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 Post subject: Using IRQ/NMI functions
PostPosted: Wed Jul 18, 2018 7:57 pm 
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Now that I have EhBasic running on my SBC, I'm wondering how useful the IRQ and NMI functions are going to be.

My SBC has a Panic button that triggers a NMI. A ROM based routine handles a minimal restore to the I/O and BIOS/Monitor. I also use IRQ to support the UART's transmit and receive (w/128-byte circular buffers), received break (from terminal) and a 10ms jiffy clock for elapsed time since cold start and for accurate delays. So interrupts are endlessly being triggered at a minimum of 100 per second, plus any send/receive for the console (which is running 38.4K baud rate).

I'm debating removing them from the code and saving the ROM space, as I'm not really sure they will be of much use in the long run. Has anyone else using EhBasic made good use of the interrupt functions with EhBasic? I guess I'm looking for some reasons to keep one or both within the code.

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https://github.com/floobydust


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PostPosted: Wed Jul 18, 2018 9:25 pm 
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I assume that these functions become handy if one is going to use EhBasic for standalone solutions. After reset you simply load your previously saved Basic program back into RAM, do a warmstart and simulate a RUN command. Then this application is doing everything. Being able to handle IRQs without assembly subroutines or together would greatly expand the possible applications.

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Arne


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PostPosted: Thu Jul 19, 2018 6:22 am 
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From my EhBASIC bugs and quirks list:
Quote:
1. The interrupt system is severely broken.

When an IRQ occurs and IRQ_vec is called in min_mon.asm the interrupt is only
registered with IRQbase but the interrupt source is not serviced nor is the
interrupt disable bit set at RTI. As a consequence the interrupt is immediately
called again and again and IRQbase is trashed until the interrupt is serviced
by the ON IRQ handler in basic.

The problem is discussed in viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2411
How I solved the problem for my emulator:
https://github.com/Klaus2m5/AVR_emulate ... er/EhBASIC

However, you should keep in mind that the interrupt service capacity in EhBASIC
is very limited. In a 2MHz system more than 100 interrupts per second or
interrupts requiring less than 10ms service time should be handled in machine
language. The numbers are worse if the interrupt handler gets more complex.

Of course, a hybrid solution is always possible. You could service the interrupt
in machine language and flag an interrupt to basic only after a buffer is
filled/emptied or a count is reached.

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PostPosted: Thu Jul 19, 2018 3:59 pm 
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Thanks Arne and Klaus!

So I've decided to remove the interrupt related functions, for both IRQ and NMI, which also includes the removal of RETIRQ, RETNMI and OFF. This saved quite a few bytes of code overall.

I also went through the entire code listing and was able to replace about 19 JMP opcodes with BRA, saving some additional bytes of space and some clock cycles as well. I also managed to leverage some additional CMOS instructions/addressing modes which has resulted in a version which now occupies 9931 bytes of ROM space, which includes Klaus' recent IF patch.

I still need to change the Page Zero definitions and remove the IRQ/NMI bytes used... but the code execution is measurably quicker using some of the test programs that others have been kind enough to share. I'll work on posting some of that soon.

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https://github.com/floobydust


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