wow i've been hoping for this for a long time.. : ) would be nice to see more integration in the future, like running next-native programs from the GUI, using all 4MB of memory, maybe even accessing the wifi
Thanks a lot! :) Running Next or normal Spectrum TAP apps from the GUI should be possible. The Next "only" supports up to 2MB (because of the 8K page mapping), so SymbOS is already using a large part of this (including DIVMMC and the 80K video ram), and unfortunately in the current state we have an 1MB limit (20bit addresses) on SymbOS side. But I am sure that Wifi will be supported in the future, just a new driver for the existing Network Daemon is necessary.
The Z80 is quite good in handling a multitasking environment, even a preemptive one like in SymbOS. You have a second register set for fast switching between the running task and the scheduler, you have a flexible stack which can be replaced for each task. It's not only because of the 28MHz of the Next, you already have useful multitasking in SymbOS on an original machine from the 80ies: th-cam.com/video/bB6X7V6fVyE/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/Ish4ReOjdIw/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/Mtlfr-ZNp20/w-d-xo.html Yes, the CPC only has 4 colours at 320x200, but it is working :P
This is a great development. Thank you for your great work. SymboOS will now have a substantial new user community on the NEXT. I may be mistaken, but there seems to be only one display resolution on the beta version of SymbOS NXT. Many ZX Spectrum Next users like myself have chosen to use 4:3 ratio VGA monitors as there are truer to the original Spectrum experience - 256 x 192 pixels = 4:3 ratio. (My monitor is set at VGA Mode 0 at 50Hz enabling the NEXT runs at true Spectrum speed) At the current available resolution SymbOS offers, the 4:3 display views squashed horizontally making the icons and text extremely narrow. So, on behalf of those many NEXT users using VGA 4:3 monitors, I would like to request support for a resolution that displays properly on their monitors. At the moment using SymbOS NXT is not really viable for them, unless I have missed something. Thank you, Paul
Hi Paul, thanks a lot for this hint! That is indeed an issue. It would be necessary to write a new screen driver for the 320x256 or 256x192 layer2 screen modes, but as these are 256 colour modes it will slow down the video output per pixel by factor 2 and make 16 colour bitmap output even slower. On the other side the Next at 28MHz is so fast, it doesn't really matter probably. Anyway it will require a complete rewrite of the driver, but maybe it can be done later this year!
@@ProdatronIt's not really an issue, and we obviously wouldn't want a cramped 256 x192 nor a chunky 320x256 display. The 640x256 resolution is necessary to be able to fit 80 columns (or more) text anyway. The point is, only the 256x192 or 320x256 resolutions on an old fashioned 5:4 screen is able to display perfectly square pixels and to respect the intended height/width proportionality (i.e. actually display a perfectly round circle when drawing a circle on the screen). So some windows showing programs running in the background should just have to be running in 256x192 or 320x256 (as the Next's windowed mode allows) to be displayed properly (I mean, the way standard ZX Spectrum programs should), while the desktop just has to stay as it currently is, so it doesn't result in a loss of displayed information, or of text readability. With maybe wider (or why not not just less tall) icons, and that's it. Ideally, the icons should be user definable anyway, so everybody can just adjust them to their own screen... Now looking at the current aspect, it looks like specially designed apps are using both the enhance horizontal resolution and the stretching from 16:9 screens to adopt a custom aspect ratio... So it's indeed best suited for 16:9 monitors. I don't really mind, considering I can use both, but in VGA mode, there's a additional problem where some pixels are wider than others (especially horizontally), so monitors have to provide means of analog adjustments, and even then, I had hard times finding a monitor allowing me to get perfectly equal pixel columns. An adversely, in HDMI mode, the 16 (or maybe 12, somehting like that, resulting in losing 3 whole text lines) top and bottom pixels lines are off screen and can't be displayed. All the more to prefer an old 5:4 VGA analog monitor over a more modern screen... :p Anyway, this is awesome. I was going to write something like that, minus the multitasking aspect, because I really don't have the time while I'm not retired... :p I'll definitely give it a try and adopt it !
WANT! Would be great to have network access to files across SymbOS systems using a GUI Are there any development tools, or is it all assembly language? I'll have to take a look... Access to a NAS would also be fantastic, if feasible.
The Network daemon will be ported for the Next later for sure! Developing apps for SymbOS is quite easy with the Quigs IDE: www.symbos.org/quigs.htm You could join the SymbOS Quigs-Discord channel for any questions and talks about how to develop for SymbOS with Quigs: discord.com/channels/891243537444794389/929500634380660737
@@Prodatron I have SymbOS running on a CPC6128 .. I'm guessing we're gonna have multi-platform network gaming abilities on the horizon .. imagine this and an 8-bit Unity Hub setup!!! Internet of 8-bit!!!
This looks great, almost unbelievable, but are there any practical applications available to run in it E.g Word Processing, Spreadsheet, Database and print driver?
What are the plans for porting it to machines supporting the ATM2 standard (ATM-Turbo 2, Turbo2+, ATM3, ZX Evolution, Pentagon 2.666LE/FE)? It is still the standard for ZX Spectrum extensions, now it has 687 specific software titles - more than any other model. I still don't add GUI to our NedoOS system (multitasking OS with massive network support, currently 172 programs available and backwards compatible with TR-DOS, made by 12 coders). Maybe we can combine the codebases?
OK, so I gave it a try on my recently received KS2, and I have to make a list of what's to fix, but first of all, I have to congratulate you, because it's really impressive. I didn't even know the high resolution mode would allow to display 16 colors at the same time. In fact, it wasn't really clear if 320x256 or 640x256 could even be available as full bitmap modes without cheating with TileMode for the external 32 pixels around the standard 256x192 area (double the horizontal numbers in hires mode), but yes, that's indeed a full 80K bytes screen memory, so if the Next would allow this (or 320x200 in 256 colors) in full bitmap mode, it'll become even more exciting to program. Anyway, the first impressions are overwhelming : The mouse is responding very accurately to every move, even fast ones (which never works with classical interrupt driven drivers apart from using the 28 MHz overclocking, but I guess it's the case already because of the multasking anyway :p) Mouse clicks are also precise and responsive, absolutely flawless. Windows and apps open quickly and smoothly as well (also thanks to the 28 MHz clock, probably). Of course the pictures are shrunk horizontally because the doubled resolution means each pixel width is halved, but it's unavoidable unless everything that's displayed in a window gets purposely doubled to respect the original ratio (since I'm using a 5:4 VGA screen to get perfectly square pixels in standard mode, it was expected anyway). However, apart from some apps that don't work and some other details I've met (I'll try to make a complete list when I have the time to use the Next again), the really critical problem is the keyboard : As expected from the keyboard map shown, only the indicated keys (including the 4 symbol shifted ones shown) and caps shift would work. Unfortunately no other key can work in combination with symbol shift, so it's nigh impossible to use the command line app, for instance, since the most important keys such as ":", "\" (or even "/") can be typed, so you have absolutely no way to change drives nor folders ! Long files names also can't to be displayed, which isn't really inconvenient since you've used short names with an apostrophe character, but here's the real problem, because this one (symbol shift + "7") can't be typed either, so whichever way you're looking at the problem, you just can type neither a path nor even a filename ! So in my opinion, the most urgent issue to fix would be to get back the full characters set that can be typed-in by decoding all the symbol shifted keys from the keyboard (which shouldn't be overly complicated, since the . , ; " keys are working already - the problem being they're the only ones !) Well, maybe you've been using the FPGA's internal way to decode the special keys rather than relying on the classical way, explaining why they're working (since the Next uses two additional columns instead of the original ZX Spectrum+ and 128K multi-layered membrane), but you really have to decode symbol shifted keys the same way you decode caps shifted keys in order to get the full characters set. The rest is basically about a few tweaks and isn't as important as the keyboard issue. Anyway, it's really a masterpiece overall. Thanks for bringing this to the Next !
Hi @Z80Man, thanks a lot for your long report! You are right regarding the keyboard, the first version used an own definition which didn't make much sense. The reason for this was, that I wanted to keep all ALT+A-Z and CTRL+A-Z combinations which are available on "normal" keyboards, but this has to be solved in a different way now. Please try the current version at: www.symbos.org/download.htm#marke3 Now all keys should behave like on an original Spectrum (I hope so?). There is no long filename support, and this won't change probably as it would cost too much resources.
@@Prodatron Yes, thank you, I'll download it and test it asap. It was obvious the keyboard management came from another environment... It had of course to be further adaptated to the target hardware. About the long file names it's only a problem for new files and folders creation, since there's ashort names translation (as long as you can actually type them, hence the keyboard problem... LOL) So I guess the OS is a completely specific one, not relying on any native NextZXOS nor esxDOS ? Or is it some variant of a known one legacy on like TR-DOS ? The graphic OS written by Alone Coder for the ATM Turbo or ZX Evolution is of course TR-DOS based, as Russian software actually. I've heard there's an esxDOS version that can now cope with long filenames, but in fact I don't know anything about the base OS you're using. I didn't even use it long enough to check if every folder on the Next's SD cards (or RAMdisk) could be freely accessed... I'll have to spend more time using it. :)
It would be fantastic to get this working on Feersum MicroBeast + VideoBeast - my z80 kit computer. The video side supports high resolutions, 9 bit colour and multiple layers, and the (real) Z80 runs 8Mhz. Total system memory is 512K (RAM), 512K (Flash ROM), 1Mb (Video)..
@@Prodatron Thanks for the link. But I wrote about my personal attempt to create this) I was 15 years old and made Windows in BASIC :) And now I watch everything on TH-cam.
Can't say I care about the Spectrum Next too much, but always amazing to see this ported and extended on new platforms. I remember when this OS was still CPC exclusive.
Yes strange, somehow i liked the time a lot when it was CPC only, but the new ports starting with the MSX generated so much new input, I am still glad that this happend, and a system like the Next is just amazing!
Windows для 8 bit машин... Я видел Вашу SymbOS для Аmstrad CPC. Эта версия для Nекст'а ещё круче. Впечатляет !!! Microsoft уже знают что у них появились конкуренты. 😜
If you are speaking about the Next port, it took around 2,5 weeks. The whole SymbOS project started more than 20 years ago, but with a lot of long breaks in between.
Can the video be played full screen? As in the video playback of the matrix movie thats playing in a tiny window does it use the dma i was told full screen animations cant happen dma limited to 7mhz max
The Agon Light seems to have the issue, that it can't do memory banking in the classic way (switching 4x16K blocks). The OS itself would have to run in extended eZ80 mode, which would require a huge amount of code rewrites and at the end a complete second code base. The new Microbee seems to have a limited bankswitching as well (IIRC it is swapping 32K blocks). I didn't have a closer look at the ESP32 and its usage as a GPU, but such a video driver should probably be possible.
@@Prodatron As mentioned in my emails to you, we can accommodate extensions to the bank switching arrangement in the up-coming Microbee models. Please get in touch again ( I've sent a number of emails to you without reply) and we can see what needs to be done. Ewan. Microbee Technology.
I've been rooting for this moment since 2016! Incredible to see it in action!!!
Thanks, Henrique! Honestly, I'm sorry it took so long... anyway, better later than never :)
SymbOS forever!
@@Prodatron Good things happen when they are supposed to happen, no sooner, no later! 😄
Cool! But what about SymbOS on the humble ZX Spectrum 128K? Is it possible to port it to this machine?
There is already a graphic Driver for the original spectrum Screen (256x192). The Problem is the memory Banking, No Idea If this could be solved😮
I really wish more people would talk about Symb OS, it's just insane to see on any real hardware
Now somebody needs to build the 'most powerful 8bit machine' so we can see how far we can take this XD
@@Bustermachine There is currently a project running which tries to reach this goal, let's see :P
I absolutely love the aesthetics of the OS, as well as your website. Fantastic!
Truly amazing - I'd never ever in a million years think that I'd see something like this on a speccy! :) Well done! take a bow!!
Quite an incredible sight. And now to refine, maximize speed and ensure application support/net/etc.
The OS of my dreams.
My ZXNEXT is ready and waiting and I am personally full of squee and delight at the arrival of this awesome endeavour!
Good work Prodatron and good to see that Next is added to the family now!
wow i've been hoping for this for a long time.. : ) would be nice to see more integration in the future, like running next-native programs from the GUI, using all 4MB of memory, maybe even accessing the wifi
Thanks a lot! :) Running Next or normal Spectrum TAP apps from the GUI should be possible. The Next "only" supports up to 2MB (because of the 8K page mapping), so SymbOS is already using a large part of this (including DIVMMC and the 80K video ram), and unfortunately in the current state we have an 1MB limit (20bit addresses) on SymbOS side. But I am sure that Wifi will be supported in the future, just a new driver for the existing Network Daemon is necessary.
@@Prodatron wow that's awesome news < 3 looking forward to continued development. this reminds me, is there a paypal i can send some donations to?
Best multitasking demo ever!
Wow, this is cool! Congrats everyone.
This is an incredible achievement.
How on earth does this manage all that multi-tasking?!?! Astonishing!
A calculated lack of bloat!
The Z80 is quite good in handling a multitasking environment, even a preemptive one like in SymbOS. You have a second register set for fast switching between the running task and the scheduler, you have a flexible stack which can be replaced for each task.
It's not only because of the 28MHz of the Next, you already have useful multitasking in SymbOS on an original machine from the 80ies:
th-cam.com/video/bB6X7V6fVyE/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/Ish4ReOjdIw/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/Mtlfr-ZNp20/w-d-xo.html
Yes, the CPC only has 4 colours at 320x200, but it is working :P
Awesome work! Astonishing!
This is great! Now I'm dreaming about this running on an ez80 at 50mhz and 16mb of ram...
This looks incredible. Hope to try it on my Spec Next that just arrived the other day.
This is a great development. Thank you for your great work. SymboOS will now have a substantial new user community on the NEXT. I may be mistaken, but there seems to be only one display resolution on the beta version of SymbOS NXT. Many ZX Spectrum Next users like myself have chosen to use 4:3 ratio VGA monitors as there are truer to the original Spectrum experience - 256 x 192 pixels = 4:3 ratio. (My monitor is set at VGA Mode 0 at 50Hz enabling the NEXT runs at true Spectrum speed) At the current available resolution SymbOS offers, the 4:3 display views squashed horizontally making the icons and text extremely narrow. So, on behalf of those many NEXT users using VGA 4:3 monitors, I would like to request support for a resolution that displays properly on their monitors. At the moment using SymbOS NXT is not really viable for them, unless I have missed something. Thank you, Paul
Hi Paul, thanks a lot for this hint! That is indeed an issue. It would be necessary to write a new screen driver for the 320x256 or 256x192 layer2 screen modes, but as these are 256 colour modes it will slow down the video output per pixel by factor 2 and make 16 colour bitmap output even slower. On the other side the Next at 28MHz is so fast, it doesn't really matter probably. Anyway it will require a complete rewrite of the driver, but maybe it can be done later this year!
@@Prodatron Thank you for considering it. I'd be happy to test it out for you. :-)
@@ProdatronIt's not really an issue, and we obviously wouldn't want a cramped 256 x192 nor a chunky 320x256 display.
The 640x256 resolution is necessary to be able to fit 80 columns (or more) text anyway.
The point is, only the 256x192 or 320x256 resolutions on an old fashioned 5:4 screen is able to display perfectly square pixels and to respect the intended height/width proportionality (i.e. actually display a perfectly round circle when drawing a circle on the screen).
So some windows showing programs running in the background should just have to be running in 256x192 or 320x256 (as the Next's windowed mode allows) to be displayed properly (I mean, the way standard ZX Spectrum programs should), while the desktop just has to stay as it currently is, so it doesn't result in a loss of displayed information, or of text readability.
With maybe wider (or why not not just less tall) icons, and that's it. Ideally, the icons should be user definable anyway, so everybody can just adjust them to their own screen...
Now looking at the current aspect, it looks like specially designed apps are using both the enhance horizontal resolution and the stretching from 16:9 screens to adopt a custom aspect ratio... So it's indeed best suited for 16:9 monitors.
I don't really mind, considering I can use both, but in VGA mode, there's a additional problem where some pixels are wider than others (especially horizontally), so monitors have to provide means of analog adjustments, and even then, I had hard times finding a monitor allowing me to get perfectly equal pixel columns.
An adversely, in HDMI mode, the 16 (or maybe 12, somehting like that, resulting in losing 3 whole text lines) top and bottom pixels lines are off screen and can't be displayed.
All the more to prefer an old 5:4 VGA analog monitor over a more modern screen... :p
Anyway, this is awesome. I was going to write something like that, minus the multitasking aspect, because I really don't have the time while I'm not retired... :p
I'll definitely give it a try and adopt it !
This is super impressive!
Fantastic!!!
Awesome!
Wow, what a feat! It looks amazing.
Wow! Awesome work!
Wow! Incredible work :D
Даёшь SymbOS на ZX Evolution!
Well done!
That tune sounds very Orbital-like.
WANT!
Would be great to have network access to files across SymbOS systems using a GUI
Are there any development tools, or is it all assembly language? I'll have to take a look...
Access to a NAS would also be fantastic, if feasible.
The Network daemon will be ported for the Next later for sure!
Developing apps for SymbOS is quite easy with the Quigs IDE:
www.symbos.org/quigs.htm
You could join the SymbOS Quigs-Discord channel for any questions and talks about how to develop for SymbOS with Quigs:
discord.com/channels/891243537444794389/929500634380660737
@@Prodatron
Awesome, cheers!
@@Prodatron I have SymbOS running on a CPC6128 .. I'm guessing we're gonna have multi-platform network gaming abilities on the horizon .. imagine this and an 8-bit Unity Hub setup!!! Internet of 8-bit!!!
@@Prodatron Discord link doesn't work.
@@alonecoder600 Nice to read from you,
sorry, the link wasn't the correct one, please use this:
discord.gg/hqfUdYKx
That ported well.
It's a ZX Spectrum, Jim, but not as we know it...
🤣
This is one of many FPGA machines that can run ZX Spectrum software.
Absolutely incredible. Does it run Digitrakker?
This looks great, almost unbelievable, but are there any practical applications available to run in it E.g Word Processing, Spreadsheet, Database and print driver?
What are the plans for porting it to machines supporting the ATM2 standard (ATM-Turbo 2, Turbo2+, ATM3, ZX Evolution, Pentagon 2.666LE/FE)? It is still the standard for ZX Spectrum extensions, now it has 687 specific software titles - more than any other model. I still don't add GUI to our NedoOS system (multitasking OS with massive network support, currently 172 programs available and backwards compatible with TR-DOS, made by 12 coders). Maybe we can combine the codebases?
OK, so I gave it a try on my recently received KS2, and I have to make a list of what's to fix, but first of all, I have to congratulate you, because it's really impressive.
I didn't even know the high resolution mode would allow to display 16 colors at the same time. In fact, it wasn't really clear if 320x256 or 640x256 could even be available as full bitmap modes without cheating with TileMode for the external 32 pixels around the standard 256x192 area (double the horizontal numbers in hires mode), but yes, that's indeed a full 80K bytes screen memory, so if the Next would allow this (or 320x200 in 256 colors) in full bitmap mode, it'll become even more exciting to program.
Anyway, the first impressions are overwhelming :
The mouse is responding very accurately to every move, even fast ones (which never works with classical interrupt driven drivers apart from using the 28 MHz overclocking, but I guess it's the case already because of the multasking anyway :p)
Mouse clicks are also precise and responsive, absolutely flawless. Windows and apps open quickly and smoothly as well (also thanks to the 28 MHz clock, probably).
Of course the pictures are shrunk horizontally because the doubled resolution means each pixel width is halved, but it's unavoidable unless everything that's displayed in a window gets purposely doubled to respect the original ratio (since I'm using a 5:4 VGA screen to get perfectly square pixels in standard mode, it was expected anyway).
However, apart from some apps that don't work and some other details I've met (I'll try to make a complete list when I have the time to use the Next again), the really critical problem is the keyboard :
As expected from the keyboard map shown, only the indicated keys (including the 4 symbol shifted ones shown) and caps shift would work.
Unfortunately no other key can work in combination with symbol shift, so it's nigh impossible to use the command line app, for instance, since the most important keys such as ":", "\" (or even "/") can be typed, so you have absolutely no way to change drives nor folders !
Long files names also can't to be displayed, which isn't really inconvenient since you've used short names with an apostrophe character, but here's the real problem, because this one (symbol shift + "7") can't be typed either, so whichever way you're looking at the problem, you just can type neither a path nor even a filename !
So in my opinion, the most urgent issue to fix would be to get back the full characters set that can be typed-in by decoding all the symbol shifted keys from the keyboard (which shouldn't be overly complicated, since the . , ; " keys are working already - the problem being they're the only ones !)
Well, maybe you've been using the FPGA's internal way to decode the special keys rather than relying on the classical way, explaining why they're working (since the Next uses two additional columns instead of the original ZX Spectrum+ and 128K multi-layered membrane), but you really have to decode symbol shifted keys the same way you decode caps shifted keys in order to get the full characters set.
The rest is basically about a few tweaks and isn't as important as the keyboard issue.
Anyway, it's really a masterpiece overall. Thanks for bringing this to the Next !
Hi @Z80Man, thanks a lot for your long report! You are right regarding the keyboard, the first version used an own definition which didn't make much sense. The reason for this was, that I wanted to keep all ALT+A-Z and CTRL+A-Z combinations which are available on "normal" keyboards, but this has to be solved in a different way now. Please try the current version at:
www.symbos.org/download.htm#marke3
Now all keys should behave like on an original Spectrum (I hope so?).
There is no long filename support, and this won't change probably as it would cost too much resources.
@@Prodatron Yes, thank you, I'll download it and test it asap.
It was obvious the keyboard management came from another environment... It had of course to be further adaptated to the target hardware.
About the long file names it's only a problem for new files and folders creation, since there's ashort names translation (as long as you can actually type them, hence the keyboard problem... LOL)
So I guess the OS is a completely specific one, not relying on any native NextZXOS nor esxDOS ? Or is it some variant of a known one legacy on like TR-DOS ? The graphic OS written by Alone Coder for the ATM Turbo or ZX Evolution is of course TR-DOS based, as Russian software actually.
I've heard there's an esxDOS version that can now cope with long filenames, but in fact I don't know anything about the base OS you're using. I didn't even use it long enough to check if every folder on the Next's SD cards (or RAMdisk) could be freely accessed... I'll have to spend more time using it. :)
Wow! Finally! It's possible to Spectrum classic?
It would be possible if there would be a memory expansion for the classic Spectrum which could handle 4x16kb mapping (the next even has 8x8kb mapping)
But i have No Idea of this would be possible at all...
It would be fantastic to get this working on Feersum MicroBeast + VideoBeast - my z80 kit computer. The video side supports high resolutions, 9 bit colour and multiple layers, and the (real) Z80 runs 8Mhz. Total system memory is 512K (RAM), 512K (Flash ROM), 1Mb (Video)..
Ничего себе, когда то давно я пытался создать графическую оболочку под спектрум, жалко я потерял дискету с ней.
There was "Doors" for the Spectrum, it looks very impressive:
doors.yarek.pl/home.shtml?lang=en
@@Prodatron Thanks for the link. But I wrote about my personal attempt to create this) I was 15 years old and made Windows in BASIC :) And now I watch everything on TH-cam.
Can't say I care about the Spectrum Next too much, but always amazing to see this ported and extended on new platforms. I remember when this OS was still CPC exclusive.
Yes strange, somehow i liked the time a lot when it was CPC only, but the new ports starting with the MSX generated so much new input, I am still glad that this happend, and a system like the Next is just amazing!
Мощно !!!
Brilliant!
If it can handle video playback why not youtube?
Windows для 8 bit машин... Я видел Вашу SymbOS для Аmstrad CPC. Эта версия для Nекст'а ещё круче. Впечатляет !!! Microsoft уже знают что у них появились конкуренты. 😜
дык там же ПЛИСина стоит, окна скорее всего аппаратные :)
WOW!
Vdp9990? Ulax? Ula+ vdac2 interlaced video ram contention? Accelerator quad core pie zero?
amazing!
No version for regular 4:3 aspect ratio?
Fantastico!
But does it have an internet browser???????
My right ear sure did find this very cool
Very kewl!!! How long have you been working on the project?
If you are speaking about the Next port, it took around 2,5 weeks. The whole SymbOS project started more than 20 years ago, but with a lot of long breaks in between.
Can the video be played full screen? As in the video playback of the matrix movie thats playing in a tiny window does it use the dma i was told full screen animations cant happen dma limited to 7mhz max
Больше конечно похоже на демо, чем на полноценную операционную систему.
I need console ports... Genesis.. SNES.. 🤤
Will you do a port for the Agon Light, the new Microbee and ESP32 FabGL devices; like the ESP32-SBC-FabGL and the TTGO VGA?
The Agon Light seems to have the issue, that it can't do memory banking in the classic way (switching 4x16K blocks). The OS itself would have to run in extended eZ80 mode, which would require a huge amount of code rewrites and at the end a complete second code base. The new Microbee seems to have a limited bankswitching as well (IIRC it is swapping 32K blocks). I didn't have a closer look at the ESP32 and its usage as a GPU, but such a video driver should probably be possible.
@@Prodatron As mentioned in my emails to you, we can accommodate extensions to the bank switching arrangement in the up-coming Microbee models. Please get in touch again ( I've sent a number of emails to you without reply) and we can see what needs to be done.
Ewan. Microbee Technology.
Will it also work on the next KS1?
Yes, works fine there! You just need an actual core (something like 3.x.x)
Is this running on the RPI accelerator add on ?
No it doesnt use the Rpi at all, only the Z80.
@@Prodatron then i must say that it is impressive for 28 mhz.
Thanks you very much! :) You can check some other videos on this channel which shows the multitasking on a standard 4mhz machine.
what is the screen resolution ?
It is 640 x 256, 16 colours (see description)
@@Prodatron it looks amazing!
Where can we download the beta?
Please have a look here:
symbos.org/download.htm#marke3
Hax
Without a doubt - cool! But it's definitely pointless.