The Sharp CE-15x extension for PC-1500 serie

Dear PockEmul’s fans, we are pleased to announce the new Sharp CE-15x extension for all PC-1500 serie.
It will be part of next PockEmul 2.9.0 release.

Don’t search your memory; this module never existed in the real world and is only available in PockEmul. It could easily be made in reality, but one advantage of emulation over reality is the near absence of limits.

This extension provides 10 external RAM areas for the PC-1500

Adress	Flags	Size
0x8000 – 0x9FFF	No PV PV PV, no PU PV, PU	8Kb 8Kb 8Kb 8Kb
0xA000 – 0xBFFF	No PV PV PV, no PU PV, PU	8Kb 8Kb 8Kb 8Kb
0xC000 – 0xFFFF	manual select or switch: Firmware #0 Firmware #1	16Kb 16Kb

You can load any binary in each of these areas using the memory viewer in Advanced Tools.

Then you enable the desired area with the contextual menu

Et voilà.

The 0xC000-0xFFFF area is a very interesting one. It is the location of the PC-1500 SYSTEM ROM.
One interesting feature of the 60pins connector of the PC-1500 is the presence of an INHIBIT pin which disable the internal SYSTEM ROM and boot on an external one.

With the CE-15x extension you can develop you own firmware and boot your PC-1500 on it.

Long time ago we developed an external large LCD display for the PC-1500 with an integrated FORTH firmware (PC-1560 : the project (in french) – PC-1500.info)

I plan to add in PockEmul 3.0.0 a complete Integrated Development Environment. It will provide a source code editor, integrated assembler, a C compiler (for the SC61860 Sharp family at the beginning) and a link to external tools by command line.

One last point, PockEmul manage the Sharp PC-1500 bus so you can of course connect this extension to the CE-150:

This extension module was requested by Ernst Mulder some time ago because he dreamed of being able to use the programs he had developed back in the day for his Tandy PC-2. A BASIC extension located in 0x8000 and activated by the no PV flags.

Yes, he had modified his PC-2 to add this memory extension on the no PV flag

I remember visiting the page of his PC-2 emulator 25 years ago, and he certainly had a role in the creation of PockEmul.

So, I owed him this extension. Thank you Ernst.

As Ernst did, feel free to contact me at contact@pockemul.com regarding PockEmul or the world of Pocket Computers in general.

Perfect emulation is an infinite quest. Please report us any inaccurate behaviour at contact@pockemul.com 

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