Examples for each CoPro core

Here are some brief instructions for things to do on each of the CPU cores in the PiTubeDirect. To switch cores, you need a *FX command followed by a Control-Break. If you always want to boot up with a specific core, edit the file cmdline.txt on the SD card.

The 3MHz 65C02 core

*FX 151,230,1

This core is very like the original external second processor, and is suitable for running Tube-aware games, such as Tube Elite. You can select a different speed, such as the 4MHz of the Master internal coprocessor, by editing the file cmdline.txt on the SD card, or by issuing *FX 151,228,4 at the command line.

All other clock speeds will depend on which model of Pi you are using, but in this case the clock speed is calibrated.

The full-speed 65C02 core

*FX 151,230,0

This core offers 1 megabyte of banked memory although very few programs know how to use it. Both 65C02 cores come with three programs built-in:

• Sphere benchmark (OLD, RUN)
  • Contains PiTubeDirect status readout (LIST 1,9)
• ClockSP benchmark (PAGE=&1000, OLD, RUN)
  • this is tuned for Basic 2 speed comparison
• Klaus Dormann's test suite (CALL &3400)

To re-initialise memory, for Cobra release and later, use *FX 151,230,128

You can also run:

• BBC Basic and HiBasic the large-memory version
• Pi calculation
• Conway's Game of Life (can use the banked memory extension)

The Z80 core

*FX 151,230,4

This core runs at full speed, about the equivalent of a 40MHz Z80. User guide here. You can run:

• BBC Basic (including assembler)
• ZEXDOC and ZEXALL test suites
• Pi calculation
• Acorn CP/M (many resources here)
  • BBC Basic
  • Mallard Basic
  • COBOL with single-stepping debugger
  • Zork, other infocom adventures

The 80286 core

*FX 151,230,8

Runs DosPlus by Digital Research

• BBC Basic and large-memory BBC Basic (512k free)
  • various demos, including PCW benchmarks (52MHz reported for Basic, 49MHz for BigBasic)
  • includes assembler
• Games including chess, sopwith, wombat
• GEM graphical environment (needs a mouse)
  • with word processor, paint program
• extremely slow Z80 emulator

The 6809 core

*FX 151,230,9

• Flex operating system (user guide)
  • Basic and XBasic
  • Adventure (adv9)
  • Assemblers
  • C compiler
  • Forth

The ARM2 core

*FX 151,230,12

This is like the original ARM Evaluation System external coprocessor

• BBC Basic (with probably buggy assembler) (AB)
  • Mandelbrot (using Basic's hidden MANDEL command)

The NatSemi 32016 core

*FX 151,230,13

This is the 16/32 bit CPU found in the ABC, Master Scientific, and Cambridge Workstation products, also available as an external second processor, and with an FPU on board. Scans of documentation here.

• Basic: Bas32 and Bas32f
• Pi calculation (see here and here.)
• PanOS (disk images here and see also here.)
  • welcome slideshow and demo
  • adventure (advent)
  • several programming languages with hello world demonstrations
    • Fortran
    • C
    • Lisp (includes Logo-like graphics primitives)
    • Pascal
  • EDIT text editor
  • Spice circuit simulator, see here.
  • linpack benchmark (in Fortran - see here.)
  • whetstone benchmark - see here.

To set RAM size for this core, in Cobra release and later, use *fx 151,226,1 followed by *fx 151,228,val where val counts up in 64k units. Add 128 to val to count in 8Mbyte units. Or, set a copro13_memory_size value in cmdline.txt

The native ARM core

*FX 151,230,15

This is the highest-performing core. Code is actually running on the Pi's ARM CPU directly, with no emulation layer. Basic runs at the speed of a multi-GHz 6502, if such a thing were possible.

• Basic (BAS135) (with assembler)

The null core

*FX 151,230,14 This is a convenience core, which offers no co-processor, and allows your Beeb to work as if the Pi were disconnected or powered off. On a Master, you can use *NOTUBE to do the same.