[Coco] Superboard discussion: Serial EEPROM

[Bob]

--- Mark Marlette <mmarlett at isd.net> wrote:
> At 09:57 AM 5/3/2004 -0500, you wrote:
> 
> Darn software guys...... 

*chuckle*

> 
> We could VERY easily add a register that would be a byte or two wide that 
> could handle configuration, options data and SB presence info.
> 
> Mark
> Cloud-9

Well then, aren't you glad I brought it up now? ;-)
 
Thanks,
Bob
> 
> >On May 3, 2004, at 9:40 AM, Bob wrote:
> >>Agreed.
> >>
> >>So, next question, and possibly one for a new sub-topic... how does a 3rd 
> >>party
> >>program detect the Superboard? and the installed options? Perhaps another 
> >>byte
> >>in the EEPROM with a bit for each option (would the unused 2 bits be
> >>enough?)... just thinking out loud.
> >
> >Probably the easiest and most sure-fired way to detect the presence of the 
> >SuperBoard would be to reserve an address in the $FF1X or $FF3X region 
> >which when POKEd, would return data about the board.  For instance:
> >
> >POKE &HFF3F,0
> >?PEEK(&HFF3F)
> >
> >Would return 'S'.  Then...
> >
> >POKE &HFF3F,1
> >?PEEK(&HFF3F)
> >
> >Would return 'u'....
> >
> >And so on and so forth.  The value POKEd into $FF3F would correspond to 
> >the position in the string where the character would be returned on the 
> >next read.  We could also embed serial number information this way.  So a 
> >maximum of 256 characters could be stored this way.  Such a string could be:
> >
> >SuperBoard Rev 1.0 (Serial #0001)
> >
> >Of course, when POKING and PEEKING on a non SuperBoard CoCo 3, you would 
> >likely NOT get an S, u, etc...  so you could immediately detect the 
> >presence of a SuperBoard.
> >
> >
> >--
> >Coco mailing list
> >Coco at maltedmedia.com
> >http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
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