Quote:

Btw, does someone know, if there is a way to copy large files on a harddisc image? Usually I first copy the files on a disk image with Arnold's wrdsk and then copy them in the emulator on the harddisc. But in this case I am limited to 720KB. Now I would like to test the speed of the SymPlay video player, and 720KB is mostly not enough for a movie.

You can use DiskManager that you can find on the RuMSX site.

To create an formatted harddisk image : select the MSX-DOS 2 and Custom options, then define the size of the harddisk image by changing the number of sectors per disk.

Then you can drag and drop the files on the harddisk image.

Don't try though to change later these files, as for this part the DiskManager is not fully developed and seems to hang.

Also the harddisk image created when using openMSX or blueMSX beta is not recognized by DiskManager, what's strange, but maybe can be explained by an uncomplete development of this tool for the harddisk images.

prodatron> The IO is slower. IO to the VDP is kept track of and if needed delayed. Unfortunately, the delay is a bit excessive and the result is slower than plain z80. But that's just for the writing to the IO ports!

also, openmsx allows you to write files to a HD image from the console using the "diskmanipulator" commands.

Awaiting the test release with interest. I'll give it a try on my tR.

Quote:

- the general I/O (writing/reading) to/from VDP ports is slower?

This is correct, fortunately this delay is only for VDP I/O

Quote:

How long does it take to switch from/to the Z80?

I think this is very interesting question... I don't think that anyone has ever measured this. I don't think that the actual change takes much time, but as these CPU's are both individuals (they don't share even PC register) there are quite a many things to take care of...

Indeed, I checked the bios code for that. Basically a switch pushes/stores *all* registers changes cpu and restores it again. A pretty slow operation if done completely.

Quote:

I don't think that the actual change takes much time, but as these CPU's are both individuals (they don't share even PC register) there are quite a many things to take care of...

Ah, I see. So I think it only makes sense for CPU->VRAM commands and VRAM reading.
@Dvik: Is this I/O R800 delay implemented in BlueMSX? I couldn't see a difference in the speed of the graphic output (where I have many OTIRs).

Sorry, that I have to go now, but the delay should be easy to test. If you download the Dragon's Lair demo and run it with "/H" (High speed) parameter you should see the demo slow down a lot.

Look here:
http://www.msx.org/Dragons-Lair-introdemo-for-MSX2-update.newspost3694.html

Indeed, it's slower in R800 mode, not only the video part, but also the PCM sample that sounds differently.

The first preview of SymbOS MSX can be downloaded now:

http://www.symbos.de/files/symbosmsx.zip

Please copy the files in the "apps" folder in the root directory of your Sunrise IDE harddisc. The Sunrise IDE must be present in Slot 1, otherwise you won't be able to load something after booting SymbOS. Currently SymbOS will always mount PARTITION 4 of your IDE device, so please put your files here. The reason is, that the Sunrise IDEFDISK creates only this partition in the MBR, if you have a 20MB harddisc with only one partition. I will implement a partition detection in the future.

You can use a 2-button digital joystick in port 1 or a mouse in port 1 or 2 (but you will recognize, that there is still a small bug left in the mouse routine). You can also use Graph+Cursor to move the mouse pointer and Graph+Space to click.

ST2 and SKM are sound modules for SymAmp, SGX are graphic files, which can be viewed in SymSee or used as background pictures. You can download more on the http://www.symbos.de homepage.

To start one of the applications, click "Start" -> "Run" -> "Browse" and doubleclick one file in the list. You can also doubleclick a SGX or ST2/SKM directly, and the associated application will be loaded together with the file.

I hope you will get it working. Please report any problem and feel free to ask. I think currently the MSX version is not as stable as the CPC version, if you can reproduce any crash, please tell me.

A big thank you to Sonic_aka_T, Dvik, PingPong and all people from this forum thread for your great help! The last 3 weeks were quite exciting!

maybe it would be nice to put a working IDE disk image online?

Here is a beta of blueMSX with IDE support: http://www.bluemsx.com/beta/blueMSX_23656.zip

To use the Sunrise IDE, I recommend looking at the zip: http://www.bluemsx.com/dev_download/IDEStuff.zip

It has a short readme that describes how to add a new hd image to the emulator.

Here is an ide image with some apps: http://www.bluemsx.com/beta/symide.zip

Look at http://www.symbos.de for more goodies

Hmm, I get 'disc error 02' when I try to run apps with this image.
Interesting thing: the left and right borders have stripes

@manuel: You need to go to "Run..." in the start menu and then browse to the app.

Quote:

maybe it would be nice to put a working IDE disk image online?

Yes, good idea, here is a working harddisc image:
http://www.symbos.de/files/symboshd.zip

I've also discovered that this error comes if I use a harddisk image created with DiskManager. The reason of that is simple : it's impossible with DiskManager to drag and drop the contents of the Apps sub-directory ... and the CD command does not work !

With the harddisk image created by dvik, there's no any problem if you follow the procedure indicated by prodatron.