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Gold Card / Super Gold Card ROM patching...

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 1:39 pm
by Pr0f
Not sure if this has been asked before, but my search didn't come up with anything specific, so here goes.

The Gold Card and Super Gold Card, copy the current ROM image in the lower 48K and then 'modify or patch' it for use with these cards. Does anyone have any more detailed notes on exactly which areas of the ROM are patched, and how the GC/SGC deals with the many different ROM versions out there, where the patched routines may for instance move location within the ROM?

Re: Gold Card / Super Gold Card ROM patching...

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 2:09 pm
by tofro
The best information on that can be had from the SMSQ/E sources - SMSQ/E does pretty much the same thing on a GC/SGC.

Tobias

Re: Gold Card / Super Gold Card ROM patching...

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 2:23 pm
by Pr0f
I have those downloaded, will have to have a peek at them.

I am guessing that the GC/SGC still respect the trap and vector addresses from the ROM's, otherwise things like the I2C on the Minerva wouldn't work.

Re: Gold Card / Super Gold Card ROM patching...

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 3:53 pm
by tofro
Pr0f wrote:I have those downloaded, will have to have a peek at them.

I am guessing that the GC/SGC still respect the trap and vector addresses from the ROM's, otherwise things like the I2C on the Minerva wouldn't work.
No, they obviously can't - They replace the complete ROM with RAM and use their own interrupt service routines - I think Minerva I2C has received special care in SMSQ/E, though.

Tobias

Re: Gold Card / Super Gold Card ROM patching...

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 7:15 pm
by Pr0f
Strictly speaking the ROM is copied to the RAM and occupies the same address space it would have done in a standard QL, so the vectors could all still be valid...

Re: Gold Card / Super Gold Card ROM patching...

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 9:41 pm
by Derek_Stewart
Hi,
Pr0f wrote:Strictly speaking the ROM is copied to the RAM and occupies the same address space it would have done in a standard QL, so the vectors could all still be valid...
So if you are correct, to get SMSQ/E working on a BBQL with ram expansion, the copy to ram should disabled.

Somehow I think it is not tgat simple.

Re: Gold Card / Super Gold Card ROM patching...

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 9:52 pm
by tofro
Pr0f wrote:Strictly speaking the ROM is copied to the RAM and occupies the same address space it would have done in a standard QL, so the vectors could all still be valid...
Well, directly after the copy the vectors still point to the same addresses in copied code as in ROM - But we don't want a 100% copy - as soon as you start to patch, this might simply no longer be possible, because routines have to be moved for lack of space etc.

Tobias

Re: Gold Card / Super Gold Card ROM patching...

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 10:35 pm
by Pr0f
Derek_Stewart wrote:Hi,
Pr0f wrote:Strictly speaking the ROM is copied to the RAM and occupies the same address space it would have done in a standard QL, so the vectors could all still be valid...
So if you are correct, to get SMSQ/E working on a BBQL with ram expansion, the copy to ram should disabled.

Somehow I think it is not tgat simple.
Derek - no offence, but the question in the original post was regarding the original QL ROM based OS - I made no mention of SMSQ in my initial post. It's perfectly possible to run QDOS on a GC or SGC I believe. I realise that running SMSQ requires quite a bit more work - but that wasn't my question - sorry.

Re: Gold Card / Super Gold Card ROM patching...

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 10:36 pm
by Pr0f
tofro wrote:
Pr0f wrote:Strictly speaking the ROM is copied to the RAM and occupies the same address space it would have done in a standard QL, so the vectors could all still be valid...
Well, directly after the copy the vectors still point to the same addresses in copied code as in ROM - But we don't want a 100% copy - as soon as you start to patch, this might simply no longer be possible, because routines have to be moved for lack of space etc.

Tobias
Exactly - and it's what modifications take place that I am interested in.

Re: Gold Card / Super Gold Card ROM patching...

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 10:37 pm
by Dave
Can't you just make an image of the edited ROM, then compare it against the original? A lot of stuff has to align up still, so it's only going to be simple substitutions of specific locations/vectors etc?