@database 68kFAQ @node Main comp.sys.m68k FAQ List This is the frequently asked questions list (FAQ) for comp.sys.m68k. It is posted on a periodic basis to comp.sys.m68k. This list is maintained by gregh@cserver.plexus.com (Greg Hawley). Errors, corrections, comments are encouraged. Please send them to Greg Hawley at the email address listed above. When vendor names or products are listed, it is not a recommendation of one vendor over another. If you have a product that fits in one of the lists, feel free to contact the maintainer with information about the product. While a good faith effort has been made to cite from where information has come, some of this document may not have properly be attributed to its source. Corrections should be sent to the maintainer. The following topics are covered by this FAQ. @{"Cross Assemblers " link CrossAssemblers} @{"C Cross Compilers " link CrossCompilers} @{"Monitors/Debuggers " link Debuggers} @{"Data Sheets/Literature " link DataSheets} @{"Samples " link Samples} @{"Motorola BBS Access " link MotorolaBBS} @{"Getting Started Building Hardware " link GettingStarted} @{"Real-time Operating Systems " link RealTimeOS} @{"S-Record Format " link SRecord} @{"Intel Hex ASCII Format " link IntelHex} @{"Contributors " link Contributors} @endnode @node RevisionHistory 1.0 15FEB93 Original Release 1.1 28FEB93 Intel Hex ASCII section added, Motorola BBS # corrected, Some information added to Getting Started Building Hardware, Location of SIMTEL cross-assembler/simulator added. 1.1.1 08MAR93 Updated reference to Dr. Dobbs book. @endnode @node CrossAssemblers Several cross assemblers are available for Motorola 680x0 processors. Any experience that you wish to share with the group about any of these products would be much appreciated. o a68k in source from to go with HCC see *C Cross Compilers* is available from the Fred Fish Amiga disk collection. o Another version of a68k in PC executable and in source form? is available from the Motorola BBS. o The GNU assembler GAS to go with GCC is available from GNU sites. See *C Cross Compilers*. o A simulator/assembler for the IBM-PC compatibles on Simtel. The file is 68asmsim.zip. The file description says "68000 cross-assembler/ simulator with C source" See archive (location): swdsrv.edvz.univie.ac.at (/pc/dos/crossasm/68asmsim.zip), plaza.aarnet.edu.au (/micros/pc/oak/crossasm/68asmsim.zip), nic.switch.ch (/mirror/msdos/crossasm/68asmsim.zip) (/software/pc/simtel20/crossasm/68asmsim.zip), sun0.urz.uni-heidelberg.de (/pub/msdos/simtel/crossasm/68asmsim.zip), barnacle.erc.clarkson.edu (/pub/simtel20-cdrom/msdos/crossasm/68asmsim.zip), rigel.acs.oakland.edu (/pub/msdos/crossasm/68asmsim.zip), wuarchive.wustl.edu (/mirrors/msdos/crossasm/68asmsim.zip), isfs.kuis.kyoto-u.ac.jp (/mirrors/simtel20.msdos/crossasm/68asmsim.zip), ftp.uu.net (/systems/ibmpc/msdos/simtel20/crossasm/68asmsim.zip), gdr.bath.ac.uk (/simtel-cdrom/msdos/crossasm/68asmsim.zip), src.doc.ic.ac.uk (/computing/systems/ibmpc/wsmr-simtel20.army.mil/ crossasm/68asmsim.zip) @endnode @node CrossCompilers Several cross compilers are available for Motorola 680x0 processors. Below is a list of currently know C cross compilers. Any comments from readers about the reliability/ portability/pricing/availability is appreciated. What are people using? o Microtec Research has tools available for Suns, Ultrix/VMS, PC and possibly others. Their address is 2350 Mission College Blvd., Santa Clara CA 95054. Phone 408-980-1300, 800-950-5554. Fax 408-982-8266. o Archemedes has unknown availablility. o GNU C 2.2.2 is available in source from GNU anonymous FTP sites. Some effort has gone into porting this code to the PC. The PC port is called djgpp and is for 386 or better machines running DOS. The source is free and available at prep.ai.mit.edu o HCC available for the Amiga in the Fred Fish Amiga disk collections. Fred Fish Amiga disk collection is archived on ux1.cso.uiuc.edu. These archives are in lhz format. The source for the utility to uncompress these archives is called lharc. Lharc is available on comp.sources.misc archives in volume 11. Try wuarchive.wustl.edu for a comp. sources.misc archive. o A freeware C compiler is available on the Motorola BBS. There is certainly a PC executable available. Source code, as well as executables for other platforms may be in the BBS. A good comparison of supported, commercial Motorola C Cross Compilers appeared in _Computer Design_ in January 1993 pages 103-109. Vendors listed in this article were: 2500AD Software, Buena Vista CO; Avocet Systems, Rockport ME; BSO/Tasking, Dedham MA; Cygnus Support, Mountain View CA; Diab Data, Foster City CA; Intermetrics Microsystems Software, Cambridge MA; Introl, Milwaukee WI; Lattice, Downers Grove IL; Microtec Systems, Santa Clara CA; Microware Systems, Des Moines IA; Oasys, Lexington MA; Production Languages Corp (PLC), Weatherford TX; Sierra Systems, Oakland CA; Software Development Systems Oak Brook IL; UniPress Software, Edison NJ. Another company that apparently sells 68k based assemblers, cross-compilers and debuggers is Intermeterics Microsystems Software, Inc. 733 Concord Ave., Cambridge MA 02138. @endnode @node Debuggers One monitor available is fbug. It is on the Motorola BBS. The author is currently compiling and assembling it. It is an unsupported piece of code written by Motorola engineers in Austin. @endnode @node DataSheets Data sheets can be found by calling your local Motorola Sales Office or Distributor. Local Sales Offices and Distributors are listed in the back of any Motorola Master Selection Guide. If you can not find a local representative, Motorola Literature Distributions Center addresses are listed by continent/region. USA Motorola Literature Distribution, P.O. Box 20912, Phoenix AZ 85036 EUROPE Motorola Ltd., European Literature Center, 88 Tanners Drive, Blakelands, Milton Keynes, MK14 5BP England JAPAN Nippon Motorola Ltd., 4-32-1 Nishi-Gotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141 Japan ASIA-PACIFIC Motorola Semiconductors H.K. Ltd., Silicon Harbour Center, No. 2 Dai King Street, Tai Po Industrial Estate, Tai Po, N.T., Hong Kong Ask for application notes, too. A list with Motorola document numbers follows is found in Motorola Document BR321/D. This list includes about 100 different documents. The author would have typed them in, but he was short of time and space. Programmers guide is available that describes the instructions sets of all of the 68000-based microprocessors. @endnode @node Samples For Microcomputer products try 800-845-MOTO. That is the number for the sales division that samples microcomputers (up to and including the 68EC040 and 68340). @endnode @node MotorolaBBS The Motorola BBS number is 512-891-FREE or 512-891-3733. This is a new number perhaps less than a couple of years old. The old number for the BBS was 512-440-2725. This number may still work, but is not recommended. Connection to the BBS is 1200 or 2400? baud 8-N-1. For those with Internet access, this bulletin board is mirrored on several internet anonymous FTP sites: bode.ee.ualberta.ca calvin.stanford.edu ee.utal.edu red.cs.tcu.edu ernie.uvic.ca (login as ftp) The location of the Motorola BBS information inside these BBSs are unknown. You'll have to dig around to find them. The site ernie.uvic.ca seems to be sanctioned by the Motorola BBS. In general, if you are looking for something on the network, you can use any of a number of anonymous ftp database servers. One of these servers is quiche.cs.mcgill. Telnet to this machine and login as archie. From there the directions are self-explanatory. An anonymous ftp archive is currently being sought. Any parties interested in helping set one up should contact gregh@cserver.plexus.com (Greg Hawley). @endnode @node GettingStarted A percentage of the articles on comp.sys.m68k relate to building your own hardware based on 68xxx processors. People seem interested in building their own hardware or modifying what others have already built. Because this is such a pop- ular topic, no frequently asked questions list for comp.sys. m68k would be complete without some mention of hardware hacking. The author is in the middle of building his own 68010 box at the writing of this FAQ. Choosing the Micro One of the first decisions to be made is which processor is to be used. Everything else falls around the choice of processors, so this isn't as trivial a issue as it might appear. By the time you have come to read this FAQ, you probably have joined the Motorola 68xxx camp. Several criteria are important in the decision of which processor to use. They are listed below. Criteria used to Choose a Microprocessor o Availability. Where can the micro of your choice be bought. o Cost. Can your budget afford it. When I get a chance I'll post what the Motorola Price List says. Anybody have any recommendations for sources? o Package. If you don't have surface mount equipment in your basement, you should look for a Plastic Leadless Chip Carrier (PLCC), Dual In-line Package (DIP) or Pin Grid Array (PGA) package for the micro. Motorola lists part numbers that include the package type: MC68010L8 \/\___/|| | | |+--- Speed (in MHz) | | +---- Package Type | | L - Ceramic DIP | | LC - Ceramic DIP, Gold Lead Finish | | P - Plastic DIP | | RC - Pin Grid Array, Gold Lead Finish | | RL - Pin Grid Array, Solder Lead Finish | | R - Pin Grid Array, Solder Lead Finish | | RP - Plastic Pin Grid Array | | FN - Plastic Quad Pack (PLCC) | | FG - Plastic Quad Plat Pack (PQFP) | | FE - Ceramic Quad (Gull Wing) | | FC - Plastic Quad (Gull Wing) | | | +------- Part Number +----------- Motorola Prefix o On-Chip Peripherals. Many microprocessors have lots of on-chip stuff. Commonly available modules include UARTS, Timers, Chip-select generation circuitry, Interrupt handling circuitry, etc. Don't immediately write this more expensive microprocessors with on chip stuff. Many of the these functions are tricky to implement in discrete or programmable logic. The extra cost of having all of this extra functionality many be well worth your application. o Manufacturer. Don't forget. Motorola is not the only company to make 68xxx processors. At least one other company (and maybe others) make processors with 68xxx cores. Check Toshiba for information on there products. In general, the 683xx series of embedded microcontrollers, especially the 68340 are well suited for hardware hacking. Byron@cc.gatech.edu (Byron A. Jeff) outlines the features of the 68340: o 16 bit data bus. 32 bit address bus. o Quad Flat Pack (QFP) or Pin Grid Array (PGA) package. o HCMOS process with 90 mA load (60 uA in LPSTOP mode). o 2 high speed serial ports. o 2 general purpose timers. o 2 DMA channels -- max data rate of 33 Mbytes/sec. o watchdog and interval timers. o 2 eight bit parallel ports. o integrated IRQ, IACK and chip select circuitry. o On-board reset circuitry. o 16 MHz version available. 25 MHz version planned. o Background Debugging Mode. The background debugging mode for the 68340 can be accessed from a free debugger that runs on IBM-PC compatibles. The debugger is available somewhere in the Motorola Freeware BBS. The pricing guide for Motorola entitled Motorola Semiconductor Price List with effective date January 9, 1993 (Motorola part number 22480-18) lists "No new designs" for the 68010. It is unclear what the future of this part is. Be ware. Initial Design The best first step in designing your computer is reading the application notes. Glue logic For hardware hacking perhaps the best discrete logic family to use is HC. It doesn't use a lot of power and can be purchased from just about anywhere. 7400, LS, ALS and other bipolar families require higher currents. The bipolars, however, are faster. Typically from a HC gate the propagation delay is around 20 ns. The fast bipolars can run in the 2-3 ns range. Don't rule out using PLDs. While it is valuable experience to build you're whole computer out of discrete logic, if you have access to equipment to blow PLDs, use it. PLDs keeps your board smaller, reworks easier, and the final product more reliable. Choosing Other Parts DRAM controllers are available from National Semiconductors. A DRAM Management Handbook from National explains in an application note how to interface their controllers to 68000, 68010, 68020 and others. Procuring Parts Section under construction. Software Development Package Section under construction. @endnode @node RealtimeOS A freeware real-time operating system called uCOS was published in _Embedded Systems Programming_ in May and June 1992. _Embedded Systems Programming_ is a Miller Freeman Publication and can be reached at: Miller Freeman Inc. 600 Harrison St. San Francisco CA 94107 (415) 905-2200 In general _Embedded Systems Programming_ is a good magazine for users interested in developing embedded systems. The magazine covers a lot of things that are relevant to programmers working with hardware on a more intimate level. Real-time operating systems are also available from numerous vendors. A book published by the publishers of Dr. Dobbs contains source code for a real-time operating system. This book contains a cross-assembler in FORTH, a BASIC interpreter and a bunch of other goodies. The reference is: _Dr. Dobbs Toolbox of 68000 Programming_, ISBN 0-13-216557-0. Unfortunately, this book is out of print. Does anyone have other appropriate references? @endnode @node SRecord Chaplin@keinstr.uucp (Roger Chaplin) reposted an article written by mcdchg!motmpl!ron (Ron Widell) that explained how Motorola S-Records are formatted. This comes from a unix man page. No mention of which version of Unix is specified. This section of the FAQ is a bit long. An anonymous ftp archive is currently being sought. When one is found, the section will be placed in the archive. SREC(4) UNIX 5.0 (03/21/84) SREC(4) An S-record file consists of a sequence of specially formatted ASCII character strings. An S-record will be less than or equal to 78 bytes in length. The order of S-records within a file is of no significance and no particular order may be assumed. The general format of an S-record follow: +------------------//-------------------//-----------------------+ | type | count | address | data | checksum | +------------------//-------------------//-----------------------+ type A char[2] field. These characters describe the type of record (S0, S1, S2, S3, S5, S7, S8, or S9). count A char[2] field. These characters when paired and interpreted as a hexadecimal value, display the count of remaining character pairs in the record. address A char[4,6, or 8] field. These characters grouped and interpreted as a hexadecimal value, display the address at which the data field is to be loaded into memory. The length of the field depends on the number of bytes necessary to hold the address. A 2-byte address uses 4 characters, a 3-byte address uses 6 characters, and a 4-byte address uses 8 characters. data A char [0-64] field. These characters when paired and interpreted as hexadecimal values represent the memory loadable data or descriptive information. checksum A char[2] field. These characters when paired and interpreted as a hexadecimal value display the least significant byte of the ones complement of the sum of the byte values represented by the pairs of characters making up the count, the address, and the data fields. Each record is terminated with a line feed. If any additional or different record terminator(s) or delay characters are needed during transmission to the target system it is the responsibility of the transmitting program to provide them. S0 Record The type of record is 'S0' (0x5330). The address field is unused and will be filled with zeros (0x0000). The header information within the data field is divided into the following subfields. mname is char[20] and is the module name. ver is char[2] and is the version number. rev is char[2] and is the revision number. description is char[0-36] and is a text comment. Each of the subfields is composed of ASCII bytes whose associated characters, when paired, represent one byte hexadecimal values in the case of the version and revision numbers, or represent the hexadecimal values of the ASCII characters comprising the module name and description. S1 Record The type of record field is 'S1' (0x5331). The address field is interpreted as a 2-byte address. The data field is composed of memory loadable data. S2 Record The type of record field is 'S2' (0x5332). The address field is interpreted as a 3-byte address. The data field is composed of memory loadable data. S3 Record The type of record field is 'S3' (0x5333). The address field is interpreted as a 4-byte address. The data field is composed of memory loadable data. S5 Record The type of record field is 'S5' (0x5335). The address field is interpreted as a 2-byte value and contains the count of S1, S2, and S3 records previously transmitted. There is no data field. S7 Record The type of record field is 'S7' (0x5337). The address field contains the starting execution address and is interpreted as 4-byte address. There is no data field. S8 Record The type of record field is 'S8' (0x5338). The address field contains the starting execution address and is interpreted as 3-byte address. There is no data field. S9 Record The type of record field is 'S9' (0x5339). The address field contains the starting execution address and is interpreted as 2-byte address. There is no data field. EXAMPLE Shown below is a typical S-record format file. S00600004844521B S1130000285F245F2212226A000424290008237C2A S11300100002000800082629001853812341001813 S113002041E900084E42234300182342000824A952 S107003000144ED492 S5030004F8 S9030000FC The file consists of one S0 record, four S1 records, one S5 record and an S9 record. The S0 record is comprised as follows: S0 S-record type S0, indicating it is a header record. 06 Hexadecimal 06 (decimal 6), indicating that six character pairs (or ASCII bytes) follow. 00 00 Four character 2-byte address field, zeroes in this example. 48 ASCII H, D, and R - "HDR". 1B The checksum. The first S1 record is comprised as follows: S1 S-record type S1, indicating it is a data record to be loaded at a 2-byte address. 13 Hexadecimal 13 (decimal 19), indicating that nineteen character pairs, representing a 2 byte address, 16 bytes of binary data, and a 1 byte checksum, follow. 00 00 Four character 2-byte address field; hexidecimal address 0x0000, where the data which follows is to be loaded. 28 5F 24 5F 22 12 22 6A 00 04 24 29 00 08 23 7C Sixteen character pairs representing the actual binary data. 2A The checksum. The second and third S1 records each contain 0x13 (19) character pairs and are ended with checksums of 13 and 52, respectively. The fourth S1 record contains 07 character pairs and has a checksum of 92. The S5 record is comprised as follows: S5 S-record type S5, indicating it is a count record indicating the number of S1 records. 03 Hexadecimal 03 (decimal 3), indicating that three character pairs follow. 00 04 Hexadecimal 0004 (decimal 4), indicating that there are four data records previous to this record. F8 The checksum. The S9 record is comprised as follows: S9 S-record type S9, indicating it is a termination record. 03 Hexadecimal 03 (decimal 3), indicating that three character pairs follow. 00 00 The address field, hexadecimal 0 (decimal 0) indicating the starting execution address. FC The checksum. @endnode @node IntelHex Intel HEX-ASCII format takes the form: +----------------------------------- Start Character | | +-------------------------------- Byte Count | | (# of data bytes) | | | | +-------------------------- Address of first data. | | | | | | +-------------------- Record Type (00 data, | | | | 01 end of record) | | | | | | | | +------------ Data Bytes | | | | | | | | | | +---- Checksum | | | | | | | / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ : B C A A A A T T H H ... H H C C An examples: :10000000DB00E60F5F1600211100197ED300C3004C :1000100000000101030307070F0F1F1F3F3F7F7FF2 :01002000FFE0 :00000001FF This information comes from _Microprocessors and Programmed Logic_, Second Edition, Kenneth L. Short, 1987, Prentice-Hall, ISBN 0-13-580606-2. Provisions have been made for data spaces larger than 64 kBytes. The above reference does not discuss them. I suspect there is a start of segment type record, but I do not know how it is implemented. @endnode @node Contributors Many people have contributed to this list. Below is a list of people who have helped by either their direct input or through their postings to comp.sys.m68k. I can't list everyone, but I have tried to include many. walvdrk_r@research.ptt.nl (Kees van der Wal) byron@cc.gatech.edu (Byron A Jeff) mcdchg!motmpl!ron (Ron Widell) rrt@mpd.tandem.com (Bob Teisberg) benstn@olivetti.nl (Ben Stuyts) csuley@cs.cornell.edu (Christopher Suley) idr@mailhost.cs.pdx.edu (Ian D Romanick) wayne@netcom.com (wayne t. watson) @endnode