Uncovering the R800

Ascended (10821)

05-05-2019, 17:50

ARTRAG wrote:

could the r800 have some undocumented opcode from this one?
http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/zilog/z280_manual.pdf

If you look at my second post in this thread, I already did some experiments, and there are only few opcodes which seem to do anything at all, the vast majority of the Z280 opcodes are no-op on R800.

Par gdx

Enlighted (6437)

06-05-2019, 16:21

Nice find Grauw.

I think the only interesting things we do not know well about the Turbo R are the internal mapper and the T9769.

About the R800, I think we know almost everything concerning the MSX. The only little doubt hanging is on the multication of some registers which seems to be disadvised.

"きんのじ" wrote:

Your job is quick. . .
In Japan, there is no culture of sharing old documents. The copyright of this document belongs to MSX Associates :-)

Kinnoji is wrong. The copyright for this document does not belong to MSX Associates. At most MSX Associates has rights to use the MSX trademark. That's all.
As its title indicates "R800 user's manual" is for the users. Even if we do not have the right to reproduce the document for commercial purposes, the information inside is there for the users. Legally, we can share information from the document. It was done for that.

Some Japaneses are annoying. They catalog foreigners systematically with their prejudice. Kinnoji's sentence that I quote says a lot. He could have said nothing or just "No, I don't want my documents to go on sale someday by someone".
{mod: I had to add a word to keep the last section free of prejudice. I ask for your comprehension. -hamlet}

Par enribar

Paragon (1224)

06-05-2019, 10:50

I remember that Takamichi found and send me a PDF written in Japanese with some technical informations not available elsewhere. I'll get the attention of Takamichi on this thread, maybe he has some new finds about the R800.
Upd: a partial translation of that document is here (maybe It's userful as is):
http://gtinter.msxnet.org/trchipd/panasonic_technical_guide_...

Par Takamichi

Hero (651)

06-05-2019, 10:59

Thanks I haven't read the entire thread so what I translated might be something everyone knows by now, but whatever you can tell the pin assignments there. I posted this several years ago but seem to have taken few attentions since.

And here is the parent page with additional information http://gtinter.msxnet.org/trchipd/trchips.htm

Par Takamichi

Hero (651)

06-05-2019, 11:18

I noticed the Hans Otten's MSX turboR – MSX Info Pages where the turboR ST service manual was had disappeared. Does anyone know the new address or something similar?

Ah I found it in the Archive page https://archive.org/details/PanasonicFSA1STTechnicalGuide I'll update my page later.

Par Grauw

Ascended (10821)

06-05-2019, 11:19

@gdx Your comments are not constructive, similarly prejudiced as what you’re accusing of, and won’t help making more information available. I was making a request and it’s up the the other party to follow up on it or not. I can’t go complaining if he doesn’t want to bother with it. If he would like us to get permission from D4E or MSXA before sharing, that’s his right. It’s better than a straightforward no.

@Takamichi: A mirror has appeared here. Edit: or archive.org indeed :).

Par gdx

Enlighted (6437)

06-05-2019, 11:35

On the contrary, I think it's constructive to point out someone's mistake.

Grauw wrote:

I was making a request and it’s up the the other party to follow up on it or not. I can’t go complaining if he doesn’t want to bother with it.

Obviously and same for me but I had to criticize his way of acting.

Par Takamichi

Hero (651)

06-05-2019, 12:10

Thank you. I don't know if I found it earlier or later than you, but I updated the link anyway.

Pages 16 to 36 (chapter 1-1 thru 1-3) of the MSX TurboR Technical Handbook contain turboR information. There is a typed text (without sample codes) for it so you can use Google translation. http://dai3car.sakura.ne.jp/msxpage/msxtr_handbook/lates.html
I remember locating a patent information for the R800 claimed by the original developer of R800 before, I will post a link when I remember :)

Par Takamichi

Hero (651)

06-05-2019, 12:21

I found the links but they return "sorry we won't be back until May 7 09:00" now. They do contain valuable information such as DMA so I even translated some of it .... to Italian and I can't translate it back now!
http://www2.ipdl.inpit.go.jp/begin/BE_DETAIL_MAIN.cgi?sType=...

http://www2.ipdl.inpit.go.jp/begin/BE_DETAIL_MAIN.cgi?sType=...

Edit: I am beginning to remember what I wrote, it was about how DMA accelerates data processing. But I have to look at the original to be sure.

Par Takamichi

Hero (651)

06-05-2019, 12:49

Another lesser known information is MSX Technical Guidebook written by ASCAT who is an amateur developer. The turboR pages are between 62 and 73. Not much hardware information though but you may try google translation anyway http://www.ascat.jp/tg/tg45.pdf