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From: striepe@muscat.UUCP (Harald Striepe)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: BASIC XE
Message-ID: <10564@muscat.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 3-Sep-87 20:39:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: muscat.10564
Posted: Thu Sep  3 20:39:31 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 5-Sep-87 14:18:28 EDT
References: <770@cg-atla.UUCP>
Reply-To: striepe@muscat.UUCP (Harald Striepe)
Organization: DEC Software Products Group
Lines: 33
Keywords: XE

In article <770@cg-atla.UUCP> SAULNIER@cg-atla.UUCP (SAULNIER) writes:
>
>	I purchased "BASIC XE" from OSS some time ago, and I realized
>that I NEVER use atari BASIC anymore.  My question is, can I yank out
>the ATARI BASIC rom(s) and do a straight swap with the "XE" roms?  I
>would like to free up the bus connector for other uses, but can't
>because this cartridge is ALWAYS installed.  Has anyone ever done
>this??  (I could handle more than a straight swap if someone has
>the exact procedure.)
>

	OSS'S BASIC XE is a 16K BASIC that bank-switches a portion of its 8K
	physical address space.  In addition, it makes use of the 8K RAM
	shadowed by the cartridge through disk loaded extensions.  This
	allows the versatility of a 24K language while only occupying 8K of
	the limited 6502 address space.  In extended mode, it stores its
	program code in the extra 64K of RAM banked on the 130XE, using the
	main memory for data storage only.  Alternately you can kleep
	program and main line data storage in the main bank, and do extended
	storage of data chunks in the banks (explicit bank numbers can be
	used with peeks, pokes, bloads etc.).

	You can see that this would not be a simple ROM replacement, since
	you would also have to graft the banking logic.

	A simpler approach might be to use ICD's 130XE bus adapter that
	converts the 130XE cartridge and extended slot to the straight 800XL
	type connector,  while adding two (vertical) cartridge slots.  The
	second slot is intended for the R-TIME8 cartridge.
-- 
Harald Striepe
Digital Equipment Corp., SPG Mktg, Sunnyvale, CA
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