Difference between revisions of "ASCII-EX mapper"

From MSX Game Library

(ASCII-EX16 mapper)
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| 8000h~BFFFh (mirror: 0000h~3FFFh) || Lower byte: 7000h (mirrors: 7001h~77FFh)<br/>{{COLOR|blue|Higher byte: 9000h (mirror: 9001h~97FFh)}} || 0000h
 
| 8000h~BFFFh (mirror: 0000h~3FFFh) || Lower byte: 7000h (mirrors: 7001h~77FFh)<br/>{{COLOR|blue|Higher byte: 9000h (mirror: 9001h~97FFh)}} || 0000h
 
|}
 
|}
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 +
* Maximum number of segment: 65536
 +
* Maximum size: 1 GB (1024 MB)
  
 
== ASCII-EX8 mapper ==
 
== ASCII-EX8 mapper ==

Revision as of 12:53, 23 November 2023

Here's a proposal for a mapper format operating with a 16-bit segment register and allowing ROMs of up to 512 MB (8 KB segment) or 1 GB (16 KB segment).

A 16-bit segment register may allow to select one of the 65536 segments for each memory bank.

The idea is to use the ASCII8/16 mapper format for the low byte of the segment register and to use the 8000h~9FFFh memory space unused by ASCII to manage the high byte. This way, we could build hardware capable of running standard ASCII8/16 ROMs in addition to the new 16-bit format.

Detection by emulators should be fairly easy (counting ROM write accesses).

Below, the parts in blue are the only additions to the standard ASCII8/16 format.

ASCII-EX16 mapper

Bank (16kB) Switching address Initial segment
4000h~7FFFh (mirror: C000h~FFFFh) Lower byte: 6000h (mirrors: 6001h~67FFh)
Higher byte: 8000h (mirror: 8001h~87FFh)
0000h
8000h~BFFFh (mirror: 0000h~3FFFh) Lower byte: 7000h (mirrors: 7001h~77FFh)
Higher byte: 9000h (mirror: 9001h~97FFh)
0000h
  • Maximum number of segment: 65536
  • Maximum size: 1 GB (1024 MB)

ASCII-EX8 mapper

Bank (8kB) Switching address Initial segment
4000h~5FFFh (mirror: C000h~DFFFh) Lower byte: 6000h (mirrors: 6001h~67FFh)
Higher byte: 8000h (mirror: 8001h~87FFh)
0000h
6000h~7FFFh (mirror: E000h~FFFFh) Lower byte: 6800h (mirrors: 6801h~6FFFh)
Higher byte: 8800h (mirror: 8801h~8FFFh)
0000h
8000h~9FFFh (mirror: 0000h~1FFFh) Lower byte: 7000h (mirrors: 7001h~77FFh)
Higher byte: 9000h (mirror: 9001h~97FFh)
0000h
A000h~BFFFh (mirror: 2000h~3FFFh) Lower byte: 7800h (mirrors: 7801h~7FFFh)
Higher byte: 9800h (mirror: 9801h~9FFFh)
0000h

Misc

Naming

If ASCII-EX (ASCII extended) name poses a legal issue, we could simply called those mappers EX8 and EX16.

Bank switching cost

The cost of switching only the lower or higher byte of the 16-bit segment register is the same that switching segment for standard ASCII mappers.

LD (nn), A ; 14 t-states
; or
LD HL,nn
LD (HL),A ; 19 t-states (11 + 8)