Documentations

“This is what it is and how it works. Now it's up to you to figure out what you can do with it.”

Hardware

Just a little note: I call an Amstrad CPC an Amstrad CPC (or CPC for short) and an Amstrad Plus an Amstrad Plus (or Plus for short). No “CPC old” or “CPC+” here.

Amstrad CPC

Amstrad Plus

Programmable devices

  • Z80 – 8bit CPU by Zilog. draft
  • I/O DevicesCPU I/O with the other chips. almost complete
    • CRTC 6845 – CRT Controler by Motorola, controls frame timings and VRAM display pointer. draft
    • Gate Array/PAL – Amstrad custom chips. Controls the video mode, colors, interrupts & ROM/RAM mapping. almost complete
    • PPI 8255 – Programable Peripheral Interface by Intel. todo
    • FDC 765 – Floppy Disc Drive controller by NEC. draft
  • AY3 8912 – Soundchip by General Instruments. almost publishable
  • ASIC – Amstrad Plus custom chip. draft

Expansions

Software

System

Firmware

The firmware is the native Operating System of the Amstrad CPC/Plus. Reading these documents is highly recommanded.

BASIC

Disc Operating System

  • AMSDOS by Amstrad Consumer Electronics plc, 1985.
  • PARADOS by Richard Wilson, 1993. The best AMSDOS alternative that fully support 3.5' drive.

Native utilities

Programming

Music

You can't make a program without broken egos.

  • STarKos by Arkos, 2004-2009. need wikidesign & update to 1.2
  • Soundtrakker by BSC, 1992-1993. formatting 1.1 manual, searching for ST128 stuff

Cross Development tools

Z80 Assembler

Graphics

  • Grafx2 an open source pixelart-oriented painting program. – (Multiplatform)

Music

SDK / Toolkit

documentations/start.txt · Last modified: 2010/04/22 09:03 by grim