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From: knutsen@aramis.rutgers.edu (Mark Knutsen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: 1200xl and the cpu and OSe
Message-ID: <1457@aramis.rutgers.edu>
Date: Tue, 8-Sep-87 19:52:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: aramis.1457
Posted: Tue Sep  8 19:52:43 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 10-Sep-87 00:53:07 EDT
References: <870907174221.284781@DOCKMASTER.ARPA>
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 30

In article <870907174221.284781@DOCKMASTER.ARPA> Cothrell@DOCKMASTER.ARPA writes:

> Ok, I have just found out that the 1200xl (and I presume everything else
> but the 400 and 800) does NOT have a standard 6502 in it.  Can anyone
> answere the questions of the day?  Namely, what was done to the
> processor to make it non-standard?

	While talking to the "doctor" after my 800XL's recent brain
transplant, I also learned to my surprise that the CPU is not a stock
6502.  I believe I was told that there is a small amount of extra
circuitry in there for address decoding, but am not sure.  Can check
it out if you wish.

> number 1 above).  Better yet, are there any "alternate OS" available for
> the ataris...and would any of the authors be willing to release the
> source under a non-disclosure agreement or make a custom version?

	For playing around with the OS, I suggest you get The Boss
alternate OS.  In addition to being a good substitution for the
Translator disk, it offers coldstart from the keyboard, and has a
special mode where it deselects the OS ROM in favor of the RAM
underneath, and copies itself there.   What you get is a RAM OS that
you can POKE around with.

--Mark Knutsen
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