RE: 1541 clone help needed

From: Martin Hoffmann-Vetter <martinHV_at_arcor.de>
Date: Fri, 17 May 2019 15:49:26 +0200
Message-ID: <005401d50cb7$583fc3a0$6800a8c0_at_mhv.webmade.com>
Hello Jim,

> Many clone drives used a direct copy, an obfuscated copy, or a
> marginally modified 1541 drive ROM to power their units. 
> 
> Someone provided me a BlueChip/Amtech drive ROM, and I finally had a
> chance to look at it.  It's a 16kB ROM, and the e000 looks almost
> exactly like the 1541 -05 or -06 ROM.  The $c000 portion is radically
> different, or at least looks different at first glance.  But, given
> the minimal changes in the upper half, I burned a copy and
> successfully booted a 1541 with it.  Thus, I'm wondering if someone
> could help me decipher: What is indeed different (of note) in the
> $e000 rom?      
> Why the $c000 rom is so different, and does it need to be that way
> (or, can I just replace it with a 1541 $c000 ROM image)? 
> The files, if folks are interested, are at:
> http://www.jbrain.com/incoming/BlueChip/Amtech_BlueChip_ROM.BIN
> http://www.jbrain.com/incoming/BlueChip/Amtech_BlueChip_ROM_c000.BIN
> http://www.jbrain.com/incoming/BlueChip/Amtech_BlueChip_ROM_e000.BIN
> The latter two are just the first split in half.

It's the same as the roms of Rapid Access FD148. So, i've disassemled some time ago.

Look at http://mhv.bplaced.de/cbmdos/Amtech_BlueChip_ROM.ZIP. Your will find Rapid Access FD148.s and dos2.6_1541_Rev2.s to compare. This rom based von revision 2. I would say that's equal. Only some operation sequence are changed. Any loops are changed to use an index minus/plus one. But both version do the same.

Martin 
Received on 2020-05-29 22:05:52

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