Please do not publish the following information anywhere outside USENET
(i.e. newsletters or pay systems. I guess BBS's are ok, though.)
   I had a chat with Chuck Steinman on the DataQue support BBS, and he was
very helpful in answering my questions. It seems that the 65816 processor
used in the Turbo 816 is rated for 5 Mhz, though it appears it would probably
handle 8 Mhz. However, due to restrictions placed by the RAM on the
motherboard and some of the support chips (Pokey was mentioned), the Turbo
will be running at the normal 1.79 Mhz. { This may sound very limiting, but the
65816 in native mode will still be a good bit faster due to its ability to
handle 16 bit data chunks. More advanced features of the 65816 help as well
(there are two commands to move blocks of memory.) } DataQue is working on
this problem and will probably release an accelerator board in the future to
increase the speed closer to the chip's limit.
   (Info in {} above is my own, not Chuck's.)

   If you are interested in calling this BBS, the number is (419)529-5197
(I believe it is ASCII, 300-1200 baud).

                                        Gary Duzan
                                        Time  Lord
                                    Third Regeneration
                                 Atari Enthusiast Extreme

--
+------------------------------------------+ UUCP: !uunet!udel.edu!vax1!gdtltr
| "Two hearts are better than one." -- Yes | Internet: gdt@vax1.acs.udel.edu
| "Don't listen to me; I never do." -- Doctor Who | Other: Relay through CUNYVM
+-------------------------------------------------+        or something.

        From what you say, can I assume that it is a board that runs
standard Atari/6502 software, but using the 65816 instead of a 6502 ??

        I am interested because the final year project of my degree was
to add a 65816 2nd processor to an Atari 800XL. I ran the 65816 at 2.5MHz,
as I was not constrained by the graphics chips (Antic,GTIA) which require
the Atari to run at 1.79MHz. This meant that graphics progs would not work
unmodified, but stuff like BASIC, and Assemblers would.
The software ran twice as fast on the 65816 as on the 800XL (because the
6502 on the 800XL is slowed down by DMA performed by Antic).

        I connected the two together using the 800XL's parallel port. Any
I/O operations (such as screen, keyboard and disc accesses) were passed
across the parallel port to be handled by the 800XL. Thus the 65816
took over the role as main processor, and the 800XL was an intelligent
terminal to it.

                Ivan Warner

=>   From what you say, can I assume that it is a board that runs
=>standard Atari/6502 software, but using the 65816 instead of a 6502 ??
=>
   Correct. DataQue has also completely rewritten the Atari OS in the 65816
native mode. The basic upgrade will replace the OS ROM, 6502, add one wire
to the motherboard, and will initially run about $120. Supposedly they have
gone to great pains to maintain compatability with existing hardware and
software., and I understand they have had reasonable success. They will be
adding all sorts of neat stuff like a card bus, enhanced color graphics card,
RAM cards, accelerators, coprocessors, and some other stuff.

=>   I am interested because the final year project of my degree was
=>to add a 65816 2nd processor to an Atari 800XL. I ran the 65816 at 2.5MHz,
=>as I was not constrained by the graphics chips (Antic,GTIA) which require
=>the Atari to run at 1.79MHz. This meant that graphics progs would not work
=>unmodified, but stuff like BASIC, and Assemblers would.
=>The software ran twice as fast on the 65816 as on the 800XL (because the
=>6502 on the 800XL is slowed down by DMA performed by Antic).
=>
=>   I connected the two together using the 800XL's parallel port. Any
=>I/O operations (such as screen, keyboard and disc accesses) were passed
=>across the parallel port to be handled by the 800XL. Thus the 65816
=>took over the role as main processor, and the 800XL was an intelligent
=>terminal to it.
=>
=>
=>           Ivan Warner

   This sounds very interesting, and I have been thinking lately of similar
things myself. If you have your work written in some digital media somewhere,
I would be ever grateful if you could send me a copy. Thanx.

                                        Gary Duzan
                                        Time  Lord
                                    Third Regeneration
                                 Atari Enthusiast Extreme

--
+------------------------------------------+ UUCP: !uunet!udel.edu!vax1!gdtltr
| "Two hearts are better than one." -- Yes | Internet: gdt@vax1.acs.udel.edu
| "Don't listen to me; I never do." -- Doctor Who | Other: Relay through CUNYVM
+-------------------------------------------------+        or something.

----------

If anyone knows how I can get in touch with phillip Price (creator
of Alternate Reality for the Atari 8-bits), please e-mail me with
the info. Thanks.

                        -Ray

wilm@topaz.rutgers.edu

I have a BASIC program with machine language assist which can read/write the
standard 128-byte sectors via SIO calls, stuffing 'R' into DCOMND and filling
in the other fields of the DCB for sector number and buffer.  I hoped that by
putting 256 into DBYTLO/HI I would be able to read the sectors, but I only got
data for the first three sectors, which leads me to believe I'm still only
giving the "single-density" read command, and the drive is being tolerant in
case I'm trying to boot from PROM.

So, can anyone shed some light on this issue?  Thanks for any information...
--
{decuac.dec.com,cucstud,sundc}!c3pe!charles     ex::!echo Boo:

Charles Marslett
c@killer.dallas.tx.us

Michel 'Mikki' Waucomont

My mission was to transfer files from IBM PC to Atari.  A kind soul on the
net came to my aid with a program to r/w Mydos 256-sector files with a
PC, and as it turns out Spartados can r/w Mydos disks.  I was prepared
to write all that stuff myself!  It all works beautiful now.

-Stan

--Ron                             ===  guest_tmp%misery.@decwrl.dec.com  ===
                                  ===    decwrl!misery.dec.com!guest_tmp    ===

I bought a 1027 printer without the power supply at a garage sale (cheap).
Can anyone tell me what kind of supply it requires? (12V AC, 9V AC, ???)

Thanks a lot.

Monty Wood

w@dvinci.UUCP
or - w@admin.usask.ca
or - wood@sask (Bitnet)