[Coco] Becker Port Specifications?

[David Ladd]

Actually the Becker Port is very straight forward in its use inside the
CoCo.
The read status port is &HFF41
The only bit used out of bit 0 to bit 7 is bit#1
If there is data to read then bit#1 will be set to 1

The read/write port is &HFF42
Reading you must make sure you only read when data is present by the status
bit.
As far as writing you just write the DriveWire commands to the port.

Thats it on the CoCo side for HDBDOS, NitrOS-9, and custom programs.

Now on emulators using the Becker Port spec you normally give the TCP/IP
address of the DriveWire4 server and port is normally 65504. This is done
via either the command line prompt when starting the emulator or in their
respective GUI(if enabled).

Now as far as VCC goes the Becker Port support is basic alpha on this and
has not been released to the public.
xroar on the other hand is live with the Becker Port support and it works
great thus far :D
Now MESS last I know used a special port and was via a patch to a really
old source version.  So I am not really sure anyone actually finally got
them to officially add the Becker Port to it.

Now for setting up DriveWire4 server for this there should be docs on the
website for DriveWire4.

Now from what I understand that the Becker Port was originally made for the
CoCo3FPGA projects for a easy interface of linking the device to the
DriveWire4 server.

Also I have used the Becker Port for a simple serial interface to a serial
bridge to test some.  Really if you think about it the Becker Port really
could be seen as a simple FIFO UART between the CoCo and DriveWire4 server.

Thats all I have right now at this time.  If you want to see source using
it you can look at HDBDOS's or NitrOS-9's drivers for using DriveWire
related to the Becker Port.

Hope this helps you.



On Mon, Apr 1, 2013 at 12:53 AM, Kip Koon <computerdoc at sc.rr.com> wrote:

> Gary,
> I am looking for the specifications you created for your Becker Port that
> is
> being used in VCC, XRoar and MESS.  Can you point me to a link detailing
> your design and how it is used on the PC side?  Thanks a bunch.
>
> Kip
>
>
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