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Altair 1MB Bank Switching

DropDatabase

New Member
Joined
May 16, 2021
Messages
1
Location
UK
Hi

My I8080 based system (Altair copy) has 1MB of RAM currently arranged as 16 pages of 4K with each page having 16 banks. I can switch in each bank easily with a single OUT call to a port (can be set to any port I like) with the high nyble representing the bank and the low nyble the page. So sending say 0X3F to the port, switches bank 3 into the last 4K. All of this is not however set in stone and I have a lot of flexibility to adjust things. I did it this way as it was extremely simple to use and understand and works great for my own software. I would however like to get the system running banked CP/M 3.0 or another bank switched OS. I'm finding it difficult to find much info about it though. Is there any documentation around explaining how bank switching is supposed to be controlled? I did come across something about it using port 40, but not much more in-depth than that, also I don't know if it meant 40 decimal, oct or hex.

Thanks for reading,
Don
 
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