| 1 | // Al Alamiah 30-in-1 cartridge series |
| 2 | // |
| 3 | // Wouter's analysis on the schematic that we drew up with the PCB: |
| 4 | // * pin /SLTSL of the MSX cartridge slot is used (not /CS1, /CS2 or |
| 5 | // /CS12). This means the device reacts to reads on the whole memory |
| 6 | // region 0x0000..0xffff. |
| 7 | // * pin A15 from the MSX cartridge slot does not seem to be connected. |
| 8 | // That means memory region 0x0000-0x7ffff is mirrored in range |
| 9 | // 0x8000..0xffff. |
| 10 | // * Only pins A7..A3 (not A2..A0) seem to be used in the decoding of the |
| 11 | // IO-port number. That means the cartridge will react to port range |
| 12 | // 0..7. |
| 13 | // * The 74LS174 can only store 6 bits (not 8). Only data bits D0..D5 of the |
| 14 | // MSX cartridge slot are connected to the 74LS174. That means that the upper |
| 15 | // two bits that are written via an OUT 0-7 operation are ignored. |
| 16 | // * The 74LS174 /RESET input is connected to the /RESET signal of the MSX |
| 17 | // cartridge slot. That means that on reset, the output pins Q0..Q5 of the |
| 18 | // 74LS174 are set to zero. Thus bank 0 gets selected and (see later) we again |
| 19 | // allow to select a new bank. |
| 20 | // * The 74LS174 latches the input on a rising clock-edge. That mean a change |
| 21 | // from 0 to 1 on the CLOCK input pin. See later for how this CLOCK input |
| 22 | // signal gets calculated |
| 23 | // * The 74LS02 chips offers 4 NOR gates, it seems only 2 of these are used. |
| 24 | // * For one of these two NOR gates both inputs are connected to the same |
| 25 | // signal (A7 of the MSX cartridge slot). This effectively turns this NOR gate |
| 26 | // into a NOT gate. |
| 27 | // * The 74LS138 chip is a 3-to-8-decoder. The datasheet(s) I found use a |
| 28 | // different naming convention for the pin names than what is used in this |
| 29 | // schematic. So I'm making some assumptions here: |
| 30 | // * I'm assuming the A0, A1, A2 pins are the address-input pins. These 3 |
| 31 | // pins are interpreted as a value (between 0 and 7) and select one of the |
| 32 | // 8 output pins. |
| 33 | // * In this schematic only O0 is connected. This output pin becomes active |
| 34 | // (= low) when the inputs A2,A1,A0 are 0,0,0. |
| 35 | // * In addition the 74LS138 has several enable pins, I'm assuming those are |
| 36 | // the E1, E2, E3 pins in the schematic. |
| 37 | // * The decoder is only 'enabled' when two of these enable-inputs are 0 and |
| 38 | // the 3rd is 1. Unfortunately in this schematic it's not clear which of |
| 39 | // E1,E2,E3 plays which role (but I can make an educated guess). |
| 40 | // * The inputs of the decoder are connected to the A7, A6, A5, A4, A3 and |
| 41 | // /IORQ signals of the MSX cartridge slot. We want this device to react on |
| 42 | // "OUT 0-7". |
| 43 | // Thus all these signals (A7..A3 and /IORQ) must be zero. That's indeed the |
| 44 | // case in this schematic: A7 gets inverted (via a NOT gate) and routed to |
| 45 | // the E3 input (so we can assume this is the enable-input that must be 1), |
| 46 | // and all other inputs must be 0 for the output O0 to become 0 (=active) |
| 47 | // (in all other cases the output O0 will be 1). |
| 48 | // * The output O0 of the 74LS138 (active on a "OUT 0-7") is routed to the |
| 49 | // input of a NOR gate. |
| 50 | // * The other input of this NOR gate is the Q5 output of the 74LS174 (this |
| 51 | // chip remembers the last written value to port 0). |
| 52 | // * A NOR gate outputs a 1 when both inputs are 0 (and 0 in all other cases). |
| 53 | // * This means the output can only be 1 when we're processing a "OUT 0-7" |
| 54 | // operation (good). And in addition Q5 must (still) be 0. |
| 55 | // * The output of the above NOR gate is routed to the CLOCK input of the |
| 56 | // 74LS174. We should examine when this signal changes from 0 to 1. Lets do |
| 57 | // this in two steps: |
| 58 | // * First: assume the Q5 output is 0 (this is the case after a reset). |
| 59 | // * Then the signal changes from 0 to 1 on an "OUT 0-7" operation. That's |
| 60 | // indeed what we want. |
| 61 | // * In other words: on an "OUT 0-7" instruction we latch (=remember) the |
| 62 | // bits D5..D0 (and ignore D7..D6) that were written in the OUT operation. |
| 63 | // * Second: assume the Q5 output is 1. This can only happen when a prior |
| 64 | // write has set this bit to 1. |
| 65 | // * In this case the output of the NOR gate will always be 0. In other |
| 66 | // words, it cannot change from 0 to 1 anymore. And then it's impossible |
| 67 | // to change the latched value in the 74LS174. |
| 68 | // * The only way to "recover" is via a RESET (this sets the Q5 output back |
| 69 | // to 0). |
| 70 | // |
| 71 | // Summary: |
| 72 | // * Writing a value 0..31, thus with bit 5 = 0 (and ignore bit 6 and 7) to |
| 73 | // port 0..7 will select the corresponding bank. |
| 74 | // * Writing a different value 0..31 selects a different bank. |
| 75 | // * Writing a value 32..63, thus bit5 = 1 (ignore bits 6,7) will also select a |
| 76 | // bank, but in addition this will block any further writes (writes to port |
| 77 | // 0..7 will have no effect). |
| 78 | // * The only way to recover from this is via a RESET. This reset will also |
| 79 | // select bank 0. |
| 80 | // |
| 81 | // (End analysis by Wouter.) |
| 82 | // |
| 83 | // Also important to note: the /WR pin is not connected, so the mapper doesn't |
| 84 | // know whether we're reading from or writing to it (either I/O or memory) |
| 85 | // |
| 86 | // Note that on real hardware, there seem to be many cases that block 31 of the |
| 87 | // mapper is selected at random. I guess this is because of some noise on the |
| 88 | // bus or something... but that must have been one of the reasons to implement |
| 89 | // this block locking mechanism. Another reason could be protection against the |
| 90 | // software in the blocks writing to ports 0-7. But that should not be very |
| 91 | // common. |
| 92 | // |
| 93 | // Many thanks to tsjakoe for helping to reverse engineer the mapper and |
| 94 | // dumping a ROM to test. And of course to Hashem for sending me the Group B |
| 95 | // cartridge so we could reverse engineer the mapper in the first place. |
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| 155 | // namespace openmsx |