cbmlink release notescbmlink 0.9.8The cbmlink utility is based on prlink,
which was developed from 1994 to 1998 by Marko
Mäkelä and Olaf Seibert. The first
version of cbmlink was developed by Marko
Mäkelä in 2001‒2002.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
The 1541 quick format option is based on the work of Daniel Kahlin. The original copyright message follows:
Copyright © 1995, 1996, 2002, Daniel Kahlin. All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
- Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
- Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
- Neither the names of the copyright holders nor the names of their contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
The 1541 quick copy options (which do not work yet) are based on
the work of Andreas pitch
Andersson. The original copyright
message follows:
Copyright © Andreas
pitchAndersson 1995‒2002.Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose, including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it freely, subject to the following restrictions:
- The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software in a product, an acknowledgement in the product documentation would be appreciated but is not required.
- Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be misrepresented as being the original software.
- This notice may not be removed or altered from any source distribution.
serial)pc64)prlink a.k.a. prlink48)prlink88, prlink48,
transnib)x1541)em1541,
emul1541)kontros)c64net)cbmlink executableThis document describes the cbmlink utility, a program
package that lets you to transfer data over a parallel connection or
an RS-232 connection
between a Commodore 8-bit computer and a bigger system (Amiga,
IBM
PC compatibles, Apple,
Unix workstation).
The utility is based on a daemon, or a memory resident IRQ handler wedge running in the Commodore end of the cable. You always issue the commands from the other side. This arrangement does not need any server processes to be installed on the bigger computer.
Currently daemons are available for the following Commodore systems:
For some computer and cable combinations, there exist several alternatives, either for supporting a memory expansion or an alternative loading address or cassette interface.
The client program has been written in such a way that it should compile on most C compilers with minor modifications. The programs were originally written for GNU/Linux. The are Intel 8086 and 80386 optimised transfer routines for parallel cables. The software should work at least on the following systems:
gcc-2.95.3 packaged
by Martin Blom. Due to copyright
reasons, the Amiga OS header files are not distributed with the compiler.
Probably the easiest way of obtaining the headers is downloading the Native Developer Kit 3.9.The idea of the transfer utility package is that a daemon runs on the Commodore side in an interrupt routine, without affecting the computer’s performance. Invoked by the periodic system timer interrupt, it checks if the other side wants to send a command, and executes the commands when needed. The protocol includes commands for memory transfers and for starting a machine language routine or a BASIC program. The latter two commands deinstall the daemon for maximum compatibility.
With the current protocol, it is possible to make useful applications that run on the other end, like disk and file copiers, and possibly a remote debugger. It is convenient to develop Commodore programs on the other side and to transfer them over to test them out. On the Commodore 128, you can use a boot sector, so that the daemon will be loaded and started automatically when you start the computer. On the Commodore VIC-20, the daemon can make use of the cartridge auto-start signature.
Until a binary distribution for your platform is available, you will have to compile the source code for your system, as described in Section 4.1.
Patches and precompiled binaries are welcome.
For your convenience, we have composed the archive
cbmlink-cbmbasic.zip of precompiled Commodore binaries.
This archive is described in Section 4.2.
The C2N232 is a small RS-232 interface that can be plugged to the cassette port of an 8-bit Commodore computer:
The RS-232 end of the interface can be connected to any computer for which the following are available:
The device consists of two integrated circuits: a micro-controller and an RS-232 line driver. There are two connectors in the C2N232. The card edge connector plugs into the Commodore cassette port, and the DE-9S connector plugs to a serial port with an IBM PC/AT style pin-out. Normally, you want to use an RS-232 extension cable that connects at least pins 5 (ground), 2 (RxD) and 3 (TxD). A null modem cable will not work!
The parts of the C2N232 cost something between 10 and 20 €, which can be slightly more than the parts for a passive parallel cable. However, compared to passive cables, the C2N232 is
The C2N232 emulates tape transfers at a fairly low level, relaying pulse streams consisting of square waves of three configurable frequencies.
The driver program c2nload loads an automatically
starting fastloader, which loads Commodore program files at 38,400
bits per second and executes them, like this: c2nload -c
/dev/ttyS0
cbmbasic/c2n232/c64/plain.prg.
If the c2nload program does not appear to work, you
can try accessing the C2N232 device with a terminal program. Set up
the connection for 38,400 bits per second, eight bits per character,
no parity bit, and one stop bit. The device should respond to the
BREAK signal with a NUL character followed by
0. Try sending a Ctrl-A; the device should
respond with 1. If you now enter the SAVE
command on the Commodore, the device should display a string of
characters for several seconds.
Note that on some Commodore computers, some cassette port lines are shared with other interfaces. This may limit the applications of the C2N232. On the Commodore VIC-20, the write line is shared with the keyboard, and some other lines are wired to the user port. On the Commodore 264 series, the write line is shared with the serial bus clock input. On the Commodore PET, the write line is shared between the two cassette ports.
If you already have a null modem cable,
you probably also have a terminal program that you can use for
transferring the cbmlink daemon to your Commodore.
If you do not currently have any possibility to transfer data to
your Commodore 8-bitter from other computers, don’t worry. In the
file loader.txt, there is a bare-bones BASIC
implementation of the cbmlink daemon with which you can
download the real daemon to your Commodore. Just type it in and save
it on tape or disk before starting it.
On an IBM PC compatible, the PC64 cable is recommended, because newer on-board enhanced bidirectional printer interfaces may have problems with the prlink cable. The PC64 cable is the safest choice. The X1541 and 64NET cables are supported only for the sake of completeness.
On the Amiga, there is one native cable, which works with all supported protocols except the Commodore serial bus protocols. For the bootstrapping you can only choose the 4-bit/8-bit protocol, but you can use any protocol after you have transferred the desired daemon to the 8-bit Commodore side. Furthermore there is the transnib protocol, which works over both TransNib and prlink cables. The most efficient protocol is prlink88, which transfers 8 bits at a time in both directions.
Start the bootstrapper program on your Commodore. On the big
computer
, execute the cbmlink program with the
desired protocol to transfer the desired daemon from the
cbmlink-cbmprg.zip package to the Commodore, e.g.: cbmlink -c
pc64 0 -l cbmprg/pc64/c64/plain.prg.
Now you should see a list of addresses and byte values scroll by.
If not, the connection does not work properly. Ensure that the cable
is properly connected and you have typed in the appropriate lines of
the BASIC
listing, so that it is adapted for your hardware. Also, if you are
using an IBM
PC compatible, you may
have chosen the wrong printer port. Try the -c parameter
with different device numbers (from 0 to 3), I/O port addresses, or low-level
parallel port device names. Note that on Linux and FreeBSD, the program requires super user (root) privileges or
the parallel port device, e.g., /dev/parports/0.
If everything seems to run correctly, replace the keyword
PRINT in line 2050 with POKE. Now
the daemon will be really loaded to your computer. Once the program
has been transferred, type SYS and the start address
printed by the BASIC
program.
Now you have the cbmlink daemon running, and you can transfer the
a relocatable version of the daemon, from the cbmlink-cbmbasic.zip
package, e.g., cbmlink -c
pc64 0 -l cbmbasic/pc64/c64/plain.prg. Use the SAVE
command to save it to disk or tape.
Start the 6502 side by issuing the RUN command.
The server will hook itself in the timer interrupt handler chain
and you should get a READY prompt back immediately. Now
you can use the cbmlink program.
To make the 6502 side remove itself from the interrupt chain, issue
the command SYS start+3 where
start is the SYS address for
restarting the server. For instance, SYS52227 will
disable the cbmlink daemon loaded to the default address on the
Commodore 64.
If you type LIST before RUNning the
cbmlink daemon, you will see two lines of BASIC, like the following:
64 SYS29+256*PEEK(44):NEW 52224 SYS
The first line number indicates the computer model (64 for the Commodore 64). The second line number is the desired start address of the server program. The server can be relocated by simply changing the line number of the second line, like this:
49152 SYS 52224 RUN
The server can be restarted by typing SYS and the
number of the second line, e.g., SYS49152. Please note
that the relocation address must be an integer multiple of 256. Also,
the server must reside entirely in a memory area that is RAM in the default memory
configuration of the operating system.
The Commodore 128 tries to load a boot sector from device 8 in its
startup routine. With our special boot sector, it is possible to
start the server on the Commodore 128 automatically. It not only
starts the cbmlink server for the Commodore 128; it can
also switch to Commodore 64 mode and start the server there.
The server programs must be non-relocatable variants, that is, you must choose them from the package cbmlink-cbmprg.zip instead of cbmlink-cbmbasic.zip.
There are two variants of the boot sector:
cbmutils/c128/bootsect.bincbm128 or cbm64, depending on
the selected mode.cbmutils/c128/bootsect-pia.binBy default, the boot sector loads the server for Commodore 128 mode. You can change this behaviour by holding a key down while the boot sector is being started. Remember not to press the STOP or C= keys down too early, or the start-up routine will not load the boot sector. The keys and their functions are as follows:
| Key pressed | File to load | Mode |
|---|---|---|
| STOP | (none) | C128 |
| Q | (none) | C64* |
| (none),<-,1,2 | cbm128 or cbm1028 |
C128 |
| CTRL | cbm128 |
C128 |
| C= | cbm64 or cbm2564 |
C64 |
| SPACE | cbm64 |
C64* |
* Note that drive 8 will be issued the
U0>M0 command in this case. (Effectively, a 1571
drive will be reset to 1541 mode.) Also, the 40/80 key sense line
will be zeroed. (This line can be used for selecting the KERNAL
ROM for the Commodore 64
mode. When the line is zero (or the key is down), the standard KERNAL
is selected. When the line is high, a KERNAL ROM extension, such as
JiffyDOS, can be active.
You have to copy the servers for the modes you use. For instance, if you have a PIA expansion and a REU in your Commodore 128, and you are using the PC64 cable, you need to copy the following files:
| File name in cbmlink-cbmprg.zip | C128 file name |
|---|---|
cbmprg/pc64/c128/plain.prg |
cbm128 |
cbmprg/pc64/c128/piareu.prg |
cbm1028 |
cbmprg/pc64/c64/plain.prg |
cbm64 |
cbmprg/pc64/c64/piareu.prg |
cbm2564 |
In addition, you need to copy
cbmutils/c128/bootsect-pia.bin to track 1, sector 0 on
drive 8 by using the cbmlink switch -dw0
bootsect-pia.bin.
It is possible to change the default behaviour of the boot sector.
As you can see from the source code in
cbmutils/c128/bootsect.s, a default value will be loaded
if none of the special keys is being pressed during the boot. By
changing the default value, you can create a boot sector that e.g.
automatically switches to Commodore 64 mode and loads the appropriate
server.
The cbmlink interprets and executes its command line
from left to right, one switch at a time. If an error occurs, the
rest of the command line is ignored, and the program exits with a
nonzero status.
Typically, every cbmlink invocation starts with the
switch -c protocol device, which
specifies the hardware protocol and the device address to be used for
communications. The device name is protocol-specific:
/dev/ttyS0, serial.device or
COM1.0x3bc or 0.
Alternatively, if cbmlink has been compiled with support
for the parallel port device, you may specify a Linux or FreeBSD parallel port
device name, such as /dev/parports/0. In this way,
super user privileges are not needed.Probably the most frequently used features of cbmlink
are loading a program to memory and invoking it. But
cbmlink can also be used for copying files and entire
disks.
If cbmlink has been compiled with debugging support,
you may prepend the protocol name with debug_ in order to
get a listing of transmitted and received data.
The file-to-memory and memory-to-file transfers of
cbmlink support memory expansions and banked memory
access on the Commodore.
The -b switch is used for overriding the default bank,
which is 1 for the Commodore 610, 710, 620 and 720, and 0 for all
other Commodores.
Bank numbers 0 to f are for internal memory. The two low-most bits are for specifying the MMU mapped memory bank on a Commodore 128. In other words, MMU mapped memory banks on the Commodore 128 are numbered from 0 to 3. On unexpanded units, the banks 2 and 3 are the same than banks 0 and 1.
The bits 2 and 3 of the bank number specify the PIA mapped expanded memory bank on a Commodore 128 or a Commodore 64. So, the 64 kB banks of a Commodore 128 with 1 megabyte of internal memory are numbered from 0 to 15. On a 512 kB expanded Commodore 128, the unique bank numbers are 0, 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12 and 13, as there are only two MMU banks. For instance, the banks 11 and 9 are equivalent. On a 256 kB expanded Commodore 64, or on a PIA-expanded Commodore 128 in Commodore 64 mode, the bank numbers 0..3, 4..7, 8..11 and 12..15 are the same, so there are 4 different banks.
Bank numbers from 16 to 255 are for REU memory banks, i.e. the banks of a 512 kilobyte REU are numbered from 16 to 23.
On a stock Commodore 128, memory will be accessed through the FETCH ($2a2) and STASH ($2af) subroutines. Due to their design, there’s a bug: any data read between 0x0 and 0x3ff will be fetched from bank 0. The version for the PIA expansion does not have this bug.
It is possible to load Commodore program files as well as raw binary files to the Commodore memory space, at most 64 kilobytes at a time, by using one of the following options:
-l[p] file.prg-lp support the P00 file format by
skipping the 26-byte file header.-l[p]b file.prg-l[p]o,address
file.bin-l[p]r,address
file.prgNote that the file to be loaded may not overwrite the server code or I/O register space. If this happens, the transfer may hang.
The Commodore memory space may be copied to a program file or to a raw binary file, at most 64 kilobytes at a time, by using one of the following options:
-s,address1,address2
file.prgaddress1 up to but
excluding address2 in the specified bank to a
program file. Write address1 to the first two bytes
of the file.-so,address1,address2
file.binaddress1 up to but
excluding address2 in the specified bank to a
binary file.You may find indirect addressing useful. In order to save a BASIC
program in a Commodore 64, try -s,@0x2b,@0x2d
file.prg.
Note that dumping the I/O register space may hang the transfer.
It is possible to remotely invoke both BASIC and machine language programs. Before starting a program, the server deinstalls itself in order to achieve maximum compatibility.
The -r switch performs the BASIC
RUN command. This switch is typically used at the end of
a command line, e.g. cbmlink -c c2n232 /dev/ttyS0 -l Elite.prg
-r.
The -j switch invokes a machine language program.
Again, indirect addressing may be useful: -j,@0xfffc
performs a soft reset.
Normally, switching cartridge games is a little annoying, because
you would have to physically remove and install ROM cartridges, or to power the
computer off until a RAM expansion cartridge has forgot the a0CBM
auto-start code in BLK5.
With cbmlink, playing Commodore VIC-20 cartridge games
becomes more convenient. The -jc (jump cartridge) switch
installs a small machine language program that modifies the cartridge
reset vector. When the reset button is pressed, the computer resets
itself and installs the cbmlink server again.
This arrangement works notably well if the server resides at $4000
(BLK3) and the
option is invoked with -jc,20000. The parameter specifies
a SYS address that can be used for restarting the cartridge
game after pressing the reset button.
Typical usage of the switch is: cbmlink -c c2n232 /dev/ttyS0
-l "Pole Position-6000.prg" -l "Pole Position-a000.prg"
-jc,20000.
There was a collection of Commodore 64 music files on ftp.funet.fi at /pub/cbm/c64/audio/Vibrants. These modules use a common format. They must be initialised with a call to $1000, and the music will be played by calling $1003 once per video frame.
As there are loads of these files, Marko did
not want to transfer them first to my Commodore 64, but he wanted to
play them easily with a simple cbmlink command. So, he
created a simple player that also reinstalls the cbmlink
daemon.
The player is very simple. By default, it will compile to $c800,
and it assumes that the cbmlink daemon starts at
$cc00.
Assume that you have the player
(cbmutils/c64/playtune.prg) and Toccato (/pub/cbm/c64/audio/Vibrants/Deek/14toccat.prg)
in the current directory. To start playing the music on the
Commodore 64, you may use the command cbmlink -c c2n232
/dev/ttyS0 -l playtune.prg -l 14toccat.prg -j 0xc800.
Alternatively, you can load playtune.prg and the tunes
separately. To change the tune, you may omit
playtune.prg: cbmlink -c c2n232 /dev/ttyS0 -l
14treasu.prg -j 0xc800.
Beware that there are some musics with different init
and
play
addresses. If you keep hearing the same piece after
loading a new tune, make sure that the new tune starts at $1000.
The file cbmutils/c64/tod.prg measures the time spent
in an interrupt in hours, minutes, seconds and tenth of seconds, as
read from the Time of Day clock register. It assumes that the power
frequency is 50 Hz. The times will be displayed on the screen, if
they are at least two tenths of a second.
The utility was developed in order to measure cbmlink
performance. It also works on the Commodore 128. Start it with
SYS12288 after starting the server, and see how much time
a 64-kilobyte transfer (-s,0,0 file) will consume on
your equipment.
The file transfer commands use standard KERNAL routines. This means very slow speed, but it also guarantees maximum compatibility. For instance, disk transfers support any disk geometry for up to 999 tracks consisting of up to 1000 sectors.
Note that these transfer commands only work with disk drives or pseudo drives, like the REU RAM disk. The commands might work with sequential files stored on tapes, but not with program files. (This has not been tested.) Bad news for those who use a Commodore serial bus cable: As you cannot use serial devices while the daemon is running, you won’t have much use for these commands.
The switch -d drive[,secondary]
overrides the default device number (8) and secondary address (0 for
reading and 1 for writing files). The secondary address cannot be
overridden for other disk operations.
As the file names are not translated between PETSCII and ASCII, it is best to use upper-case file names on the local system, which correspond to lower-case Commodore file names.
The file-read extension can be used through several command-line switches:
-fr file ...-dd pattern$pattern and display it on the
standard output as a directory listing.-ds-dc commandUJ command will probably hang the
system. To reset the drive, use UI instead.There is only one switch for using the file-write extension:
-fw file ...It is best to rename the files to upper case before copying, as
cbmlink won’t strip directory delimiters or translate
file names from ASCII
to PETSCII.
By default, the disk transfer commands refer to drive unit 0. The unit can be specified as an additional parameter.
-dr[0|1][,interleave[,start[,end]]]
file-dw[0|1][,interleave[,start[,end]]]
fileWhen the file given to the -dw option is shorter than
the disk capacity, the rest of the disk is left uninitialised.
All media sizes are supported. The only requirement is that the first track is 1 and the first sector on each track is 0. Tracks and sectors increment up to 999.
It is possible to load and save a disk drive’s memory space. These
functions are based on the M-R and M-W disk
commands.
-dmc address1 address2
file.prgaddress1 up to
but excluding address2 in a dual disk drive’s
controller address space to a program file. Write
address1 to the first two bytes of the file.
Note that the drive may act strangely once this command has been
issued. Thanks to William Levak and Wolfgang Günther for providing
the information needed for implementing this option.-dmco address1 address2
file.binaddress1 up to
but excluding address2 in a dual disk drive’s
controller address space to a binary file. Note that the drive may
act strangely once this command has been issued.-dml file.prg-dmlo address file.bin-dmlr address file.prg-dms address1 address2
file.prgaddress1 up to
but excluding address2 in the disk drive’s
main address space to a program file. Write
address1 to the first two bytes of the
file.-dmso address1 address2
file.binaddress1 up to
but excluding address2 in the disk drive’s
main address space to a binary file.The built-in firmware of Commodore disk drives is not particularly
fast. Therefore, cbmlink implements some options that
speed up operations on probably the most common Commodore disk drive,
the 1541.
-qf name,id-dc U0>M0),
but it crashes if the drive is in the 1571 mode.-qr file-qw[,interleave]
fileThe cbmlink utility requires either the C2N232 device, a null modem serial cable or a special cable
that is connected to the parallel port of an Amiga or an IBM PC compatible (also known as the
printer port or the Centronics port). The other end of the cable must
be connected to the Commodore user port or to the Commodore serial
bus.
The PC64 cable is the
cable used by the no longer developed Personal C64
emulator
written by Wolfgang Lorenz. It uses 4 independent data lines for both
directions. If you are using or are planning to use this emulator,
then you are best off using this cable.
The prlink cable allows 8-bit data transfers from the IBM PC compatible to the Commodore side, and 4 bits to the opposite direction. It uses four bidirectional lines on the IBM PC compatible. Beware that these lines are no longer bidirectional on some newer enhanced parallel ports. Be prepared to build the PC64 cable if this cable does not work.
The software also supports the X1541 cable designed for connecting a Commodore disk drive to your IBM PC compatible. The transfer is slow, 1 bit at a time. As the X1541 cable uses the serial bus for the transfers, the transfer daemon might get confused by any disk activities. This means that you cannot copy files or disks via this cable.
On the Amiga, there are three parallel cables: the native 8-bit
cable that works with most protocols supported by the Amiga version,
and two different cables for the serial bus connection.
Also, if you have built the cable for the
TransNib software, cbmlink will work with it,
although slower than with the prlink88
cable.
Note that we disclaim any warranties, so you are using these instructions at your own risk. Do not insert the plug to the user port the wrong way around, or you’ll blow your printer port on the IBM PC compatible with the 9-volt signal as Marko did.
Note that the lower user port connections are named ABCDEFHJKMMN, skipping G and I.
On the Amiga 1000, pin 25 is not GND so Olaf picked 22 instead which should be GND on all Amiga models. On IBM PC compatibles, all pins from 18 to 25 should be GND.
serial)A 6551 ACIA based RS-232C connection is supported on the following Commodore computers:
$de00 a.k.a.
I/O1 using IRQ instead of NMI; the Swiftlink uses NMI by default)As the protocol makes no use of handshaking, three wires should be enough: TxD, RxD and ground. However, the transmitter of the 6551 will be disabled unless it is provided with a valid CTS signal.
In a null modem
cable, the signals are crossed over
: TxD on one end is connected to RxD on the other end and vice versa,
CTS to RTS, and DSR to DTR.
For reference, the connections for the 25-pin and 9-pin RS-232 connectors are described below:
| Acronym | In/Out | DE-9 | DB-25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| TxD | output | 3 | 2 |
| RxD | input | 2 | 3 |
| RTS | output | 7 | 4 |
| CTS | input | 8 | 5 |
| DSR | input | 6 | 6 |
| DTR | output | 4 | 20 |
| DCD | input | 1 | 8 |
| RI | input | 9 | 22 |
| SG | ground | 5 | 7 |
The default data rate is 19,200 bits per second, corresponding to
the top speed of the 6551 clocked with the default 1.8432 MHz crystal.
Other data rates can be specified by prefixing the device name with
the desired data rate: -c serial
9600,/dev/ttyS0 instead of -c serial
/dev/ttyS0. On the Amiga, any rate between 112 and
292,000 bits per second may be specified: -c serial
9600,serial.device. On Microsoft Windows, any rate accepted by
SetCommState can be specified: -c serial
115200,com1. On POSIX® compliant
systems, only standard data rates between 300 and 38,400 bits per
second are available.
pc64)| IBM PC | Pins | Commodore | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| GND | 25---A | GND | Ground |
| D7 | 9-->B | FLAG | Handshake signal |
| ERROR | 15<--C | PB0 | Data from Commodore to IBM PC |
| SEL | 13<--D | PB1 | " |
| PE | 12<--E | PB2 | " |
| ACK | 10<--F | PB3 | " |
| D0 | 2-->H | PB4 | Data from IBM PC to Commodore |
| D1 | 3-->J | PB5 | " |
| D2 | 4-->K | PB6 | " |
| D3 | 5-->L | PB7 | " |
| BUSY | 11<--M | PA2 | Handshake signal |
prlink
a.k.a. prlink48)| IBM PC | Pins | Commodore | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| GND | 25---A | GND | Ground |
| D3 | 5-->B | FLAG | Handshake signal |
| STROBE | 1<->C | PB0 | Bidirectional data lines |
| AUTO | 14<->D | PB1 | " |
| INIT | 16<->E | PB2 | " |
| SELECT | 17<->F | PB3 | " |
| D4 | 6-->H | PB4 | Data from IBM PC to Commodore |
| D5 | 7-->J | PB5 | " |
| D6 | 8-->K | PB6 | " |
| D7 | 9-->L | PB7 | " |
| BUSY | 11<--M | PA2 | Handshake signal |
prlink88,
prlink48,
transnib)| Amiga | Pins | C= | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| GND | 22---A | GND | Ground |
| POUT | 12-->B | CA1 | Handshake signal (strobe/flag) |
| D0 | 2<->C | PA0 | Bidirectional data lines |
| D1 | 3<->D | PA1 | " |
| D2 | 4<->E | PA2 | " |
| D3 | 5<->F | PA3 | " |
| D4 | 6<->H | PA4 | Data from Amiga to PET |
| D5 | 7<->J | PA5 | " |
| D6 | 8<->K | PA6 | " |
| D7 | 9<->L | PA7 | " |
| BUSY | 11<--M | CB2 | Handshake signal (ack) |
On the PET, Olaf chose to use CB2 even though that pin is normally connected to a speaker. He did this because it makes the cable identical to the 64 and VIC cable, and allows you to use a single-sided connector. Make sure though that it does not connect the top and bottom fingers! Also you can hear nicely when the transfer is going on.
The Amiga cable allows for two protocols: the prlink compatible 4-bit/8-bit transfer, and a full 8-bit transfer, the option prlink88. In addition, the Amiga software supports a third protocol, the one for the TransNib cable. TransNib is an older transfer system for the Amiga and the Commodore 64. Its cable has only 6 Centronics data bits connected:
The Amiga cable is downward compatible with the TransNib cable, so you can use it with the TransNib cable protocol, but of course it is slower.
If you need to make a cable there is no reason not to make the full prlink88 cable; The transnib protocol is provided for people who already have a cable for TransNib V1.00 devised by Matt Francis.
x1541)| IBM PC | Pins | Commodore serial bus | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| GND | 22---2 | GND | Ground |
| STROBE | 1-->3 | ATN | not used |
| AUTOFD | 14<->4 | CLK | Bidirectional data/handshake line |
| SELECT | 17<--5 | DATA | Bidirectional data/handshake line |
As you may note, not all lines of the original X1541 cable are
required. The loop from D0 (pin 2) to ERROR (pin 15) is missing, as
well as the connection from INIT (pin 16) to RESET (pin 6). The ATN line is not required either, but it is
required by other transfer programs that use this cable.
cbmlink will work with these additions installed, so you
don’t need to modify your existing X1541 cable.
em1541, emul1541)The description below is, slightly modified, taken from the Frodo
documentation. The exact cable as used by Frodo (see
Aminet:misc/emu/Frodo*), however, is also usable by
cbmlink. Even though it wires the ATN line as an output, we can use the cable
since we don’t use the ATN line. You
can also use the cable used by Emul_1541 (see
Aminet:misc/emu/Emul1541v11.*). There is even a third
variant of this sort of cable which differs by having no inverters or
pull-ups at all. This is in fact the sort of cable that Olaf tested.
If you are building a cable and won’t need to use it for any of these other programs, you can safely leave out the connections to the ATN line.
The cable with inverters, as shown below, is called
emul1541. The cable without inverters is called
em1541.
Building a serial bus cable is fairly simple, it connects the parallel port of the Amiga with the round 6-pin connector on Commodore devices.
Parallel port Serial bus connector
Amiga 1541
DSUB, 25-pin DIN, 6-pin
Pin Name Name Pin
14 +5V ------------*--*--+
| | |
7406 |¯||¯||¯|
(74LS05) | || || | 1k each
|_||_||_|
2 /|1 | | |
5 PB3 ----O |-----*--+--+------- ATN 3
\| | |
| |
3|\ 4 | |
6 PB4 ----| O--*-----*--+------- CLK 4
|/ | |
| |
5|\ 6 | |
7 PB5 ----| O--+-*------*------- DATA 5
|/ | |
| |
8 PB6 ---------+ |
|
9 PB7 -----------+
22 GND -------------------------- GND 2
The 7406 (a 74LS05 will do as well) must be connected to +5V and GND of course. The trained technician will notice that this is the same circuit found inside the real Commodore 64 (except that the inverter on ATN is inverted so ATN can be used for output).
Important note: If you plan to build and connect such a cable, please remember that you do it on your own risk. Olaf will not take any responsibility if there is blue smoke coming out from the back of your computer!
kontros)The alert reader may have noticed from the source code that
cbmlink supports yet another cable, a buffered parallel
cable designed by Frank Kontros. As Frank was working on yet better solutions (involving
automatic handshaking), he requested Marko not
to publish the schematic diagram of this cable. The interface works
with VIC-20 (with a small modification), Commodore 64 and
Commodore 128. E-mail Frank if you are interested in his super-fast
interface and software (for MS-DOS).
c64net)The 64NET cable pin-out won’t be listed, as the 64NET documentation claims that it is copyrighted. (It is a bogus claim, since copyright does not cover ideas, but only the expression of them.) Besides, other cables allow more efficient protocols.
If the transfer hangs, you can stop the server on the Commodore side with STOP & Restore. The client can be stopped with normal means, i.e. Ctrl-D on the Amiga, Ctrl-C on Unix-like systems, or Ctrl-Break on MS-DOS.
For some reason Olaf had weird problems with his 64 when using the prlink88 protocol. He might be the only one suffering from this, but if you too get hung transfers when transferring from the 64 to the Amiga, try to run the transnib protocol. It is slower but generally causes less hung transfers.
To get more technical: When the data lines are changed by the 64, the handshake line from the 64 sometimes starts bouncing, causing the Amiga side to get so confused that the computers get too much out of synchronisation. Olaf doesn’t know if it’s a problem with his cable (perhaps it is a bit long), his 64, or his Amiga, or any of those in general.
Because of this, we have included bounce detection for the
prlink48 and prlink88 cables in the
following cases:
If you wish to turn off the bounce detection, you can do this by
changing some flags. For the 6502 side, edit the file
c64common.s and change the definition of
ciadebounce to 0. For the Amiga side, change
DEBOUNCE in prlink48.c and
prlink88.c to 0. Next you need to recompile and test if
the transfer still works correctly.
There may be some random problems with the C2N232 device on some platforms. It works most reliably on the VIC-20 and the PET. Detailed problem reports, measurement reports and patches are welcome.
File and disk transfers do not work at all on the 264 series via the C2N232, because the write line of the cassette port is shared with the clock line of the serial bus.
File and disk transfers work unreliably on the Commodore 64 and
almost not at all on the Commodore 128 via the C2N232, probably due to
the KERNAL interfering with the tape interface, either by
reading $dc0d (clearing the status of the read line) or
by changing the write line. Burst mode transfers are unlikely to work
on these computers, because the cassette read line is shared with the
serial bus SRQ line.
The 6551 based serial servers tend to lose the command character if
several disk or file transfer commands are invoked in a sequence. In
order to avoid hanging the client on the big computer
, do not
specify more than one file or disk copying option on the command line
when using -c serial.
If the transfer does not work at all, please check the following:
cbmlink executableGenerally, in order to compile cbmlink, you need
GNU Make, GNU Compiler Collection and related
tools. On UNIX systems, you should be able to use the native
cc. If not, install gcc.
The 32-bit console-mode executable for Microsoft Windows is best generated with gcc targeted for Minimalist GNU for Windows, running either on Linux or Windows.
The MS-DOS executable can be
generated with Bruce Evans’ C compiler bcc, packaged by
Robert de Bath as Dev86.
The software supports several different cables. The cable-specific
transfer routines are in the comm subdirectory.
The extensions for copying files and disks are located in the
ext subdirectory. The 6502 source code for the
extensions is in ext/asm; they can be compiled with the
Bourne shell script ext/asm/cgen.sh.
In principle, compiling is as easy as typing
cd srcmake -f Makefile.platformmake installIn practice, it may be a bit more complicated. If make -f
Makefile.unixpc fails, try replacing -DUSE_PPDEV
in DEFINES with -DUSE_PORTIO in order to
compile the program with direct parallel port access. Then, the
resulting cbmlink program must be run with the super-user
privileges (chown root cbmlink; chmod u+s cbmlink) to
access the parallel port. The two options can also be simultaneously
enabled.
If you like to modify or to recompile the Commodore binaries, you need to retrieve XA version 2.3.0. The assembler is also available as the xa65 package of Debian GNU/Linux.
The source code for the Commodore server programs is available in a
separate package from the cbmlink
home page, cbmlink-cbmsrc.tar.gz. Precompiled executables are
available as cbmlink-cbmbasic.zip at the same place. There are also
precompiled versions without the relocator, in
cbmlink-cbmprg.zip.
There are three major variations for the Commodore servers, reflected by the include file subdirectories:
cable)host)mem)plainpia (c64, c128)piabase.s.reu (c64, c128)piareu (c64, c128)cart (vic20)a0CBM
auto-start signature. The server is installed automatically
on reset. This configuration cannot be used for loading
cartridge games.port2 (pet3001, pet4001)In the distribution of precompiled executables, there is a subdirectory for each supported protocol. Each protocol subdirectory contains a subdirectory for each supported computer type, which in turn contain programs for each supported variation.
The Action Replay cartridge by Datel occupies all of the address space at $de00-$dfff. Nevertheless, it is possible to use a Commodore REU simultaneously with an Action Replay cartridge, if the REU registers are modified to be write-only:
/o------+
I/O2 ----o/ |
(from C64) o->|---+--- I/O2 (to REU)
|
R/W --------->|---+
1N4148 |
diodes <
> 4k7
< resistor
>
|
--+--
When the switch is in its upper position, the REU will operate as previously,
i.e. it won’t work with the Action Replay cartridge. When it is in
the lower position, the Action Replay cartridge will work, but you
will most probably have problems with any software that uses the
REU (except
cbmlink). Thus, whenever you want to use anything that
supports the REU, you
must disable the Action Replay cartridge and then move the switch to
the upper position.
To allow cbmlink to access the REU when its registers are
write-only, set actionreuplay=1 in
reubase.s.
If you also modify Action Replay so that its I/O2 gets disabled when R/W is low, you won’t need the actionreuplay option. But this modification cannot be implemented with diodes and resistors. Instead, you would need an IC (quad NAND or something), which may be difficult to fit in the Action Replay case.
The ancestor of cbmlink, prlink, was
originally programmed for GNU/Linux and
C64/C128/VIC-20 by Marko Mäkelä. Olaf Seibert joined the project and ported
prlink to Amiga and the PET 3000 and
4000/8000 series. Since then, Marko has ported
the code to numerous other platforms, and improved the program
structure greatly.
Marko would like to express his thanks to
all transfer program writers and everyone who has shown interest
towards prlink or cbmlink or offered help,
mostly by supplying either documentation or hardware.
Nicolas Welte and Edward Shockley helped me to debug the null modem serial cable connection.
Special thanks go to Daniel Kahlin and Andreas pitch
Andersson for contributing fast
1541 disk routines.
Contributions are welcome, as Marko is busy with many things.
-qf option does not work on a 1571 unless it is
in 1541 mode. The modes should be changed automatically.-qr and -qw options do not work at
all. It may be necessary to rewrite the communication protocol.UI command
and reading the status channel).-dmc option (Section 2.3.4) may make drives behave strangely.cbmlink in order to speed up the
copying of 1541, 1571 or 1581 disk images.cbmconvert into cbmlink.The primary distribution site of cbmlink is http://www.iki.fi/~msmakela/8bit/cbmlink/.
Precompiled binaries are available for other than Unix-like
platforms. Currently these include Commodore Amiga OS, and 32-bit
versions of Microsoft Windows (95 and later). The source code
can also be compiled with BCC to an MS-DOS (8086) .com
executable.