The X16 Commander is a modern retro computer that is currently in (hardware) development. This new hardware requires testing. This repository aims to supply a tool for testing X16 (compatible) hardware. It comes in the form of asm-source that can compiled into a ROM image. That image can be flashed onto the EEPROM of the X16 hardware and will run immediatly after power on.
The tester currently consists of the following tests:
- Initialization of VERA VGA output as first sign of life (rom-only mode)
- Setup of a tiled screen and upload of petscii character set to VRAM (rom-only mode)
- Testing of zero page and stack RAM (rom-only mode)
- Testing of Fixed RAM
- Testing of Banked RAM
- Testing of Banked ROM
- Testing of VERA
- Testing of VIAs
The above tests are all in a state of Work-In-Progress and are destined to changed, extended and improved.
Note: 'rom-only mode' means that no stack, zero page or any other RAM is used.
Right now the hardware tester is best compiled with vasm6502 (oldstyle). This is how you can generate a .rom file:
vasm6502_oldstyle.exe -Fbin -dotdir -wdc02 x16_hardware_tester.s -o x16_hardware_tester.rom
VASM manual: http://sun.hasenbraten.de/vasm/release/vasm_6.html
In order to run the hardware tester using the emulator you can set the rom-file like this:
x16emu.exe -rom "x16_hardware_tester.rom" -debug
The generated .rom file can be flashed to your ROM (SST39SF040) using your favorite flash programmer. It uses the full 512 KB in size.
After you run the tester it will look similar to this:
