S. Zonov, St. Petersburg
Our company constantly conducts research and development, aiming
which is to expand the capabilities of the Scorpion computer (and
when possible, then the entire Spectrum-compatible family
computers) and eliminating those shortcomings that cause hearing
to criticism from users, although mostly others
computers (Pentagon, Profi).
Time flies very quickly, and life dictates new requirements for
to our good old Spectrum. First of all, it's about
about improving the graphic characteristics of the computer, performance
actions, memory capacity. On the other hand, due to various reasons
Today, most of the computers we produce are sold with
Kempston-mouse controller and IBM keyboard, since they
easy to use, and besides, regular ZX Spectrum keyboards
no longer issued. Many people also order an HDD controller
(SMUC). Therefore, by the end of 1997 it is planned to have a new
Scorpion boards, with the working title Scorpion-2000 (this is not a mania
greatness, and why this particular name was chosen will become clear
from the list of technical characteristics). On this board there is
those controllers that have become available today have already been installed
popular and for which a large amount of software has already been written.
This is an IBM keyboard and IBM mouse controller that works according to
Kempston-mouse interface, and most importantly -HDD + IBM controller
slot From my own experience I can say that anyone who has ever been enslaved
tal with our HDD in TR-DOS, but there’s nothing to say about IS DOS, as
usually immediately forgets that there is another installed on the computer
and the disk drive, and remembers it only when it needs to be rewritten
programs from someone or for someone. Installing these devices
on the main board will free up space on the system connector
me for connecting new HardWare devices, as already series-
but produced, for example, by General Sound, and planned for
release. But the most important thing is that the cost of such a board is planned
much lower than all the listed devices cost today,
if you buy them separately. At the same time, technical characteristics
these fees will be much higher and will be more consistent with
meet the requirements of today. Namely:
I. RAM volume from 25 KB to 2048 KB (in the form of a 30 pin Simm module
lei).
II. ROM volume 512 kByte (chip 27040).
III. Graphics:
1 - Standard ZX Spectrum.
2 - 640*200, 16 colors, hardware vertical scroller
Kali to speed up work in text modes.
IV. Clock frequency 3.5 / 7 MHz, switching as hardware,
and programmatically.
V. Additional features (the most interesting):
1. Ability to disable all additional ports and re-
Switching the computer to standard ZX Spectrum mode. When turned offWhen ports are selected, the standard ROM is also included.
2. The same thing, but additionally fully emulated
timing parameters of sweeps and interrupt signals for a computer
Tera Pentagon as the main computer used by the demo
builders.
3. Since the circuit design of the board is made on a modern
technical level using programmable logic
matrices (PLM) from Altera, and the circuit itself is “stored” in the system
ROM, then it becomes possible to change the computer circuit, when
than very radically, by simply replacing the ROM or switching
reading ROM banks.
The latter makes it possible to have several on one board
variants of computer circuits that differ, for example, different
We have several scanning frequency options - one for regular TVs
and CGA monitors, another for VGA or EGA monitors. Field for questions
there is more than enough polishing of various ideas.
* * *
All this is good, the Scorpio user will say, but what about
help me with the computer I bought after spending money on it
a lot of money? Therefore, anticipating these fair questions,
I want to reassure the owners of any Scorpios in advance. When creating
new computer model, it was decided that all users would become
ry computers should be able to modify their computer
Pyuter to the possibilities of the new. It was always like this whenThere have been new Scorpio boards, so it will be this time too. Moreover,
this time the possibility of upgrading the old Scorpio model to
new opportunities will appear even before production begins
quality of the new board. For this purpose, our company is currently developing
and is preparing for serial production a board under the working name -
eat:
GMX
(Graphic_Memory_eXtension device for Scorpion 256)
This board performs all expansion and modification functions.
conversion of old Scorpio 256 boards to the level of the new Scorpio-2000 board
according to graphics characteristics, amount of RAM, ROM, additional
compatibility with ZX Spectrum and Pentagon, download
ke and modification of the circuit, etc. In short, having any possible
del Scorpio, both branded and “left”, can be easily upgraded
upgrade it to the capabilities of the new computer by connecting
GMX boards.
I would like to briefly talk about the technical indicators of this device.
triplets.
1.Memory expansion, as already mentioned, up to 2MB (hence
comes from the name of the new board).
Among the various, both existing and possible options,
com organization, the choice fell on the option that was implemented in
Profi. Those. made so that just 25bKb are addressed in the same way,
as it was, through the usual Scorpio standard, and all that
higher - according to the Profi standard - ODFFDh port. SinceProfi maxi
small memory is 1MB, then you can work with all memory from 0
up to 1MB according to the Profi standard. It will just be physically different
memory pages.
For example, you can download some program for Profi,
using up to 1MB of memory, and at the same time painlessly usable
called the Shadow Service Monitor. Gradations by increasing pa-
Memory: 25bKb, 512Kb, 1Mb, 125bKb, 2Mb - standard Simm modules.
Moreover, you can install from one module with a capacity of 25bKb (according to
Scorpio's memory shines) up to 2 modules of 1MB each - shared memory
it will be 2MB. We deliberately did not make mortgages for a larger volume -
due to the fact that, firstly, it is already becoming expensive -
Well, secondly, after all, few people need it, but they have to pay in that
or to some other extent everyone will have to, and thirdly, when using
Z80 processor very large memory will not be able to be used
effective. Why was the Profi standard chosen? Answer
simple: why come up with new standards if there are already computer
ters with extended memory and there are no technical restrictions on the use
using the same ports for addressing it. In addition, when choosing
programs from Profi work immediately with the early addressing standard,
designed for extended memory. Again, the appearance of any
the new memory expansion standard requires at least
time for programs to appear for it, getting used to itusers. But in this version this is not required. Except
This means that additional upper addressing modes are also used.
memory, which can significantly increase performance
when working with her. This is especially true for the work of the Shadow
Service Monitor (from ROM!) and programs that use it (auxiliary
him about the "Winchester"). TM is experiencing significant difficulties due to
beyond the limitations imposed by the ability to address extended
Rented memory through only one window in the address space
processor. All programs experience similar problems, so
or otherwise actively using extended memory when "re-
throwing" fragments from one bank to another.
2. Graphic screen 640*200 (208) and plus hardware scrolling
ler
The number of colors is the same as in the regular ZX Spectrum. For each
byte of graphics - one byte of attributes. In order for the image
was color, it is necessary to have 2 Simms,
i.e. at least 512Kb. Addressing the graphic screen starting
starts at 4000h, and is completely linear, i.e. first 80
byte is the first line of the screen, the next 80 bytes are the next, and
etc. Screen attributes are stored in one of the extended pages of the
wrinkle. Their addressing is exactly the same.
The main purpose of advanced graphics is standard tech-
standard screen 80*25 characters (the character hassize 8 by 8 pic-
seley), necessary for working with text editors and email
new programs. To speed up work in text mode, use
uses hardware scrolling up and down. To shift the image
Vertical adjustment to any number of pixels is only necessary
write two bytes to the “scroller” ports, which are
give the starting address in the video RAM area for image output
nia. All other possible uses of advanced graphics
are considered as secondary, because there is nothing worthwhile
when using the Z80 to process such graphics, our
look, it will not be possible to create. I admit that many will disagree -
agree with this statement. Time will tell, but even if this is ours
approach is wrong, then in the future due to the possibility of change
circuit by changing the ROM firmware, it will be possible to introduce additional
advanced graphics modes that provide an increase in the number of colors
com, expansion of the color palette, etc.
Why did you choose the graphic screen and not the digital one?
then text. The reason is that text mode (with hardware
character generator) is much more difficult to implement, ideally
the character generator must be downloadable, and this is even more complicated
understands the design. But nevertheless, since there is a possibility
the ability to radically change circuit design without changing hardware
(before this would have sounded like nonsense),then it is quite possible that
a completely different one will be added to the existing scheme, with different
graphic characteristics. The appearance of such a scheme depends
only from you, or more precisely, from your programs, which will not receive
melt existing hardware. Once again I want to note
that even serious and fundamental changes in the tran-
There are only replacements for the ROM firmware.
3. Professional ROM 040 (512 KB)
When developing software for current versions, we have already encountered
limitation on the amount of ROM and RAM (25bKb). Therefore, further development
The development of the built-in software will only come with
GMX expander support. It is planned to remake the Shadow Mo-
nitor to work in 640*200 mode, Russify, make
further expansion of the built-in service capabilities of the shadow
monitor, primarily aimed at improving service
functions when working with HDD, support for various operating systems
systems (in terms of file organization), as well as support for possible
ability to work with HAYES-compatible modems. All this is tri-
takes up a significant amount of space in the ROM.
In addition, the ROM, as already mentioned, also stores the circuit
GMX boards. Moreover, it has been done in such a way that from TM it will be possible to radically
but change the scheme by loading one of several possible options
Comrade Also, do not forget that the ROM has a large volume of memory.
gets along the most profitableprice/volume ratio. Regarding
Professional ROM for regular boards, then they will change only if
any errors will be detected in their operation, or
capabilities fit into existing hardware
humiliation. Today the version numbered 4.1 is released.
4. Increased compatibility with ZX Spectrum and Pentagon
To do this, an additional
Standard Spectrum menu bar. This disables all additional
ports and at the same time the standard ZX ROM is turned on
Spectrum 128 & TRDOS. In addition, the ability to install
ki timing parameters Pentagon-128. When moving into these re-
presses the computer turns into an absolutely standard ZX Spec-
trum or in the Pentagon, while completely “forgetting” about his
additional opportunities. The exit from this mode, of course,
only by pressing the reset button. The introduction of such a regime is long overdue and
continues to be relevant today, because
some programmers are stubborn in their desire to write programs
the way they want it. Well in that case, "if the mountain doesn't move
to Mohammed, then Mohammed will go to the mountain...". The main thing is to benefit
was for everyone.
5. Turbocharged with an acceleration coefficient of 1.8-1.9
The GMX board has a built-in Turbo circuit with increased speed.performance is 1.8-1.9 times higher when executing programs from RAM. When
When working with ROM, performance increases exactly 2 times. Pe-
Turbo/Normal switching - as now: both software and hardware -
but... Upon user's request, versions with tacto-
howl with a frequency of 1 fMHz, but their cost will be higher due to the use
of more expensive chips and a faster processor. Sco-
Most likely, it will be possible to replace a simple GMX board with a more
powerful. At least we will try to do just that.
6. Design
How is this expander constructed? This is the fee
about 80*110 mm in size, inserted into the socket for Z80 at any size
Scorpio model fight. It’s better (more reliable) if instead of a socket you
solder in a standard connector. In addition, to 10 points of the old
board, a cable is soldered through which to the GMX board after 10-
contact connector the following signals are supplied/removed:
1-R - red
2-G - green
3-B - blue
4-I - intensity
5-Sync - synchronization
6-Magic - Magic button
7-RDR/ - read ROM
8-CSR/ - access to RAM
9 - +5v
10 - Earth
7. Economic indicators
The estimated cost of a GMX board with 512Kb is $35-40 (Price
manufacturer). For comparison: today the cost of turbocharged
Removing the old Scorpio board - $10, installing ProfPZUOCh0 - $20.Then
there are all additional features available to the user for
$5-10. If you want to save a little more, unsolder more
IC parts from the main board.
8. Dates for the start of mass production and sales
As always, it is difficult to give specific deadlines, since
Then you have to make excuses for not keeping up with them.
As, for example, it happened with the HDD controller, which was developed
and prepared for more than two years. But nevertheless, still work on
successfully completed, and the number of HDD users for the summer
1997 has exceeded a thousand. Today the GMX board
is at the PCB layout stage, so we hope
Xia that mass production and sales will begin in the fall of 1997
yes. Well, time will tell how accurately we predicted.
9. Using GMX on other Spectrum-compatible models
computers
We plan to supply GMX documentation to
complete with all the information on how to modify another computer
before it can include GMX. Actually from
any Spectrum-compatible computer when used
GMX boards require: support for music coprocessor, support
TRDOS controller support, keyboard port support, magic
tape recorder, joystick, printer and some other unimportant me-
lochi. Almost all this is inany Spectrum, and one way or another
you can use this.
* * *
Taking this opportunity, I would like to briefly introduce the readers of ZX-REVIEW
with our work over the past year, and also briefly talk about
new peripheral devices, mass-produced and sold
sent, including by mail.
All this year, our main efforts were aimed at supporting
support and development of the HDD controller and IBM peripherals (SMUC-con-
troller). This includes updating the ProfPZU to new possibilities.
features, and processing of a large volume of applied and gaming
programs to enable downloading and operation
of these programs on the HDD. Now we can say that almost
all software distributed by us - and this
more than two hundred game and system disks - can work with
HDD.
New features include, for example, autostart of the computer
tera from any user-defined partition or disk, which
in practice it turned out to be very convenient, especially when working with
IS-DOS.
To ensure the performance of a large HDD -
higher than 528MB, as well as faster operation, the HDD has finally been upgraded
nerd mode of working with HDD according to the LBA standard. In a nutshell: in
In this mode, addressing data on the HDD does not follow the usual coordinates.
natam (cylinder/head/sector), but by absolute sector number.
Transformation and selectionthe desired sector is carried out by the hard
disk. In this mode, work with HDD is accelerated up to 1.5-2 times!
True, some older HDD models do not support this mode.
ut.
Our company actively cooperates with various software groups
rammists writing for the ZX Spectrum. As a result of such co-
cooperation, various application programs appear, supporting
supporting work with HDD. This includes various copiers
and bootloaders that allow you to quickly work with various partitions
and disks on HDD. Imagine having a hundred or
there are more floppy disks and you need to work with them quickly and efficiently. Nay-
you need the file, copy it to another disk, rename it,
make a selection of directories of all or some disks, etc. Without
It would be difficult to do this with convenient and effective programs. Cro-
Besides this, it should be noted that all these programs are written “in
prospect" - they include the ability to support the GMX board, and
namely, the use of a graphic screen and memory up to 2 MB
RAM.
The next promising feature of the SMUC controller is
It is possible to connect various inexpensive cards from IBM
PC. These primarily include boards with HAYES-compatible modes.
mov. The whole difficulty lies only in writing the software
support for such modems. Over the past year the situation has significantly
has changed for the better. Programs appearedmade by different cars
tori, allowing you to connect internal modems to SMUC, no matter how
strange, working at a speed of 14400 and even 33600. Now the remaining
elk to write more mail programs (for receiving, parsing,
writing and sending email), and then it will be opened
way to access e-mail systems and, what the heck,
tit - on the Internet.
Among the new and interesting Hard devices that
are being widely distributed and sold in our
company, we can note the General Sound (GS) sound card. This
music blaster, which is designed for joint work
bots with any ZX Spectrum-compatible computer 48/128/256/512
and ensures high-quality playback of digitized music
files in *.mod format, as well as playing individual
digitized "samples". The GS was based on the music circuit
cal board from an Amiga 500+ computer, and therefore the quality
your music GS is almost in no way inferior to the famous one
in honor of the music of the Amiga computer. GS uses its own
national processor and 128Kb of RAM installed on it, thanks to
which does not take resources away from the computer's base processor.
Structurally, GS is designed as a slot for computers with system
dark tire as standard on Scorpion. Currently released
There are already 4 games that support all the features of GS, as well aspro-
professional music editor for GS. You can also use
use any samples from IBM and Amiga computers. Included
those supplied with detailed instructions for connection and programming
GS frame and 2 floppy disks with music and games for it.
Main technical characteristics of General Sound:
-processor Z80H, 12mHz
-RAM 128Kb (expandable up to 1Mb)
-ROM 32Kb (expandable to 512Kb)
-interrupt frequency 44 kHz
-4 eight-bit channels with independent volume control
ti (another 6 bits per channel)
And finally, I’ll touch on one more pleasant moment for us.
According to a survey conducted among e-mail subscribers
mail (ZX Spectrum conference of the FidoNet network), today about
half (~47%) of Spectrum-compatible computers in Ex-USSR -
Scorpio 256. The survey included, to varying degrees, representation
We have 12 cities. Of course, we understand that such surveys are not
always give objective information, but nevertheless they at least
reflect the ratio (in fairness - in second place
Profi - 11%). Moreover, since our computer is constantly
is developing and, most importantly, is being mass-produced - this is consistent
wearing is steadily changing in Scorpio's favor. I'm writing all this
in order to say that in any case, any produced
for us, a more or less successful peripheral device becomes
most common inin his class, and at least for this reason
in fact, it is one or another standard in its field. (On-
I hope the same will happen with GMX). And many users who
who want a Spectrum that meets the requirements of the
today, sooner or later they come to the idea that they
we need to switch to Scorpio. Moreover, we, in turn,
albeit slowly, we are eliminating those shortcomings in our computer,
which prevented someone from choosing him. Therefore
I encourage everyone who has not yet decided which computer it will run on -
work further, switch to Scorpio and join forces in
support and development of our computer, primarily from the point of view
in terms of writing new programs and supporting released peripherals
ry devices. Moreover, there are so many smart and intelligent heads
oh, but there are so few real completed works. Only demos, demos
and demos... After looking at the most interesting articles in ZX-REVIEW for the last
the last two to three years, we can conclude that almost all
ideas that have been proposed by various embedding authors
various possibilities in ROM for organizing standard calls
in ROM, to create an electronic disk with the most commonly used
used application programs and much more, in one or another
to a different extent a long time ago (and somewhere even earlier) were implemented in the Skor-
Pione and its built-in software. Justmany
of those who proposed are not familiar with our developments.
For a detailed and in-depth look at what we are working on
we work, what has been done over the years, what programs and literature
ru we are distributing how you can order all this and receive it at
mail, send a request to the address: 199048 St. Petersburg, PO Box 083,
Zonov Sergei Yurievich; or by phone (812)-298-0653, 172-
3117 (order department, from 10 to 14), 251-1262 (service center, from
10 to 19) or by email: 2:5030/529.16.
About all the shortcomings of the built-in software, and
also about what features you would like to see in it, and
principle on a computer, you can call (812)-130-
1995, or better yet by email:
FidoNet:2:5030/25.1,
E-mail: moa@deeds.spb.ru
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