30
Table of RAM Vectors to the Default I/O Routines
This table contains the 16 RAM I/O vectors that are moved to 788-819
($314-$333).
64848 $FD50 RAMTAS
Perform RAM Test and Set Pointers to the Top and Bottom of RAM
This documented Kernal routine, which can be entered through location
65415 ($FF87) of the jump table, performs a number of initialization
tasks.
First, it clears Pages 0, 2, and 3 of memory to zeros. Next, it sets
the tape buffer pointer to address 828 ($33C), and performs a
nondestructive test of RAM from 1024 ($400) up. When it reaches a
non-RAM address (presumably the BASIC ROM at 40960 ($A000)), that
address is placed in the top of memory pointer at 643-4 ($283-4). The
bottom of memory pointer at 641-2 ($281-2) is set to point to address
2048 ($800), which is the beginning of BASIC program text. Finally,
the pointer to screen memory at 648 ($288) is set to 4, which lets the
Operating System know that screen memory starts at 1024 ($400).
64923 $FD9B
Table of IRQ Vectors
This table holds the vectors to the four IRQ routines which the system
uses. The first points to Part 1 of the cassette write routine at
64618 ($FC6A), the second to Part 2 of the cassette write routine at
64461 ($FBCD), the third to the standard scan keyboard IRQ at 59953
($EA31), and the last to the cassette read routine at 63788 ($F92C).
64931 $FDA3 IOINIT
Initialize CIA I/O Devices
This documented Kernal routine, which can be entered through the jump
table at 65412 ($FF84), intializes the Complex Interface Adapter (CIA)
devices, and turns the volume of the SID chip off. As part of this
initialization, it sets CIA #1 Timer A to cause an IRQ interrupt every
sixtieth of a second.
65017 $FDF9 SETNAM
Set Filename Parameters
This is a documented Kernal routine, which can be entered through the
jump table at location 65469 ($FFBD).
It puts the value in the Accumulator into the location which stores
the number of characters in the filename, and sets the pointer to the
address of the ASCII text of the filename from the .X and .Y
registers. This sets up the filename for the OPEN, LOAD, or SAVE
routine.
65024 $FE00 SETLFS
Set Logical File Number, Device Number, and Secondary Address
This is a documented Kernal routine, which can be entered through the
jump table at location 65466 ($FFBA).
It stores the value in the Accumulator in the location which holds the
current logical file number, the value in the .X register is put in
the location that holds the current device number, and the value in
the .Y register is stored in the location that holds the current
secondary address. If no secondary address is used, the .Y register
should be set to 255 ($FF). It is necessary to set the values of the
current file number, device number, and secondary address before you
OPEN a file, or LOAD or SAVE.
65031 $FE07 READST
Read the I/O Status Word
This is a documented Kernal routine, which can be entered through the
jump table at location 65463 ($FFB7).
Whenever an I/O error occurs, a bit of the Status Word is set to
indicate what the problem was. The routine allows you to read the
status word (it is returned in the Accumulator). If the device was
the RS-232, its status register is read and cleared to zero. For the
meanings of the various status codes, see the entry for location 144
($90) or 663 ($297) for the RS-232 device.
65048 $FE18 SETMSG
Set the Message Control Flag
This documented Kernal routine can be entered through its jump table
vector at 65424 ($FF90).
The routine controls the printing of error messages and control
messages by the Kernal. It Bit 6 is seto to 1 (bit value of 64),
Kernal control messages can be printed. These messages include
SEARCHING FOR, LOADING, and the like. If Bit 6 is cleared to 0, these
messages will not be printed (BASIC will clear this bit when a program
is running so that the messages do not appear when I/O is performed
from a program). Setting Bit 6 will not suppress the PRESS PLAY ON
TAPE or PRESS PLAY & RECORD messages, however.
If Bit 7 is set to 1 (bit value of 128), Kernal error messages can be
printed. If Bit 7 is set to 0, those error messages (for example, I/O
ERROR #nn) will be suppressed. Note that BASIC has its own set of
error messages (such as FILE NOT FOUND ERROR) which it uses in
preference to the Kernal's message.
65057 $E21 SETTMO
Set Time-Out Flag for IEEE Bus
This documented Kernal routine can be entered fromthe jump table at
65442 ($FFA2).
The routine sets the time-out flag for the IEEE bus. When timeouts
are enabled, the Commodore will wait for a device for 64 milliseconds,
and if it does not receive a response to its signal it will issue a
time-out error. Loading the Accumulator with a value less than 128
and calling this routine will enable time-outs, while using a value
over 128 will disable time-outs.
This routine is for use only with the Commodore IEEE add-on card,
which at the time of this writing was not yet available.
65061 $FE25 MEMTOP
Read/Set Top of RAM Pointer
This is a documented Kernal routine, which can be entered through the
jump table at location 65433 ($FF99).
It can be used to either read or set the top of RAM pointer. If
called with the Carry flag set, the address in the pointer will be
loaded into the .X and .Y registers. If called with the Carry flag
cleared, the pointer will be changed to the address found in the .X
and .Y registers.
65076 $FE34 MEMBOT
Read/Set Bottom of RAM Pointer
This is a documented Kernal routine, which can be entered through the
jump table at location 65436 ($FF9C).
It can be used to either read or set the bottom of RAM pointer. If
called with the Carry flag set, the address in the pointer willbe
loaded into the .X and .Y registers. If called with the Carry flag
cleared, the pointer will be changed to the address found in the .X
and .Y registers.
65091 $FE43
NMI Interrupt Entry Point
This routine is the NMI interrupt handler entry, which is pointed to
by the hardware NMI vector at 65530 ($FFFA).
Any time an NMI interrupt occurs, the Interrupt disable flag will be
set, and the routine will jump through the RAM vector at 792 ($318),
which ordinarily points to the continuation of this routine. The
standard handler first checks to see if the NMI was caused by the
RS-232 device. If not, the RESTORE key is assumed. The routine
checks for a cartridge, and if one is found it exits through the
cartridge warm start vector at 32770 ($8002). If not, the STOP key is
checked, and if it is being pressed, the BRK routine is executed. If
the RS-232 device was the cause of the NMI, the cartridge and STOP key
checks are bypassed, and the routine skips to the end, where it checks
whether it is time to send or receive a data bit via the RS-232
device.
65126 $FE66
BRK, Warm Start Routine
This routine is executed when the STOP/RESTORE combination of
keypresses occurs. In addition, it is the default target address of
the BRK instruction vector. This routine calls the Kernal
intialization routines RESTOR, IOINIT, and part of CINT. It then
exits through the BASIC warm start vector at 40962 ($A002).
65138 $FE72
NMI RS-232 Handler
This is the part of the NMI handler that checks if it is time to
receive or send a bit on the RS-232 channel, and takes the appropriate
action if it is indeed the time.
65218 $FEC2
RS-232 Baud Rate Tables for U.S. Television Standard (NTSC)
This table contains the ten prescaler values for the ten standard baud
rates implemented by the RS-232 Control Register at 659 ($293). The
table starts with the two values needed for the lowest baud rate (50
baud) and finishes with the entries for the highest baud rate, 2400
baud. The RS-232 routines are handled by NMI interrupts which are
caused by the timers on CIA #2. Since the RS-232 device could both
receive and send a bit in a single cycle, the time between interrupts
should be a little less than half of the clock frequency divided by
the baud rate. The exact formula used is:
((CLOCK/BAUD)/2)-100
where CLOCK is the processor clock speed and BAUD is the baud rate.
The clock frequency for machines using the U.S. television standard
(NTSC) is 1,022,730 cycles per second, while the frequency for the
European (PAL) standard is 985,250 cycles per second. For this
reason, separate baud rate tables were added for European machines at
58604 ($E4EC).
65238 $FED6
RS-232 Receive the Next Bit (NMI)
The NMI handler calls this subroutine to input the next bit on the
RS-232 bus. It then calls the next subroutine to reload the timer
that causes the interrupts.
65306 $FF1A
Load the Timer with Prescaler Values from the Baud Rate Lookup Table
65352 $FF48
Main IRQ/BRK Interrupt Entry Point
The 6510 hardware IRQ/BRK vector at 65534 ($FFFE) points to this
address.
Anytime the BRK instruction is encountered or an IRQ interrupt occurs,
this routine will be executed. The routine first saves the .A, .X,
and .Y registers on the stack, and then tests the BRK bit of the
status register (.P) to see if a BRK was executed. If it was, the
routine exits through the RAM BRK vector at 790 ($316), where it will
usually be directed to the BRK routine at 65126 ($FE66). If not, the
routine exits through the RAM IRQ vector at 788 ($314), where it will
usually be directed to the handler that scans the keyboard at 59953
($EA31).
If you plan to change either of these vectors to your own routine,
remember to pull the stored register values off the stack before
finishing.
Location Range: 65371-65407 ($FF5B-$FF7F)
Patches Added to Later Kernal Versions
This area contains additional code not found in the original version
of the Kernal. It is used to test whether a European (PAL) or U.S.
(NTSC) standard monitor is used, and to compensate so that the
sixtieth of a second interrupt will be accurately timed on either
system.
65371 $FF5B CINT
Initialize Screen Editor and VIC-II Chip
This is a documented Kernal routine whose entry in the jump table is
located at 65409 ($FF81).
The start of the routine appears to be a patch that was added to later
versions of the Kernal. It first calls the old routine at 58648
($E518). This initializes the VIC-II chip to the default values, sets
the keyboard as the input device and the screen as the output device,
initializes the cursor flash variables, builds the screen line link
table, clears the screen, and homes the cursor. The new code then
checks the VIC Interrupt register to see if the conditions for a
Raster Compare IRQ have been fulfilled. Since the Raster Register was
initialized to 311, that can only occur when using a PAL system (NTSC
screens do not have that many scan lines). The PAL/NTSC register at
678 ($2A6) is set on the basis of the outcome of this test. The CIA
#1 Timer A is then set to cause an IRQ interrupt every sixtieth of a
second, using the prescaler figures for a PAL or NTSC system, as
appropriate.
65390 $FF6E
End of Routine to Set Timer for Sixtieth of a Second IRQ
This appears to be a patch added to compensate for the extra length of
the current version of this routine, which chooses either the PAL or
NTSC prescaler values for the timer.
65408 $FF80
Kernal Version Identifier Byte
This last byte before the jump table can be used to identify the
version of the Kernal. The first version has a 170 ($AA) stored here,
while the most current version at the time of this writing has a zero
in this location.
The PET 64, a one-piece version with an integrated monochrome display,
has an identifier byte of 100 ($64). The Commodore 64 logo uses this
byte to recognize the PET 64, and adjust its display accordingly.
Location Range: 65409-65525 ($FF81-$FFF5)
Kernal Jump Table
The following jump table is provided by Commodore in an effort to
maintain stable entry points for key I/O routines. Each three-byte
table entry consists of a 6510 JMP instruction and the actual address
of the routine in the ROM. Although the actual address of the routine
may vary from machine to machine, or in later versions of the Kernal,
these addresses will stay where they are. By jumping to the entry
point provided by this table, rather than directly into the ROM, you
insure your programs against changes in the Operating System. In
addition, this jump table may help you write programs that will
function on more than one Commodore machine. The 15 table entries
from 65472-65514 ($FFC0-$FFEA) are the same for all Commodore
machines, from the earliest PET on.
As an additional aid, some of these routines are also vectored through
the table which starts at 788 ($314). Since this table is in RAM, you
can change those vectors to point to your own routines which support
additional I/O devices. Programs that use the jump table entry points
to the I/O routines will be able to use these I/O devices without a
problem.
The following table will give the entry point, routine name, RAM
vector if any, its current address, and a brief summary of its
function.
65409 ($FF81) CINT (65371, $FF5B) initialize screen editor and video chip
65412 ($FF84) IOINIT (64931, $FDA3) initialize I/O devices
65415 ($FF87) RAMTAS (64848, $FD50) initialize RAM, tape buffer, screen
65418 ($FF8A) RESTOR (64789, $FD15) restore default I/O vectors
65421 ($FF8D) VECTOR (64794, $FD1A) read/set I/O vector table
65424 ($FF90) SETMSG (65048, $FE18) set Kernal message control flag
65427 ($FF93) SECOND (60857, $EDB9) send secondary address after LISTEN
65430 ($FF96) TKSA (60871, $EDC7) send secondary address after TALK
65433 ($FF99) MEMTOP (65061, $FE25) read/set top of memory pointer
65436 ($FF9C) MEMBOT (65076, $FE34) read/set bottom of memory pointer
65439 ($FF9F) SCNKEY (60039, $EA87) scan the keyboard
65442 ($FFA2) SETTMO (65057, $FE21) set time-out flag for IEEE bus
65445 ($FFA5) ACPTR (60947, $FE13) input byte from serial bus
65448 ($FFA8) CIOUT (60893, $EDDD) output byte to serial bus
65451 ($FFAB) UNTLK (60911, $EDEF) command serial bus device to UNTALK
65454 ($FFAE) UNLSN (60926, $EDFE) command serial bus device to UNLISTEN
65457 ($FFB1) LISTEN (60684, $ED0C) command serial bus device to LISTEN
65460 ($FFB4) TALK (60681, $ED09) command serial bus device to TALK
65463 ($FFB7) READST (65031, $FE07) read I/O status word
65466 ($FFBA) SETLFS (65024, $FE00) set logical file parameters
65469 ($FFBD) SETNAM (65017, $FDF9) set filename parameters
65472 ($FFC0) OPEN (via 794 ($31A) to 62282, $F34A) open a logical file
65475 ($FFC3) CLOSE (via 796 ($31C) to 62097, $F291) close a logical file
65478 ($FFC6) CHKIN (via 798 ($31E) to 61966, $F20E) define an input channel
65481 ($FFC9) CHKOUT (via 800 ($320) to 62032, $F250) define an output channel
65484 ($FFCC) CLRCHN (via 802 ($322) to 62259, $F333) restore default devices
65487 ($FFCF) CHRIN (via 804 ($324) to 61783, $F157) input a character
65490 ($FFD2) CHROUT (via 806 ($326) to 61898, $F1CA) output a character
65493 ($FFD5) LOAD (via 816 ($330) to 62622, $F49E) load from device
65496 ($FFD8) SAVE (via 818 ($332) to 62941, $F5DD) save to a device
65499 ($FFDB) SETTIM (63204, $F6E4) set the software clock
65502 ($FFDE) RDTIM (63197, $F6DD) read the software clock
65505 ($FFE1) STOP (via 808 ($328) to 63213, $F6ED) check the STOP key
65508 ($FFE4) GETIN (via 810 ($32A) to 61758, $F13E) get a character
65511 ($FFE7) CLALL (via 812 ($32C) to 62255, $F32F) close all files
65514 ($FFEA) UDTIM (63131, $F69B) update the software clock
65517 ($FFED) SCREEN (58629, $E505) read number of screen rows and columns
65520 ($FFF0) PLOT (58634, $E50A) read/set position of cursor on screen
65523 ($FFF3) IOBASE (58624, $E500) read base address of I/O devices
Location Range: 65530-65535 ($FFFA-$FFFF)
6510 Hardware Vectors
The last six locations in memory are reserved by the 6510 processor
chip for three fixed vectors. These vectors let the chip know at what
address to start executing machine language program code when an NMI
interrupt occurs, when the computer is turned on, or when an IRQ
interrupt or BRK occurs.
65530 $FFFA
Non-Maskable Interrupt Hardware Vector
This vector points to the main NMI routine at 65091 ($FE43).
65532 $FFFC
System Reset (RES) Hardware Vector
This vector points to the power-on routine at 64738 ($FCE2).
65534 $FFFE
Maskable Interrupt Request and Break Hardware Vectors
This vector points to the main IRQ handler routine at 65352 ($FF48).
:::::::::::::::::::
:: Appendix A ::
:: ::
:: A Beginner's ::
::Guide to Typing::
:: In Programs ::
:::::::::::::::::::
What Is a Program?
A computer cannot perform any task by itself. Like a car without gas,
a computer has potential, but without a program, it isn't going
anywhere. Most of the programs published in this book are written in
a computer language called BASIC. BASIC is easy to learn and is built
into all Commodore 64s.
BASIC Programs
Computers can be picky. Unlike the English language, which is full of
ambiguities, BASIC usually has only one right way of stating
something. Every letter, character, or number is significant. A
common mistake is substituting a letter such as O for the numeral 0, a
lowercase l for the numeral 1, or an uppercase B for the numeral 8.
Also, you must enter all punctuation such as colons and commas just as
they appears in the book. Spacing can be important. To be safe, type
in the listings exactly as they appear.
Braces and Special Characters
The exception to this typing rule is when you see the braces, such as
{DOWN}. Anything within a set of braces is a special character or
characters that cannot easily by listed on a printer. When you come
across such a special statement, refer to Appendix B, "How to Type In
Programs."
About DATA Statements
Some programs contain a section or sections of DATA statements. These
lines provide information needed by the program. Some DATA statements
contain actual programs (called machine language); others contain
graphics codes. These lines are especially sensitive to errors.
If a single number in any one DATA statement is mistyped, your machine
could lock up, or crash. The keyboard and STOP key may seem dead, and
the screen may go blank. Don't panic--no damage is done. To regain
control, you have to turn off your computer, then turn it back on.
This will erase whatever program was in memory, so always SAVE a copy
of your program before you RUN it. If your computer crashes, you can
LOAD the program and look for your mistake.
Sometimes a mistyped DATA statement will cause an error message when
the program is RUN. The error message may refer to the program line
that READs the data. The error is still in the DATA statements,
though.
Get to Know Your Machine
You should familiarize yourself with your computer before attempting
to type in a program. Learn the statements you use to store and
retrieve your programs from tape or disk. You'll want to save a copy
of your program, so that you won't have to type it in every time you
want to use it. Learn to use your machine's editing functions. How
do you change a line if you made a mistake? You can always retype the
line, but you at least need to know how to backspace. Do you know how
to enter reverse video, lowercase, and control characters? It's all
explained in your computer's manuals.
A Quick Review
1. Type in the program a line at a time, in order. Press RETURN at
the end of each line. Use backspace or the back arrow to correct
mistakes
2. Check the line you've typed against the line in the book. You can
check the entire program again if you get an error when you RUN the
program.
:::::::::::::::
::Appendix B ::
:: ::
::How to Type::
;:In Programs::
:::::::::::::::
To make it easy to know exactly what to type when entering one of
these programs into your computer, we have established the following
listing conventions.
Generally, Commodore 64 program listings will contain words within
braces which spell out any special characters: {DOWN} would mean to
press the cursor down key. {5 SPACES} would mean to press the space
bar five times.
To indicate that a key should be shifted (hold down the SHIFT key
while pressing the other key), the key would be unterlined in our
listings. For example, _S_ would mean to type the S key while holding
the SHIFT key. This would appear on your screen as a heart symbol.
If you find an underlined key enclosed in braces (e.g., {10 _N_}), you
should type the key as many times as indicated (in our example, you
would enter ten shifted N's).
If a key is enclosed in special brackets, [<>], you should hold down
the Commodore key while pressing the key inside the special brackets.
(The Commodore key is the key in the lower-left corner of the
keyboard.) Again, if the key is preceded by a number, you should
press the key as many times as necessary.
Rarely, you'll see a solitary letter of the alphabet enclosed in
braces. These characters can be entered by holding down the CTRL key
while typing the letter in the braces. For example, {A} would
indicate that you should press CTRL-A.
About the quote mode: You know that you can move the cursor around
the screen with the CRSR keys. Sometimes a programmer will want to
move the cursor under program control. That's why you see all the
{LEFT}'s, {HOME}'s, and {BLU}'s in our programs. The only way the
computer can tell the difference between direct and programmed cursor
control is the quote mode.
Once you press the quote (the double quote, SHIFT-2), you are in the
quote mode. If you type something and then try to change it by moving
the cursor left, you'll only get a bunch of reverse-video lines.
These are the symbols for cursor left. The only editing key that
isn't programmable is the DEL key; you can still use DEL to back up
and edit the line. Once you type another quote, you are out of quote
mode.
You also go into quote mode when you INSerT spaces into a line. In
any case, the easiest way to get out of quote mode is to just press
RETURN. You'll then be out of quote mode and you can cursor up to the
mistyped line and fix it.
Use the following table when entering cursor and color control keys:
When You When You
Read: Press: Read: Press:
[CLR] SHIFT CLR/HOME [<1>] C= 1
[HOME] CLR/HOME [<2>] C= 2
[UP] SHIFT CRSR UP/DOWN [<3>] C= 3
[DOWN] CRSR UP/DOWN [<4>] C= 4
[LEFT] SHIFT CRSR LEFT/RIGHT [<5>] C= 5
[RIGHT] CRSR LEFT/RIGHT [<6>] C= 6
[RVS] CTRL 9 [<7>] C= 7
[OFF] CTRL 0 [<8>] C= 8
[BLK] CTRL 1 [F1] F1
[WHT] CTRL 2 [F2] SHIFT F1
[RED] CTRL 3 [F3] F3
[CYN] CTRL 4 [F4] SHIFT F3
[PUR] CTRL 5 [F5] F5
[GRN] CTRL 6 [F6] SHIFT F5
[BLU] CTRL 7 [F7] F7
[YEL] CTRL 8 [F8] SHIFT F8
::::::::::::::
::Appendix C::
:: ::
:: Screen ::
:: Location ::
:: Table ::
::::::::::::::
Row
0 1024 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
1064 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
1104 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
1144 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
1184 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
5 1224 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
1264 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
1304 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
1344 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
1384 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
10 1424 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
1464 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
1504 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
1544 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
1584 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
15 1624 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
1664 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
1704 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
1744 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
1784 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
20 1824 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
1864 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
1904 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
1944 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
24 1984 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
| | | | | | | | |
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 39
Column
::::::::::::::::
:: Appendix D ::
:: ::
::Screen Color::
::Memory Table::
::::::::::::::::
Row
0 55296 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
55336 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
55376 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
55416 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
55456 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
5 55496 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
55536 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
55576 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
55616 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
55656 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
10 55696 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
55736 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
55776 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
55816 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
55856 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
15 55896 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
55936 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
55976 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
56016 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
56056 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
20 56096 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
56136 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
56176 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
56216 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
24 56256 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
| | | | | | | | |
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 39
Column
:::::::::::::::
::Appendix E ::
:: ::
:: Screen ::
::Color Codes::
:::::::::::::::
Value to POKE for Each Color
Low nybble High nybble Select multicolor
Color color value color value color value
Black 0 0 8
White 1 16 9
Red 2 32 10
Cyan 3 48 11
Purple 4 64 12
Green 5 80 13
Blue 6 96 14
Yellow 7 112 15
Orange 8 128 --
Brown 9 144 --
Light Red 10 160 --
Dark Gray 11 176 --
Medium Gray 12 192 --
Light Green 13 208 --
Light Blue 14 224 --
Light Gray 15 240 --
Where To POKE Color Values For Each Mode
Bit or
Mode * bit-pair Location Color value
Regular text 0 53281 Low nybble
1 Color memory Low nybble
Multicolor text 00 53281 Low nybble
01 53282 Low nybble
10 53283 Low nybble
11 Color memory Select Multicolor
Extended color 00 53281 Low nybble
text + 01 53282 Low nybble
10 53283 Low nybble
11 53284 Low nybble
Bitmapped 0 Screen memory Low nybble ++
1 Screen memory High nybble ++
Multicolor 00 53281 Low nybble
bitmapped 01 Screen memory High nybble ++
10 Screen memory Low nybble ++
11 Color memory Low nybble
* For all modes, the screen border color is controlled by POKEing
location 53280 with the low nybble color value.
+ In exteded color mode, Bits 6 and 7 of each byte of screen memory
serve as the bit-pair controlling background color. Because only Bits
0-5 are available for character selection, only characters with screen
codes 0-63 can be used in this mode.
++ In the bitmapped modes, the high and low nybble color values are
ORed together and POKEd into the same location in memory to control
the colors of the corresponding cell in the bitmap. For example, to
control the colors of cell 0 of the bitmap, OR the high and low
nybbles and POKE the result into location 0 of screen memory.
:::::::::::::::
::Appendix F ::
:: ::
::ASCII Codes::
:::::::::::::::
[*** OMITTED ***]
[widely available elsewhere; not suitable for textual formatting]
::::::::::::::::
:: Appendix G ::
:: ::
::Screen Codes::
::::::::::::::::
[*** OMITTED ***]
[widely available elsewhere; not suitable for textual formatting]
:::::::::::::::
::Appendix H ::
:: ::
:: Commodore ::
::64 Keycodes::
:::::::::::::::
Key Keycode Key Keycode
A 10 6 19
B 28 7 24
C 20 8 27
D 18 9 32
E 14 0 35
F 21 + 40
G 26 - 43
H 29 LIRA 48
I 33 CLR/HOME 51
J 34 INST/DEL 0
K 37 LEFT ARROW 57
L 42 @ 46
M 36 * 49
N 39 ^ 54
O 38 : 45
P 41 ; 50
Q 62 = 53
R 17 RETURN 1
S 13 , 47
T 22 . 44
U 30 / 55
V 31 CRSR UP/DN 7
W 9 CRSR LF/RT 2
X 23 F1 4
Y 25 F3 5
Z 12 F5 6
1 56 F7 3
2 59 SPACE 60
3 8 RUN/STOP 63
4 11 NO KEY
5 16 PRESSED 64
The keycode is the number found at location 197 for the current key
being pressed. Try this one-line program:
10 PRINT PEEK(197):GOTO 10
::::::::::::::
:: Index ::
:: ::
::(by memory::
:: location)::
::::::::::::::
ABS 48216
AND 45033
ASC 46987
ATN 58126
BASIC
adding new commands 115,768
current line number 57
execution of statements 776,42980
expression evaluation 778, 44446, 44675
function evaluation 44967
pointer to bottom of string text 51
pointer to current data item address 65
pointer to current statement address 61
pointer to end of array storage 49
pointer to start of array storage 47
pointer to start of program text 43
pointer to start of variable storage 45
pointer to top of BASIC RAM 55
program text storage 2048
RAM vector table 768
Buffer
cassette I/O buffer 178, 828
keyboard buffer 198, 631
RS-232 input buffer 247
RS-232 output buffer 249
text input buffer 512
cartridge, autostart ROM 32768
cassette
data output line 01
I/O buffer 828
Kernal ROM routines 63466-64737
motor control 01, 192
switch sense 01
character generator ROM 01, 4096, 36864, 53248
charcter graphics 53248
CHAREN 01
CHRGET 115, 58274
CHR$ 46828
CIA (Complex Interface Adapter)
CIA #1 56320-56335
CIA #2 56576-56591
data direction registers 56322, 56323, 56578, 56579
data ports 56320, 56321, 56576, 56577
timers 56334, 56335, 56590, 56591
clock
clock speed (6510 microprocessor) 56334
software clock 160
Time of Day clock 56328, 56584
CLOSE 57799
CLR 42590
CMD 43654
cold start, BASIC 40960, 58260
color
background 53281
border (frame) 53280
color codes 646
color RAM nybbles 55296
current character color 646
multicolor background registers 53282, 53283
PETASCII color change characters 59601
sprite color registers 53287-53294
sprite multicolor registers 53285, 53286
CONT 43095
COS 57956
DATA 43256
data direction register 00, 56322, 56323, 56578, 56579
data port 01, 56320, 56321, 56576, 56577
DEF 46003
DIM 45185
dynamic keyboard 198, 631
error
BASIC error handler 768, 42039, 58251
error message control flag 157
I/O error status 144
RS-232 I/O error status 663
EXP 49133
expression evaluation 778, 44446, 44675
floating point
addition 47207, 47210
division 47887, 47890
fixed-floating point conversion 05, 45969
floating-fixed point conversion 03, 45482, 45503
Floating Point Accumulators 97, 110
floating point-ASCII conversion 48605
multiplication 47656, 47667
subtraction 47194, 47194
FN 46068
FOR 42818
FRE 45949
garbage collection, string variable 46374
GET, GET# 43899
GOSUB 43139
GOTO 43168
graphics
bitmapped graphics 53265
character graphics 53248
extended background color mode 53265
fine scrolling 53265, 43271
multicolor mode 53271
raster position 53265, 53266
screen blanking 53265
sprites SEE sprite graphics
HIRAM 01
IF 43304
INT 48332
interrupt
CIA hardware FLAG line 56589, 56333
CIA serial shift register 56589, 56333
CIA Time of Day clock alarm 56589, 56333
CIA Timers A and B 56589, 56333
IRQ handler 59953, 65352
IRQ vector 788, 65534
light pen IRQ 53273, 53274
NMI handler 65091
NMI vector 792, 65530
raster compare IRQ 53266, 53273, 53274
sprite-display data collision IRQ 53273, 53275
sprite-sprite collision IRQ 53273, 53275
INPUT 43967
INPUT# 43941
I/O
current device number 186
current filename address 187
current filename length 183
current input device 153
current I/O channel number 19
current logical file number 184
current output device 154
current secondary address 185
device number table 611
logical file table 601
number of I/O files open 152
RS-232 status 663
secondary address table 621
status word codes 144
joystick controllers 56320, 56321
Kernal
jump table 65409
RAM vector table 794
ACPTR 60947, 65445
CHKIN 798, 61966, 65478
CHKOUT 800, 62032, 65481
CHRIN 804, 61783, 65487
CHROUT 806, 61898, 65490
CINT 65371, 65409
CIOUT 60893, 65448
CLALL 812, 62255, 65511
CLOSE 796, 62097, 65475
CLRCHN 802, 62259, 65484
GETIN 810, 61758, 65508
IOBASE 58624, 65523
IOINIT 64931, 65412
LISTEN 60684, 65457
LOAD 816, 62622, 65493
MEMBOT 65076, 65436
MEMTOP 65061, 65433
OPEN 794, 62282, 65472
PLOT 58634, 65520
RAMTAS 64848, 65415
RDTIM 63197, 65502
READST 65031, 65463
RESTOR 64789, 65418
SAVE 818, 62941, 65496
SCNKEY 60039, 65439
SCREEN 58629, 65517
SECOND 60857, 65427
SETLFS 65024, 65466
SETMSG 65048, 65424
SETNAM 65017, 65469
SETTIM 63204, 65499
SETTMO 65057, 65442
STOP 808, 63213, 65505
TALK 60681, 65460
TKSA 60871, 65430
UDTIM 63131, 65514
UNLSN 60926, 65454
UNTLK 60911, 65451
VECTOR 64794, 65421
keyboard
current key pressed 203
keyboard buffer 631
keycodes 203
keyboard matrix 245, 655, 56321
last key pressed 197
number of characters in buffer 198
pointer to matrix lookup table 245
reading the keyboard 56320
repeating keys 650
LEFT$ 46848
LEN 46972
LET 43429
light pen 53267, 53268
LIST 42652
LOAD 57704
LORAM 01
MID$ 46903
NEW 42562
NEXT 44318
NMI 65095
ON GOSUB, ON GOTO 43339
OPEN 57790
Operating System (OS)
OS end of RAM pointer 643
OS screen memory pointer 648
OS start of RAM pointer 641
OR 45030
paddle controllers 54297, 54298
paddle fire button 56320, 56321
PAL/NTSC flag 678
PEEK 47117
POKE 47140
POS 45982
PRINT 43680
PRINT# 43648
program text area 43, 2048
program text input buffer 512
RAM
BASIC pointer to end of RAM 55
RAM/ROM selection 01
OS pointer to end of RAM 643
OS pointer to start of RAM 641
random number generator 54299
READ 44038
registers, reading/setting from BASIC 780
REM 43323
RESER, power-on 64738, 65532
reset, VIC-II chip 53270
RESTORE 43037
RESTORE key, disabling 792, 808
RETURN 43218
RIGHT$ 46892
RND 139, 57495
RS-232
baud rate 659, 661, 665
baud rate tables 58604, 65218
buffers 247, 249
command register 660
connector pin assignments 56576, 56577
control register 659
duplex mode 660
handshaking protocol 660
Kernal ROM routines 57344-65535
parity 660
status register 663
stop bits 659
word length 659
RUN 43121
SAVE 57686
screen editor
current character color 646
cursor color RAM position 243
cursor flash 204, 205, 207
cursor maintenance 206, 647
cursor screen position 209, 211, 214
insert mode flag 216
key repeat 650, 651, 652
quote mode flag 212
reverse character flag 199
screen line link table 217
screen RAM 1024, 648, 53272
shift flag 653, 654
Serial Bus I/O 56576, 60681-61114
Serial Data Port (CIA) 56332, 56588
SGN 48185
SID chip register 54272-54300
SEE ALSO sound
SIN 57960
sound
ADSR envelope control 54278-54279, 54285-54286, 54292-54293
filtering 54293-54296
frequency (pitch) control 54272-54273, 54279-54280, 54286-54287
gate bit 54276
Oscillator 3 envelope generator 54300
Oscillator 3 output 54299
pulse waveform pulse width 54274-54275, 54281-54282, 54288-54289
ring modulation 54276, 54283, 54290
synchronization (hard sync) 54276, 54283, 54290
volume control 54296
waveform control 54276, 54283, 54290
sprite graphics
color registers 53287-53294
display priority 53275
enabling sprite display 53274
horizontal expansion 53277
multicolor color registers 53285-53286
multicolor sprites 53276
position registers 53248-53264
shape data pointers 2040
sprite-display data collision detection 53279
sprite-sprite collision detection 53278
vertical expansion 53271
SQR 49009
ST (I/O status word) 144
stack, 6510 microprocessor 256
STOP 43055
STOP key 145, 808
STR$ 46181
SYS 780, 57642
TAN 56083
Time of Day clock 56328-56331, 56584-56587
timers, hardware 56324-56327, 56334-56335, 56580-56583, 56590-56591
tokens, keyword 772, 774, 40972, 41042, 41088, 41118, 42364, 42772
User Port 56567-56577
USR 785
VAL 47021
variable
array variable storage 47
find or create variable routine 45195
storage format 45
string text area 51
VERIFY 57701
VIC-II CHIP
memory bank switching 56576
registers 53248-53294
SEE ALSO graphics, sprite graphics
warm start, BASIC 40962, 58235
WAIT 47149
wedges 115
*********
End Project 64 etext Mapping The Commodore 64.
*********
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