ADVRAM, for what?

Master (173)

20-11-2005, 17:25

Are there any programs that use the direct access to the videoram, "advram", see http://www.carchano.com.br/portal/msxprojetos.asp -> advram ?

By arnold_m

Master (173)

29-11-2005, 22:08

I wonder whether it has it been implemented in real hardware.
If it gets emulated in openMSX first, the real thing will have to be compatible with the emulator <grin>.
Maybe I should ask in the forum in Portugese as this is a Brazilian invention, but I can't write Portugese.

By mars2000you

Enlighted (6560)

29-11-2005, 22:17

It is indeed emulated in BrMSX, probably only to test the direct access to VRAM, something that the Japanese MSX creators didn't think that it was interesting to add in the MSX architecture. If I don't get me wrong, the MSX-PLAYer team was very surprised by this Brazilian invention and maybe it could find his place in the future MSX3 OCM ....

By Manuel

Ascended (19678)

29-11-2005, 22:21

Do you have contact with the MSX PLAYer team?? Or how do you know this? (Just curious!)

By mars2000you

Enlighted (6560)

29-11-2005, 22:34

No real contact with the MSX-PLAYer team, only the fact that the blueMSX 2.0 review on Gigamix was made by a MSX-PLAYer beta tester ....

And the info that I've reported about ADVRAM comes actually from some report on MRC !

By Manuel

Ascended (19678)

29-11-2005, 22:46

aha! I must check that review again then AFAIK BrMSX wasn't in the Emulator Comparison (it's a DOS program), right?

By mars2000you

Enlighted (6560)

29-11-2005, 22:55

Yes, BrMSX is a DOS program and his development is stopped ... But Ricardo Bittencourt is now in the blueMSX team

By SLotman

Paragon (1242)

30-11-2005, 00:00

ADVRam do exist, but only Ademir Carchano has it.

As far as I know he was having some problems implementing it on MSX's with turbo or on the CIEL3++, I dont remember well, but he does have a working prototype... one day on IRC he entered saying: "look... i'm running BASIC from VRAM!"

And there is no program that actually uses it... but it would be *very* interesting to have it on MSX, graphical writes would be much faster

By Manuel

Ascended (19678)

03-12-2005, 10:34

So, is there a test program for ADVRAM? Ademir must have one to test the expansion... Also RicBit should have a test program to test it on BrMSX!

Can you Brazillian folks please publish a test program? THanks in advance!

By iamweasel2

Paladin (722)

03-12-2005, 11:56

IIRC, there's a version of Fudebrowser that uses ADVRAM... Since no one has this hardware (besides Ademir), you can only see it working using a BRMSX version that has ADVRAM support. Ricbit showed this Fudebrowser version once in a Jau Meeting, and you can see that is a lot faster than the original one.

By Manuel

Ascended (19678)

03-12-2005, 12:27

OK, RicBit, please send it to an openMSX team member E.g.: manuel AT msxnet DOT org.
Or anyone else who has this.