Update to the KIM-1 Simulator

Nils, a very enthousiast PAL-1 user discovered in an old German magazine, 1979, HobbyComputer 1, a small phonebook program for the KIM-1.
It is a command line utility, extremely small and quite clever. See the post about it here.

So he entered the code in assembler and did some tests on his PAL-1 (it worked) and in the KIM-1 Simulator, which was not working.
He found the ‘database’ corrupted.

Of course I had to look at it and see what was going on. It had to be something about using zeropage pointers into the database.
And it was. In the source an instruction appeared:

INY  ; Y = 0

followed by an indirect addressing, Y into the database and preceded by a call to getch, reading a character from the keyboard.
Y was not used in the program before, so in the Simulator it was uncertain what the value was.

GETCH is known to destroy the Y register, delivering the character in register A. How is unspecified.
In the KIM-1 Simulator the KIM-1 GETCH is patched to the ACIA routines of the emulated 6850 serial interface.
Those routines do not use Y, so it is left untouched.

So time to study the KIM-1 routines. In the delay a bit routine the Y register is filled with the final state of a counter, TIMH.
It looks like the decrement ends with the value $FF, when the BPL becomes false, the whole purpose of the use of Y seems to determine that end of the loop?

 1ED4  AD F3 17  DELAY   LDA   CNTH30                           
 1ED7  8D F4 17          STA   TIMH
 1EDA  AD F2 17          LDA   CNTL30
 1EDD  38        DE2     SEC   
 1EDE  E9 01     DE4     SBC   #$01 
 1EE0  B0 03             BCS   DE3  
 1EE2  CE F4 17          DEC   TIMH
 1EE5  AC F4 17  DE3     LDY   TIMH
 1EE8  10 F3             BPL   DE2
 1EEA  60                RTS

Anyway, the KIM-1 Simulator 0.9.4. GETCH routine now returns with Y=$FF and the phonebook program seems to work.

DOS/65 sources

Different versions (from 2008 to 2021) of this CP/M for the 6502 system by Richard Leary hosted here.

Work in progress, hope to get more information from Richard!

with his permission

KIM-1 Diagnostic board

Dwight Elvey designed and programmed a diagnostic board for the KIM-1, to determine what might be wrong with the KIM-1
The board switches off the 6530 ROMs and one can run tests on teh onboard ROM, looking for for defective RAM, defective LED display, defective 6530 ports.

Here I present the complete design of the board, with help and permission of Dwight Elvey, Santo Nucifora and Liu Ganning.

Microsoft Basic for the KIM-1 KB-6

I know KB6 existed. The ‘6’ stands for the precision in digits of the floating point number. In the documentation KB-6 is described.
Never seen a version in the wild. I know KB6 existed. The ‘6’ stands for the precision in digits of the floating point number. In the documentation KB-6 is described. Never seen a version in the wild. So the reconstruction here is not checked with the original, addresses in the reconstruction from the linker differ from the documentation.”>So the reconstruction here is not checked with the original, addresses in the reconstruction from the linker differ from the documentation.

Microsoft Basic for the KIM-1: KB9 update

More information on KB9 and a new faster and smaller version

PAL-1 page updated

A lot has happened with the PAL-1, the active developed and available KIM clone.

So an update to the page with all the boards and manuals and modifications that appeared this year!

Elektor 6502 clock

In 1981 and 1982 the magazine Elektor (Elektuur) published a small 6502 system. Small since it only contained a 6502, a 6532 RRIOT and a 2716 2K EPROM and some logic IC’s and powersupply, all on a small PCB.
Several applications around this baord were publsihed, like a DCF77 clock, a general purpose clock, and a darkroom computer. Also a talking clock baord, around the speech IC UAA1003 was published.

Recently I obtained a DCF77 talking clock system, and I took it apart and cleaned it up to experiment with the boards.

Full documentation here.

Microchess and MICRO ADE sources and binaries

Microchess and MICRO-ADE are two products from Micro-Ware Limited, a company by Peter R. Jennings.

The sources of these two programs have been typed in and assembled by me from August to November 2021, and the resulting binary output is identical to my saved from cassette tape binaries.
All these files (source, binaries, papertape, audio cassette wave files, and manuals) are now
available at the KIM-1 Software page.

Robert Leedom games

In the KIM User Notes there were several KIM-1 games published by Robert Leedom.

A tiny Colossal Cave Adventure, HEXPAWN and Baseball.

With his help and others these games have been typed in again and are playable on any KIM-1 (Reproduction), PAL-1, Kim Clone, Micro-KIM.

In August 2021 I (Hans Otten) typed in the source of MICRO-Ade from the listing in the manual, the output is binary compatible with the binaries I saved from tape and are tested on the KIM-1.
The result is a source identical (in standard MOS Technology assembler format) to the listing and binary identical to the page image. I also made new high quality scan of the manual and the listing.
Micro Ade program source and binary
Scanned manual
Scanned listing

Read in the KIM KENNER archive the source of the enhancements (text by S.T. Woldringh o.a.)
The KIM club enhanced Micro Ade to version 8. Download here the binary with a 2 page command summary.
MICRO-ADE V8