SUBJ: 1764 REU & Turbo Master    (R10)
FROM: SSchnedler  12/08/90   S#: 508441

As a surpsing (to me) development,
Paul Bosacki has a Commodore 1764 REU
working with a Turbo Master CPU
processor in the GEOS environment. He
has described how he has done it. It
strikes me as a flash of genius,
although the required adapter circuit is
almost trivial.

We are very seriously considering
manufacturing the required adapter. (The
adapter also should improve the GEORAM
situation which arises because not all
C64s work properly with a cartridge
expansion motherboard, whatever the
cartridge is.)

Please tell me how much interest would
there be in such an adapter? Understand,
it would only be for GEOS.

----------------------------------------

SUBJ: TM & RAMLINK/DRIVE         (R1)
FROM: Chuck 54    12/09/90   S#: 486478

How about a few words on the
compatibility of Turbo Master CPU and
CMD's Ramlink/Ramdrive.   I'm interested
in assembling a 'Killer C-64' BBS system
and these are two products that would
greatly enhance a BBS system on the
C-64.
Thanks.

                  -::-

SUBJ: We don't know yet
FROM: SSchnedler  12/09/90   S#: 472312

At this point we don't know how to use a
Turbo Master CPU at the same time as
either Ramlink or Ramdrive. However, we
are working on it, and there is reason
for hope. Compatibility with RamDrive is
much more likely than with RamLink.

----------------------------------------

SUBJ: TM & geoRam won't work for (R2)
FROM: BrunoK      12/16/90   S#: 798661

I've tried to get the above two to work
together via a Skyles board and an
Aprospand board without much success.
I've managed to get the combo to work
for under 5 minutes before I lost
control of the screen (with the skyles
board).  Usually I can't even get to the
desktop (I'm only trying with geos)
before the system locks up.  I use 2
128's daily in two differentt locations
and I've had the same results with each
of them.  While I'm disappointed, I'll
say this...the 5 minutes the two were
working together were nothing short of
AWESOME! (btw, I was using a 2 meg
geoRam upgraded by CMDR FIXER here on Q)
Regards and best wishes, Bruno

                  -::-

SUBJ: Help on the way.          (R)
FROM: SSchnedler  12/16/90   S#:467512

  This customer's problem is not unique.
A number of C64s are unable to drive
much of a load on the expansion bus, and
some will not work with ANY cartridge on
a cartridge expansion motherboard, let
alone one as complex as Turbo Master
CPU.

  The basic problem is that the
cartridge expansion motherboard, and a
second cartridge, add capacitance to the
processor bus, resulting in distortion
of the critical timing signals.

  The solution which we are preparing to
market is a small, two-slot expansion
board which is BUFFERED, i.e., critical
signals from the C64 will be amplified
immediately as they emerge from the
computer. Likely the slots above one
another in the final mechanical
configuration so that the two cartridges
can be in their normal horizontal
positions one above the other. As a
bonus, a Commodore 17xx REU will also
work with proper drivers, which will be
for GEOS only. As BrunoK suggests, GEOS
at 4MHz with RAM expansion is
impressive indeed.

  In the meantine, here are temporary
solutions which have worked in some
cases: (1) A C128 is much better than a
C64 in this regard, because the C128 has
more internal buffering and thus
stronger drive signals sent to the
expansion port. (2) One customer has
added a 74LS244 buffer inside his C64 to
buffer the phase-2 clock signal which is
on Pin "E". (3) Sometimes an additional
cartridge plugged into the end cartridge
expander slot, BUT TURNED OFF, will
improve the situation by acting as a bus
terminator which reduces "ringing".

                  -::-

SUBJ: I have seen this too.
FROM: RaymondD2   12/17/90   S#: 843650

  I upgrade a lot of REU's. I test them
with my Skyles 2+1 board. Most REU's
work good. But all most all will at one
time or a nother come back with an
error. But I never get an error with the
REU pluged right in the computer. Some
REU's will not even work at all.
  I don't think it's the computer it's
the REU and the expanshion board.
  Your board sound super for two
cartridges to go in on top of the other,
right?  I was thinking some one my do
this or have one all ready so when I
upgrade the REU's up to 2 megs, I all
ways put the switch and LED's on the
left side of the unit. Most every one
else puts then on top of the unit and
this way you could not put a cartridge
on top of it or any other unit that
works with the REU.
  I will be looking for you cartridge
expander if it has it so you can plug 2
on the top of each!
  Thanks. If you ever get your terbo
master to work with the REU please let
me know. I would get one right away
then!

----------------------------------------

SUBJ: Master Adapter News        (R1)  
FROM: SSchnedler  04/16/91   S#: 514664  
At this time two Master Adapters are in 
existence. One is in the hands of Paul 
Bosacki for development of GEOS drivers, 
and the other one I have. In addition to 
GEOS drivers (which I hope is definite), 
a basic form of RAMDOS support is a 
possiblity. 
The hardware works as expected. The 
Commodore REU and Turbo Master 
communicate with each other, and GEORAM 
works more reliably. All that is needed 
is the software driver for Commodore 
REU. The GEOS 2.0r software already has 
the necessary driver for GEORAM. 
Master Adapter has a set of jumper 
blocks which are set up to configure for 
either GEORAM or Commodore REU. 
Physically there is a very short 1-3/4 
inch horizontal board that plugs into 
the C64, with a single 74LS244 buffer IC 
to buffer Phase 2 clock and DOT CLOCK, 
and to gate R/W running back to the C64. 
This plugs at right angles into a 3-1/2 
high vertical board that has two 
vertically stacked expansion slots that 
extend horizontally. For use with a 
Commodore REU, the REU is plugged into 
the bottom slot and rests on the table 
normally, except it's 1-3/4 inches 
farther back. Turbo Master sits 
dirrectly on top of the REU, and plugs 
into the top slot. For GEORAM use, Turbo 
Master plugs into the bottom slot, and 
GEORAM is on top. Since GEORAM is 
narrower, the switches on Turbo Master 
are still accessible. 
The vertical board has a 2K x 8 static 
RAM chip, which is the smallest 
convenient size, as only 256 bytes are 
used. For REU adapter configuration, 
these 256 bytes are mapped into memory 
at $DExx, and are visible to both the 
Turbo Master and the REU. All data 
exchange between the two is through this 
memory, which acts like dual port 
memory. 
As it turns out, it is not feasible to 
post a schematic for anyone to just 
build one. Physically it's cumbersome 
without laying out a circuit board. I 
tried to make a wired prototype, but it 
got so messy that I just went directly 
to circuit boards. More significantly, 
it turned out that one of the PAL ICs in 
the Turbo Master has to be replaced with 
a reprogrammed one, and a single jumper 
run between the Master Adapter and the 
new PAL. All of this will be supplied of 
course with Master Adapters. 
Regarding availability and cost, this is 
again a highly active project, and 
should, as they say, be ready REAL SOON 
NOW. We're going to try to price it at 
$49. At that price the Master Adapter 
will not itself be a profit item, but 
more in the nature of support for Turbo 
Master. We'll order production boards 
immediately when the Commodore REU 
support software for GEOS is completed. 
I'm not willing to risk having a 
quantity of Master Adapter boards made 
without proven software drivers in hand, 
since there is only one person I know 
who can write those drivers, and that 
person is not me. 

----------------------------------------

SUBJ: GEOS Patch News                  
FROM: SSchnedler  04/16/91   S#: 508863  
The message "check it out" is 
interesting, and illustrates that there 
do exist better places to put the 
patches so as to avoid conflicts. For 
example, Paul Bosacki tell me that $CFE0 
through $CFFF is free, but only in GEOS 
2.0r. 
As you may know, Paul Bosacki wrote the 
"Geos Gateway" for Creative Micro 
Designs, as well as their super-fast 
GEOS drivers for their Hard Drives. In 
the process he has learned quite a bit, 
so much he views writing the driver for 
Commodore REU support through Master 
Adapter to be rather simple (although I 
don't see it that way). Also, Paul came 
up with the basic principle of the 
Master Adapter. 
Also interesting are available utilities 
like GEOS "Make Boot" which allow you to 
capture a patched version of GEOS in 
memory to make a custom boot disk. Two 
clear advantages. (1) The patched 
version loads fast, and will load at the 
SOFT 4 MHz switch setting; and (2) All 
necessary patches, like the basic "Patch 
GEOS" patch for Turbo Master can be 
incorporated into the customized 
captured version with no further 
manipulation needed. The whole process 
of booting GEOS is greatly simplified. 
So through Paul's efforts, we hope to 
shortly have: 
1) Improved "Patch GEOS" patches to 
avoid memory conflicts. Also, by 
including this within the range of the 
GEOS code itself, a patched version can 
be saved using "Make Boot" procedures. 
2) Commodore REU driver support for 
Master Adapter. 
3) A program like GEOS "Make Boot" 
specifically optimized for Turbo Master 
CPU. 

----------------------------------------

SUBJ: Turbo/Master Adapter             
FROM: SSchnedler  07/11/91   S#: 462915  
Note: Master Adapter allows a Commodore 
17xx REU to work with a Turbo Master CPU 
4 MHz C64 processor accelerator when 
running under GEOS. 

Update on availability: Hardware design 
is ready, but will not be committed to 
production until software driver for 
GEOS is finished. 

Paul Bosacki, who is writing it, reports 
it's not that long and is almost 
finished; only problem is it doesn't 
work -- yet. Seriously, it's very close 
to working, and when it's ready it 
should really be ready. 

(This has been a "spare time" project 
for Paul, as he is mainly working on 
GEOS gateway for CMD. It is his 
knowledge of the inner workings of GEOS 
which makes the driver even possible, 
and his imagination which conceived the 
Master Adapter and its principle of 
operaton in the first place.) 

----------------------------------------
 
SUBJ: I'll be following up             
FROM: SSchnedler  07/28/91   S#: 430098  
with the programmer this week. I've 
given up predicting when he'll have it 
working. The GEOS driver project for 
Master Adapter is going alongside the 
Geos Gateway project for CMD, and would 
be finished by now if only it worked. 
Thus there is still some, hopefully 
small, problem to be discoverd and 
fixed. 

----------------------------------------

SUBJ: master adapter reset?      (R1)  
FROM: SIDist      08/22/91   S#: 23649   
Will Master Adapter have a reset button? 
I love everything about my new 
TurboMaster, but it would be nice to 
have a reset button that would 
initialize the disk drives as well (for 
those fatal GEOS crashes). 
The new turbo boot for GEOS by Mr. 
Bosacki really works well. If you have 
JiffyDOS and TurboMaster, GEOS comes up 
in no time at all! 
                  -::-

SUBJ: RESET Buttons                    
FROM: SSchnedler  08/22/91   S#: 31351   
Master Adapter will not have its own 
reset button because Turbo Master 
already has a reset button which resets 
the C64. 

You are reporting that your disk drives 
do not reset when you use the RESET 
button. The explanation is that some 
C64s send a reset on the serial bus 
reset line when the internal reset line 
is pulled low, and others do not. Yours 
is apparently one which does not have 
the serial bus reset line internally 
passed through. This is one of the many 
ways in which different C64s differ. We 
have a C64 here which behaves just like 
yours, and it is indeed a pain at times. 

The only remedy for you is to add a 
reset button to your C64 itself, and 
ensure it is wired to the reset line on 
the serial bus. 

I'm glad you've found and are using Paul 
Bosacki's MakeTurbo. It really is 
amazing what a competent and 
knowledgeable programmer can accomplish. 
Expect a similarly slick job on his GEOS 
driver for Master Adapter and Commodore 
17xx REUs. 

----------------------------------------

SUBJ: Master Adapter Closer            
FROM: SSchnedler  08/22/91   S#: 43308   
Paul Bosacki reports he has completed 
the GEOS driver for Commodore 17xx REU 
compatibility with Turbo Master CPU. 

See text area in path:

  Product Information
    Master Adapter

for more details.

The driver works with any size Commodore 
REU. 128K, 256K, 512K, or even 1 Meg and 
2 Meg expanded REUs! The driver works in 
conjunction with the existing CONFIGURE 
program (CONFIGURE 2.1 in the case of 1 
and 2 Meg REUs). 

Also, Paul Bosacki has made sure that 
the REU driver for Master Adapter is 
compatible with his GEOS GateWay, sold 
by Creative Micro Designs. 


On a separate subject, we've reorganized 
the Common Questions & Answers area so 
there is just one question for each 
individual text, with headings as a sort 
of index. Added new item "Operation on 
C128" and updated "CMD Compatibility?" 
to mention SWIFTLink. 

----------------------------------------

MASTER ADAPTER

Status update 8/22/91: Programmer Paul 
Bosacki reports he has finished the GEOS 
driver for Commodore 17xx REUs, and he 
will send it to us by the end of August, 
after final testing to satisfy himself. 
Based on Paul's report, we are 
proceeding to order a production run of 
circuit boards, even though the disk 
mailed from Canada will take a while, 
and we will not ourselves be testing the 
software prior to ordering the boards. 
We will shortly post an expected ship 
date for Master Adapter, but we do not 
want to commit to a ship date until all 
the parts are ordered, with definite 
commitments from our suppliers. In other 
words, once we give a date, we hope to 
stand by it. We still are not accepting 
advance orders. 

Paul's driver works in cooperation with 
the existing CONFIGURE program, and so 
will work with any size REU. This means 
128K 1700, 256 K 1764, 512K 1750, and 
even 1 or 2 Meg expanded REUs operating 
under CONFIGURE 2.1! It works with GEOS 
Gateway, which he also wrote. Based on 
discusions with Paul he has done a first 
class job, putting in a number of 
"extras" to satisfy himself. 

Master Adapter is a special two-slot 
expansion board. Its main purpose is to 
achieve compatibility between Commdore 
17xx REUs and the Turbo Master CPU 
accelerator when running under GEOS. 
However, Master Adapter also improves 
operation with GEORAM. (With some C64s, 
operation of GEORAM and Turbo Master is 
unsatisfactory when using an Aprospand 
expansion mother board.) 

Master Adapter has not yet been released 
as a product. We will keep current 
status information posted here, as well 
as on the message board. We anticipate 
the price will be $49, even if there is 
minimal profit, justified on the basis 
it will support the basic accelerator. 
Advance orders are NOT being accepted. 

Paul Bosacki, who wrote GEOS Gateway for 
Creative Micro Designs, is also doing 
the necessary REU driver for Master 
Adapter. The Master Adapter software is 
compatible with GEOS Gateway. Also, 
credit to Paul Bosacki for conceiving of 
the principle of operation. Previously 
we had always thought Turbo Master CPU 
and Commodore REUs were hopelessly 
incompatible, but Paul figured out a 
way. 

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                  -::-

Physically Master Adapter is two small 
circuit boards joined in a "T" 
configuration. A small board comes 
horizontally out of the computer, and 
has 74LS244 buffer IC on it. The small 
board plugs into a larger vertical board 
with two expansion sockets that are 
stacked vertically and oriented 
horizontally. This allows the REU 
plugged into the lower slot to sit flat 
on the table in almost its normal 
position, with Turbo Master in the upper 
slot directly on top of the REU. Thus 
both cartridges are horizontal, for a 
reasonable physical configuration. With 
GEORAM, Turbo Master plugs into the 
lower slot, and GEORAM into the upper 
slot. 

Electrically, the vertical board 
includes a TTL logic IC, configuration 
jumpers, and a 256 byte static RAM which 
is visible in memory at $DE00 to both 
the accelerator and the REU. The two 
cartridges communicate through this 
static RAM. Normally the accelerator 
sees this 256 byte RAM. But when the REU 
requests DMA, Master Adapter tells Turbo 
Master to relinquish the bus, and REU 
has access. 

While it may seem cumbersome to transfer 
all data through a single page of 
memory, at computer speeds (particularly 
at 4 MHz) it makes no difference. 
Actually this is very much the way 
GEORAM works. 

For GEORAM mode, the 256 byte RAM is not 
active. Operation is improved compared 
to an ordinary cartridge expander due to 
buffering and due to the small physical 
size to minimize capacitive loading. 

       <PRESS F3 TO SAVE>

       <PRESS F5 FOR MENU> 

----------------------------------------

SUBJ: Master Adapter             (R1)  
FROM: Milwaukee1  09/12/91   S#: 505612  
With Master Adapter installed, will I 
still be able to use the REU with 
non-GEOS software when TurboMaster is 
disabled? (Or will I have to remove the 
entire assembly and plug in just the 
REU?) Will you be releasing information 
for programmers regarding Master 
Adapter? 
                  -::-

SUBJ: Probably and Yes                 
FROM: SSchnedler  09/12/91   S#: 819451  
I've just looked at the schematic, and 
it appears that with a simple jumper 
clip the REU can have its normal access 
to the C64 bus while the Turbo Master 
CPU accelerator is disabled. That's a 
very good question you asked. I'll check 
it out for sure, and add it to the 
documentation if it works. 

There's no secret to the programming. 
Briefly, the REU registers at $DFxx are 
available and work normally. However all 
data transfers to and from the REU and 
the RAM in Turbo Master go through a 
256-byte RAM at $DExx. So to transfer 
from C64 to REU, your program must first 
write a block to $DExx, and then tell 
the REU to transfer from $DExx to 
wherever in the REU you want it to go. 
From REU to C64, the process is 
reversed. 

In short, there is one page of RAM at 
$DExx visible to both devices. The 
Master Adapter has this RAM on it, as 
well as logic to keep the two devices 
from conflicting. Normally the Turbo 
Master has the bus and access to the 
256-byte RAM. However, when REU pulls 
DMA low, Turbo gets out of the way. (The 
REU DMA line is routed through a gate to 
the Turbo to simulate a VIC chip BA 
access, rather than to the C64. The C64 
DMA line is always pulled low while 
Turbo is enabled.) 

----------------------------------------

SUBJ: Master Adapter             (R1)  
FROM: ShadowM     09/29/91   S#: 46974   
What's the latest on this long-awaited 
device? 
                  -::-

SUBJ: The latest is ...                
FROM: SSchnedler  09/30/91   S#: 46989   
Our board supplier has promised delivery 
October 16th. Other parts are currently 
arriving and should all be here by then. 
In the absence of some disaster, we 
should have a few Master Adapters 
assembled, tested and ready for shipping 
Monday October 21. We will be 
hand-soldering these, and production 
rate is unknown. 

The necessary driver program for 
Commodore 17xx ReUs has still not 
arrived from Paul Bosacki in Canada. 
Although the postal strike there is 
over, the package he sent seems to be 
lost, and so he recently sent another 
one. 

----------------------------------------

MASTER ADAPTER

Status update 10/6/91: Our board 
supplier tells us to expect delivery of 
bare boards by Wednesday October 16. 
Other parts have been arriving. In the 
absence of disaster, we expect to be 
shipping some by Monday October 21. The 
first batch is being hand assembled and 
soldered, and we do not know how fast we 
will be able to make them. Our ad on 
page 32 of the Nov/Dec 1991 issue of RUN 
which is just out says "It's Here!". 
Unfortunately, that's not quite right, 
but was our best guess when the ad was 
placed, well in advance. 

A potential problem is that we STILL do 
not have the necessary driver program to 
operate the REU under GEOS, even though 
programmer Paul Bosacki has sent us two 
packages. The postal and other strikes 
in Canada are causing a lot of problems. 
We are confident that if Paul says his 
driver works, it does. But we would feel 
better having it in hand. 

We will have final pricing this week. 
Some parts are costing more than we 
would like, and we may increase the 
price to $59 assembled, with Master 
Adapter in kit form at $39. Assembly 
involves soldering four 44-pin 
connectors, a 24-pin RAM socket, two 
other IC sockets, a 12-position jumper 
block, and a few resistors and 
capacitors. A kit is feasible since we 
plan to hand assemble and solder the 
first production run. Also, the circuit 
is simple enough that most will work 
first try. Advance orders still are not 
accepted. 

At these prices there actually is 
minimal profit for us, and a lot of 
trouble. However we are continuing with 
the project because it is started, and 
we like to support the basic 
accelerator. Based on running GEOS at 4 
MHz with RAM expansion, I can say the 
difference is amazing. I understand now 
why so many people wanted REU 
compatibility when Turbo Master first 
appeared. 

Paul's driver works in cooperation with 
the existing CONFIGURE program, and so 
will work with any size REU. This means 
128K 1700, 256K 1764, 512K 1750, and 
even 1 or 2 Meg expanded REUs operating 
under CONFIGURE 2.1! It works with GEOS 
Gateway, which he also wrote. Based on 
discussions with Paul he has done a 
first class job, putting in a number of 
"extras" to satisfy himself. 

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----------------------------------------


SUBJ: Master Adapter Almost Ready(R1)  
FROM: SSchnedler  10/28/91   S#: 498247  
We have the boards and components, and 
are currently assembling them. Manual is 
in draft form. 

Driver program still is not here. Was 
sent again (for the fourth time) by 
Federal Express on Saturday 10/26, and 
with luck it will be here 10/29 or 10/30 
depending on customs delay from Canada. 
Hopefully the disk will not be zapped by 
X-rays. 

Paul Bosacki called me this evening to 
report he has found a bug in his driver 
program which causes an incompatibility 
with geoCalc and geoChart. He thinks he 
knows what it is, and will send a 
replacement soon. In the meantime, we 
will release the product with his 
original version, hopefully in a matter 
of days, and send later send updates to 
initial customers. 

Q-Link text area will be updated when we 
are actually ready to ship. 

----------------------------------------

SUBJ: Master Adapter Problems          
FROM: SSchnedler  11/03/91   S#: 480775  
It's still coming, but not easily. 
Please see status update in text area 
posted this date -- 
    Product Information
      Master Adapter

The stress level is running a bit high 
here lately. We have a backlog of 
orders. no credit cards will be charged 
until actual shipment, and we are not 
going to ship until this thing is right. 
                  -::-

----------------------------------------

MASTER ADAPTER

Status update 11/3/91: We're having 
problems, but this product WILL 
DEFINITELY be released soon. We have the 
boards, parts and driver program from 
Paul Bosacki all in hand, and should 
theoretically be shipping, but a 
disaster of sorts has struck. 

In short, we've run into another 
situation where different C64s are 
different. The Master Adapter hardware 
works on some, but not others. 
Fortunately there is a very 
straightforward circuit modification 
which should approach 100% 
effectiveness. Unfortunately the circuit 
boards are already made, and so we will 
be hand-modifying each one of the 
initial batch. 

The previously-unsuspected hardware 
problem led Paul Bosacki to believe he 
had a software problem which he 
proceeded to "fix" but then was unable 
to test, thinking his prototype Master 
Adapter was broken, but actually was 
using it on a different computer. 
Unfortunately the "fix" did more harm 
than good, as often happens. But now 
with the hardware working, final testing 
of the software should proceed without 
difficulty. By the way, we have found 
that Federal Express does deliver from 
Canada to the U.S. in one or two days, 
and that is the method we are using in 
the future to get software from Paul 
Bosacki. 

Initial pricing will be the $49 
advertised, simply because that's what 
we advertised. However, price is likely 
to increase to $59 after the initial 
batch are shipped. At that time we may 
offer Master Adapter in kit form at a 
lower price. 

At these prices there actually is 
minimal profit for us, and a lot of 
trouble. However we are continuing with 
the project because it is started, and 
we like to support the basic 
accelerator. Based on running GEOS at 4 
MHz with RAM expansion, I can say the 
difference is amazing. I understand now 
why so many people wanted REU 
compatibility when Turbo Master first 
appeared. 

Paul's driver works in cooperation with 
the existing CONFIGURE program, and so 
will work with any size REU. This means 
128K 1700, 256K 1764, 512K 1750, and 
even 1 or 2 Meg expanded REUs operating 
under CONFIGURE 2.1! It works with GEOS 
Gateway, which he also wrote. 

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----------------------------------------

SUBJ: Bosacki reports success    (R2)  
FROM: SSchnedler  11/28/91   S#: 45336   
I spoke this evening (Thursday) with 
Paul Bosacki who reports he has found 
and fixed the problem with his REU 
driver for Master Adapter. He could have 
sent it by Federal Express today, but 
would rather spend a bit more time 
testing this evening. 

He plans to send a disk by Federal 
Express on Friday. It may arrive here 
Saturday. If so, and if our tests are 
successful, we will begin shipping 
Master Adapters to customers with REUs 
on Monday. 

I was beginning to think a lot of effort 
and money was down the drain in 
designing the Master Adapter board, and 
doing a production run. There's hope 
yet. 
                  -::-

SUBJ: Not Saturday               (R)   
FROM: SSchnedler  11/30/91   S#: 11656   
While a disk with Paul Bosacki's REU 
driver did not arrive Saturday, it was 
sent, and should be here Monday. I spoke 
with Paul today, who says he will be 
"very surprised" if I find it does not 
work. 

----------------------------------------

SUBJ: Master Adapter Ready       (R1)  
FROM: SSchnedler  12/07/91   S#: 444216  
It looks like we actually will be 
shipping Master Adapters with the REU 
driver beginning Monday December 9th. 
More problems developed and were solved 
since my last posting a week ago. 

Delays in Federal Express due to error 
in our account number and then 
misdelivery led to our not receiving the 
disk until Wednesday, and then it still 
did not work. Aparently there was a 
difference between Paul Bosacki's C128 
and our C64. Paul was able to duplicate 
the problem on his C64, and fixed it 
around midnight Wednesday. Fortunately 
he also sent his source code, and was 
able to tell me what to do by telephone. 
So Thursday I fired up geoAssembler, 
which I had never before used, and after 
many hours successfully reassembled the 
REU driver program and tested it. 

This Saturday morning I have been 
testing Turbo Master with a Master 
Adapter and a 1764 REU under GEOS 2.0 on 
a plain C64. It seems to work, and so we 
will put the REU driver on a revised 
Turbo Master disk (revision date 
12/9/91) and begin shipping Monday. 

I should add that GEOS is a demanding 
program, and there are some C64s with 
which a Turbo Master simply will not 
work. The added complexity of the Master 
Adapter certainly will not improve this 
situation; it can only make it worse. 
Therefore I fully expect, unfortunately, 
that there will be some people who 
cannot use Master Adapter. In those 
cases, there will be nothing further 
that can be done, and the Master Adapter 
will have to be returned for refund. 

This project has been a nightmare.  
                  -::-

SUBJ: Thank you!                       
FROM: ShadowM     12/07/91   S#: 43328   
I am sure that all truly hard-core 
Commodore users appreciate the 
tremendous effort your company has put 
into this project. (Personally, I would 
much rather have the speed of a 
TurboMaster with extra memory than all 
the features of RAMLink.) Will Mr. 
Bosacki's source code be made available 
also? 

----------------------------------------

SUBJ: Master Disaster?                 
FROM: SSchnedler  12/14/91   S#: 50630   
Since we commenced shipping this past 
Monday, a number so customers have 
reported their systems crash in various 
exciting ways when running GEOS in Turbo 
Master with a Commodore REU and Master 
Adapter. However, others report success 
and are quite pleased with the 
performance. (In GEORAM mode there have 
not been problems.) 

Based on calls, it may be that less than 
50% are working correctly. All of this 
indicates some kind of serious hardware 
incompatibility with different C64s. 

We will be working on several approaches 
this weekend involving hardware design. 
Within the next several days there will 
either be a solution, or the entire 
Master Adapter project will be killed in 
order to cut our losses, which at this 
point are several thousand dollars and 
an amazing amount of time. 

----------------------------------------

Mail From:  SSchnedler
Date:  Friday 27-Dec-91 22:39 EST
A belated answer to your E-Mail of
Dec. 14. Don't run out an buy a GEORAM
yet. There's still hope for the REU
driver. I've posted some new stuff this
date. Thanks for your patience.

----------------------------------------

MASTER ADAPTER

Status update 12/27/91: Master Adapter 
remains available for GEORAM users. 
While we originally thought the REU 
driver was working correctly, there 
definitely is a problem, which Paul 
Bosacki acknowledges. At the same time, 
THERE DEFINITELY IS HOPE, and we ask for 
patience from everybody, especially 
those who have purchased a Master 
Adapter for REU use, and at this point 
are holding onto a piece of hardware 
that needs correct software for it to 
work. 

There is no point in a blow-by-blow 
report of the various things we have 
tried the past several weeks. We do know 
that data is slowly and somewhat 
randomly being corrupted as it transfers 
to and from the REU, and that the 
hardware is not at fault. Our current 
theory is that IRQs are causing the 
problem. Paul's next experiment will be 
to move a buffer from $E0xx to $E1xx, 
which is the buffer area used by the 
standard GEOS 2.0r driver for GEORAM. I 
spoke to Paul this evening (Friday), and 
he says he will be able to work on the 
Master Adapter driver again on Monday 
Dec. 30. 

On a slightly different subject, Paul 
says he has developed a driver to allow 
a 2 Meg CMD RamDrive to work with Turbo 
Master and Master Adapter under GATEWAY 
for GEOS (sold by Creative Micro 
Designs). The RamDrive driver uses the 
GEORAM mode of Master Adapter, and so is 
not subject to the REU driver problems 
discussed above. We do not have the 
RamDrive driver, certainly have not 
tested it, and have no further 
information at this point. We are 
viewing it merely as a possibility. 

Initial pricing will be the $49 
advertised, simply because that's what 
we advertised. However, price is likely 
to increase to $59 after the initial 
batch are shipped. At that time we may 
offer Master Adapter in kit form at a 
lower price. 

At these prices there actually is 
minimal profit for us, and a lot of 
trouble. However we are continuing with 
the project because it is started, and 
we like to support the basic 
accelerator. Based on running GEOS at 4 
MHz with RAM expansion, I can say the 
difference is amazing. I understand now 
why so many people wanted REU 
compatibility when Turbo Master first 
appeared. 

Paul's driver should work in cooperation 
with the existing CONFIGURE program, and 
so will work with any size REU. This 
means 128K 1700, 256K 1764, 512K 1750, 
and even 1 or 2 Meg expanded REUs 
operating under CONFIGURE 2.1! It works 
with GEOS Gateway, which he also wrote. 

 <PRESS F7 AND SELECT "GET NEXT ITEM"
              * * OR * *
        <PRESS F5 FOR MENU>

         <PRESS F3 TO SAVE>. 

----------------------------------------

SUBJ: M/A Ready Again?           (R1)  
FROM: SSchnedler  01/02/92   S#: 426583  
I spoke this evening with Paul Bosacki 
regarding progress on fixing the REU 
driver for Master Adapter. He believes 
it is now working, and has tested it on 
several computers. He says he would like 
to continue to test it over the weekend, 
and send it to us by FedEx on Monday. We 
are extremely anxious to have this 
driver in had, for obvious reasons. At 
the same time I am glad to see that Paul 
intends to thoroughly test it this time. 

IF this all works out, and with a bit of 
luck, Master Adapter will be underway 
again next week. 

----------------------------------------

SUBJ: In anticipation            (R2)  
FROM: GregoryD12  01/05/92   S#: 516355  
of a working TurbREU, is it safe 
(hardware-wise) to leave the "optional 
internal jumper" inside the TurboMaster 
permanatley, even with the TM plugged 
directly into the computer? 
  
                  -::-

SUBJ: For me                     (R)   
FROM: RandyS38    01/06/92   S#: 437188  
the internal jumper has caused no 
problem with any software that I used 
before. 
  
                  -::-

SUBJ: Design Objective ...             
FROM: SSchnedler  01/12/92   S#: 457476  
... was that the optional internal 
connection to facilitate Master Adapter 
would be compatible with a "standard" 
Turbo Master setup, so there should be 
no problem. The internal connection 
should remain pulled up to logic high 
when Master Adapter is not in use, which 
is what the /GAME line does. 

If we ever make another run of Turbo 
Masters, the board layout will be 
modified at that time to make the 
connection. 

----------------------------------------

SUBJ: Bosacki Continues                
FROM: SSchnedler  01/12/92   S#: 457491  
A week ago Paul Bosacki thought he had 
the REU driver for Master Adapter 
working perfectly. However, his further 
testing has revealed some subtle 
problems. He is still working this 
evening to discover the cause or causes. 
I have been speaking to Paul by 
telephone almost every day for weeks 
now, and every day I hope the news will 
be good. 

If he gives up, that will be the end of 
the Master Adapter project; I don't have 
the slightest idea who else could do it. 
Fortunately, Paul seems to have made 
this a personal mission to stick with 
the problem until it is solved. He could 
very easily just decide to tell me he 
can't do it. 

----------------------------------------

SUBJ: The good news is ...       (R4)  
FROM: SSchnedler  01/16/92   S#: 473249  
... Paul Bosacki has not yet given up on 
the Master Adapter REU driver, but of 
course it's not yet working. 

I have spoken with him nearly every 
evening for weeks. Tonight he tells me 
that he is starting over to recode the 
driver, taking a slightly different 
approach. The code is not unduly long; 
about six pages of assembly language. It 
is just rather complex in the things it 
is doing to GEOS. 

There appears to be some subtle problem 
in the existing code that repeated and 
careful study hasn't revealed. A 
difficulty in getting it to work is that 
the operation is hardware intensive AND 
is in the GEOS environment; as a result, 
conventional software debugging 
techniques are of little help. He has 
observed corrupted data following a 
transfer, and knows generally when it 
occurs, but not why. Our repeated and 
various tests lead strongly to the 
conclusion that we are now dealing with 
a sotware problem, not a Master Adapter 
hardware problem. 
                  -::-

SUBJ: Good news                  (R)   
FROM: GaylnH2747  01/27/92   S#: 794298  
Hi Steve, just making my weekly check on 
master adapter progress. Dusted off my 
C-64 (classes started two weeks ago!!) 
and put in a ten hour session building a 
newsletter. WOW!! I have to say again 
GEOS with Turbo Master is amazing. The 
DOS machines at school seem primitive 
and even my bosses 386 running Ensemble 
isn't really any faster. (PC/Geos does 
have some neat features though). What I 
am saying is THANK YOU -- Turbo Master 
and Master Adapter used with an expanded 
Georam make GEOS a real joy to use. TM 
evens speeds up printing -- a 12 page 
newsletter (w/geopub) printed in 21 min. 
compared to 45 min. without TM. Please 
keep hunting for those bugs, I am sure 
the many REU equiped GEOS users will be 
amazed with Turbo Master boosted GEOS. 
Good luck and Thanks again!! :) Gayln T. 
Hall 
  
----------------------------------------

SUBJ: At the risk ...                  
FROM: SSchnedler  01/30/92   S#: 468424  
... of having hopes dashed again, Paul 
Bosacki reports he has had the new REU 
driver for Master Adapter working since 
last Saturday, but did not tell me due 
to the many false alarms in the past. He 
says he has tested it extensively, and 
it runs with all GEOS software he has 
tried. Current plans are for him to send 
it to me by FedEx Friday January 31, to 
arrive here Monday February 3. I will 
test it thoroughly and, if it works, we 
will send new disks to all customers who 
already have Master Adapter, and then 
have a look at the back order situation. 

As a brief explanation of the nature of 
the bug, the Master Adapter hardware 
only permits REU data transfers to and 
from a 256-byte area of memory at $DExx. 
Pointers are used to indicate to the 
GEOS REU routines what address in the 
C64 is to be the target of an REU 
transfer, and it seems there were 
circumstances when the pointer would 
point to other than the $DExx block. 
Attempted transfers to or from other 
areas of memory resulted in a seemingly 
random corruption of memory, which 
resulted in a crash sooner or later, 
usually sooner. The driver was rewritten 
with a view toward guarding against such 
out-of-bounds data transfers. 

Hopefully I will have confirmation 
posted early next week. Thanks again to 
all for patience. 

----------------------------------------

SUBJ: No news is ...                   
FROM: SSchnedler  02/12/92   S#: 40642   
... generally bad news, as I tend to 
report only positive things regarding 
the Master Adapter project. My silence 
over the last two weeks means troubles, 
but there continues to be hope for the 
Master Adapter project. 

Paul Bosacki's withdrew his report of 
all problems fixed after trying the REU 
driver on a C64. He actually was 
confidently demonstrating the system for 
a frient. His previous successful tests 
had been on a C128. He did send me a 
disk with the driver program and source 
code in its defective state, and I am 
now deeply deeply involved in trying to 
debug it. 

Tonight, assisted by telephone 
discussions with Paul, we found a 
definite error in the driver program. 
Whether it is the only error remains to 
be seen. We have been at this point many 
times; that is finding an error and 
being convinced it is the last one, only 
to find out problems still remain. I 
will have the driver program reassembled 
and tested again in a day or two. Who 
knows. 

The current error in the program relates 
to sprites. They must be turned OFF for 
an error-free REU transfer when using 
Master Adapter, and we found a place in 
the driver program where a REU transfer 
is done without turning OFF the sprites. 

Those of you patiently waiting with 
Master Adapters in hand can demonstrate 
this for yourself using the simple TEST 
REU program on the disk. From Basic, 
turn ON the sprites by entering POKE 
53270,1. Likely no sprites will be 
visible, but they willbe enabled. Now 
run the TEST REU program with Master 
Adapter assembled, and likely there will 
be errors. Turn the sprites back OFF 
with POKE 53270,0. 

----------------------------------------

SUBJ: Master Adapter REALLY ready(R2)  
FROM: SSchnedler  02/17/92   S#: 436079  
The REU driver program for Master 
Adapter has successfully been debugged, 
and appears to be working very well. 
This week we will be sending new disks 
to all customers who have Master 
Adapter, and we will then deal with the 
back order situation on the Master 
Adapter hardware. 

To make a long story short, in 
retrospect the solutions seem to be 
simple. First, Paul Bosacki found a few 
weak parts in his program, like wild 
pointers, but actually the code was 
pretty good. Paul was telling me the 
problem must be hardware, while I was 
telling him, no, it must be the 
programing. The truth lay somewhere in 
between. 

Paul was at a dead end as far as he was 
concerned, which is why he sent me the 
non-working source code two weeks ago 
for me to look at. 

It turns out that sprites must be 
disabled for an error-free REU transfer 
through the Master Adapter. So we had to 
ensure the program code always turned 
off the sprites. In addition, for 
reasons unknown, the REU SWAP command is 
very unreliable with the Naster Adapter, 
even with the sprites turned off, even 
though STASH and FETCH appear to be 
100%. This is something I determined 
yesterday using separate trest programs. 
So all use of the SWAP routine was 
eliminated. This is the final thing I 
changed this afternoon, and tested 
extensively this evening. 

So, there were hardware-related problems 
which could be worked around with 
programming. Paul and I have discussed 
this at length, and neither of us have 
any idea why REU transfers through the 
Master Adapter fail to work with the 
sprites enabled, nor why SWAP doesn't 
work al all. 

Fortunately, GEOS itself never attempts 
to use the REU SWAP command. 

Incidentally, with Paul Bosacki's 
permission, the source code for the 
Master Adapter REU driver will be on the 
disk. 
  
----------------------------------------

SUBJ: Disks in Mail                    
FROM: SSchnedler  02/19/92   S#: 398150  
Disks were mailed today to all customers 
who already have a Master Adapter an who 
have been unable to use it with the 
Commodore 17xx REU. The "fixed" driver 
program is on the disk, and the disk 
revision date is 2/18/92. If your unit 
successfully runs the "TEST REU" program 
on the earlier disk dated 12/9/91, the 
probability is very high it will now 
work with the 17xx REU under GEOS. 

We will now address the back order 
situation for the Master Adapter 
hardware. 

----------------------------------------

SUBJ: Master Adapter wow!        (R1)  
FROM: ShadowM     02/28/92   S#: 843939  
I finally have the working Master 
Adapter REU driver, and it survived 
everything I threw at it. Especially 
impressive was switching back and forth 
between preview and zoom in a complex 
geoPublish document. I have two 
questions, though: 
1) Do you or does some enterprising 
person out there plan to market an 
enclosure for the Master Adapter? All 
those exposed IC's make me nervous. And 
if so, would it be possible to have a 
switch for those four jumpers to go from 
Master Adapter mode to REU mode? 
2) I find that certain keys don't work 
in geoDebugger when in Master Adapter 
mode, unless I switch down to 1MHz. Has 
anyone else experienced this? Any ideas? 
Thanks for your perserverance and 
indomitable spirit Mr. Schnedler, and 
thanks for Mr. Bosacki's source code 
also! I like how it hides out in upper 
memory 'til it's activated (sort of like 
the Michelangelo virus). ;> 

                  -::-

SUBJ: Answers                          
FROM: SSchnedler  03/03/92   S#: 816451  
 1) No enclosure is planned.
2) It is not surprising that geoDegugger 
does not work at 4 MHz due to the nature 
of a debugger. I am glad that it works 
at all. 

Glad to hear yours is finally working.  

----------------------------------------

SUBJ: RBOOT                      (R1)  
FROM: ShadowM     04/02/92   S#: 408938  
What would it take to patch RBOOT for 
Master Adapter? You would have to use 
code like that in the Master Adapter 
patch to pull the reboot code down to 
$6000 from the REU, and then patch the 
code at $6216 that pulls down the rest 
of the Kernal in pieces, right? 
What I can't seem to find is where the 
main part of the Kernal above $CFFF is 
pulled back down from the REU. It isn't 
just assumed to still be 'under' the 
ROMs, is it? 
Also, I don't understand why the reboot 
code switches from JSR $6216 to JSR 
FetchRAM where it does. Can anybody 
help? 
                  -::-

SUBJ: It switches from                 
FROM: NateF       04/03/92   S#: 518310  
JSR $6216 to JSR FetchRAM because until 
it loads in the GEOS Kernal, there is no 
FetchRAM routine available. As for the 
"under the ROM's" assumption, no. It is 
all loaded in from the REU. 
Nate
  
                  -::-

SUBJ: Master Adapter/RBOOT       (R1)  
FROM: ShadowM     06/16/92   S#: 835155  
I just uploaded a M.A. version of RBOOT 
to the User Applications area in 
CSS/GEOS Arena. I'd appreciate any bug 
reports, especially if it runs on some 
systems and not on others! The file name 
is "ma-rboot.sda". 
                  -::-

SUBJ: ma-rboot                         
FROM: Tiger17     06/23/92   S#: 405423  
If you really did this you are 
wonderful! I'll get it right away and 
give it a try. 

If it works it should be here in 
Schnedler's library. 

tiger
  
----------------------------------------

SUBJ: Been nice                  (R4)  
FROM: Dauntless   06/04/92   S#: 442993  
doing business with you. Hope you have a 
good future. 
                  -::-


SUBJ: It's...                    (R)   
FROM: Zimbo B1    06/07/92   S#: 467598  
a miracle that the C-64 has survived as 
long as it has, thanks in part to some 
very good programs that exist for it. 

All the same, I don't think it'd be a 
good idea anymore for first time 
computer users to pick a Commodore 64... 

                     ---Joel Kolstad

  
                  -::-

SUBJ: RBOOT?                     (R)   
FROM: Tiger17     06/08/92   S#: 466866  
RBOOT for GEOS with Turbo Master and 
Master Adapter? Really? 

Best of luck. Lack of an RBOOT is a big 
drawback to this otherwise great 
combination. 

Please keep us posted on your progress.


   - tiger  
                  -::-

SUBJ: I started on the 64...           
FROM: Ski crazy   06/08/92   S#: 416291  
a little more than a year ago and I'm 
not a bit sorry. It's a great machine 
and does everything I need. I expect to 
be using it many more years.:) 
-Tim
  
Mail From:  Tiger17
Date:  Tuesday 23-Jun-92 00:57 EDT
Thanks for your work.  I just looked in
the library and ma-rboot hasn't been
made live yet.  I'm very anxious to try
it out since this was a major short-
coming of the TurboMaster/Master Adapter
combo.

----------------------------------------

SUBJ: So long ...                (R2)  
FROM: SSchnedler  06/30/92   S#: 450057  
Effective this date, formal Schnedler 
Systems product support on q-link ends, 
as we are entering other markets. We 
remain available by mail and telephone. 
Programmer's utilities and control 
interface boards remain available. 
                  -::-

SUBJ: A dark day...              (R)   
FROM: GregoryD12  07/01/92   S#: 804577  
but many thanks for your help and 
support. Best wishes on your new areas.. 
                  -::-

SUBJ: Yes, a sad day indeed....        
FROM: Dream DOC   07/01/92   S#: 401351  
but, indeed good luck in all of your 
future endeavors. Wonderful potential 
was never fully explored!!! Thanks again 
for what you offered. :D 

  
SUBJ: Leaving so soon?                 
FROM: Breadstick  07/03/92   S#: 819329  
I feel it is a great loss for SS to be 
ending work on the Commodore. I know I 
tried buying a TM but was told that they 
were all gone and may not be reissuing 
them. 
If they could make it compatible with a 
RamLink, I know I would probably pay up 
to $180 for it. Am I alone here, or is 
this message base being totally 
abandoned? 
I hate to see it when we lose one of the 
only 2 manufacturers for new Commodore 
products... I guess this will just put 
all the pressure back on CMD for 
development. 

