RomWBW/ReadMe.txt

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***                     R o m W B W                      ***

***                                                      ***

***       System Software for N8VEM Z80 Projects         ***

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Builders: Wayne Warthen (wwarthen@gmail.com)

          Douglas Goodall (douglas_goodall@mac.com)

          David Giles (vk5dg@internode.on.net)



Updated: 2014-09-19

Version: 2.6.2



This is an adaptation of CP/M-80 2.2 and ZSDOS/ZCPR

targeting ROMs for all N8VEM Z80 hardware variations

including SBC, Zeta, N8, and Mark IV.



NOTE: This is very much a work-in-progress.  It is

severely lacking appropriate documentation.  I am 

happy to answer questions and provide support though.



Acknowledgements

----------------



While I have heavily modified much of the code, I want

to acknowledge that much of this is derived or

copied from the work of others in the N8VEM

project including Andrew Lynch, Dan Werner, Max Scane,

David Giles, John Coffman, and probably many others 

I am not clearly aware of (let me know if I omitted

someone!).



I especially want to credit Douglas Goodall for 

contributing code, time, testing, and advice.  He created

an entire suite of application programs to enhance the

use of RomWBW.  However, he is looking for someone to

continue the maintenance of these applications and

they have become unusable due to changes within

RomWBW.  As of RomWBW 2.6, these applications are

no longer provided.



David Giles has contributed support for building the

ROM under Linux and the CSIO support in the SD Card driver.



Usage Instructions

------------------



The distribution includes many pre-built ROM

images in the Output directory.  The simplest way of

using this ROM is to simply pick the pre-built ROM

that most closely matches your preferences, burn it,

and use it.



Refer to the file called RomList.txt for a complete

list of the ROMs that are included and the required

hardware configuration that they support.



Upgrading from Previous Versions

--------------------------------



Burn a new ROM image appropriate for your system

and boot under that new ROM.  You may want to use

a different ROM chip in case the new version does

not work.



If you are using "boot from disk", you will need

to update the OS image on all drives you boot from.

To do this, use SYSCOPY.  Something like this

would make sense:



    B:SYSCOPY C:=B:ZSYS.SYS



CPU Speed & Baud Rate

---------------------



The startup serial port baud rate in all pre-built

RomWBW variants is 38.4Kbps.  While this speed is

nice in that it provides great display and file

transfer performance, it does push the limits of

slower hardware.  Specifically, XModem v12.5 (the

default XM.COM) on the distribution is unable to

service the serial port fast enough if the CPU is

running at 4MHz.  Your options are to 1) use the

old version of XModem (XM5.COM), put a faster CPU

oscillator in your system (6MHz or above), or

3) decrease the baud rate by building a custom

ROM.



UNA Variant

-----------



RomWBW will now run under it's native BIOS (HBIOS) or

under UNA BIOS (UBIOS).  There are pre-built ROM

images for UNA in the Output directory.



CP/M vs. ZSystem

----------------



There are two OS variants included in this distribution

and you may choose which one you prefer to use.



The traditional Digital Research (DRI) CP/M code is the first

choice.  The Doc

directory contains a manual for CP/M usage (cpm22-m.pdf).

If you are new to the N8VEM systems, I would currently

recommend using the CP/M variant to start with simply

because they have gone through more testing and you

are less likely to encounter problems.



The other choice is to use the most popular non-DRI

CP/M "clone" which is generally referred to as

ZSystem.  These are intended to be

functionally equivalent to CP/M and should run all

CP/M 2.2 code.  They are optimized for the Z80 CPU

(as opposed to 8080 for CP/M) and have some potentially

useful improvements.  Please refer to the Doc directory

and look at the files for zsdos and zcpr (zsdos.pdf &

zcpr.doc as well as ZSystem.txt).



Both variants are now included in the pre-built ROM images.

You will be given the choice to boot either CP/M or

ZSystem at startup.



Building a Custom ROM

---------------------



I strongly suggest you start with burning one of the

pre-built ROMs and making sure that works first.  Once

you have gotten past that hurdle, you should consider

building a custom ROM.  It is very easy and the

distribution comes with everything that is needed to

run a build on a Windows 32 bit or 64 bit system --

basically Windows XP or above.  There is also a

Linux build now available.



Creating a custom ROM allows you to customize a lot

of useful stuff like adding support for a DSKY if

you have one.



Please refer to the Build.txt file in the Doc directory

for detailed instructions for building a custom ROM.  If

you are using Linux, also read the LinuxBuild.txt file.



Formatting Media

----------------



<TBD>



Creating Bootable Media

-----------------------



<TBD>



Using Slices on Mass Storage Devices

------------------------------------



<TBD>



Managing Console I/O

--------------------



<TBD>



Notes

-----



I realize these instructions are very minimal.  I am happy to answer

questions.  You will find the Google Group 'N8VEM' to be a great

source of information as well.