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This I/O port, when reading from it ten times, will return a 80 bit bitmap which will represent features that several Spectrum compatible implementations, both in hardware and in emulation, have included for the last years. A 1 bit will mean that a specific feature is enabled or present in the machine. It's like the CPUID mechanism included in x86 processors to allow the system software to discover their capabilities.</h1>

The readings would assume the bitmap to be stored in little-endian mode. That is: first read would return a byte with bits 7 to 0 of the 64-bit bitmap, a second read would returns a byte with bits 15 to 8 of the 64-bit bitmap and so on. After the last read, which would returns bits 79 to 72, the next read would return a byte with bits 7 to 0 again.

A write I/O bus cycle to this port with any value will make the bitmap index to reset to the first 8 bits. The value to be written is actually discarded.

A machine may have means to enable or disable features using its own I/O ports. Such changes should be reflected in the returned bitmap immediately.

An HDL description of a hardware module that implements this CPUID-like mechanism will be provided along with the set of current features.

If possible, a discrete chip version, or a CPLD version of this module will be available as well so makers that don't use FPGA to implement their Spectrums may include this as well.

Example of use

ZXID           equ FB3Bh
;GetZXIDBitmap.
;Miguel Angel Rodriguez Jodar (mcleod_ideafix). ZX-UNO team.
;This code is released under public domain
;
;Check the ZXID bitmap, if implemented on a ZX Spectrum compatible machine.
;Returns CF clear if succesful and IX points to feature list. CF set if ZXID
;bitmap not implemented and IX doesn't change.
;This routine needs interrupts enabled. It assumes that the first IN A,(C) will
;be executed while the ULA is still drawing the border.
;Registers used: AF,BC,D,HL,IX
GetZXIDBitmap   ld      bc,ZXID                out     (c),c   ;write any value to reset the ZXID                                 ;internal index                ei                halt                in      a,(c)   ;this instruction should be executed when the                                ;ULA is not fetching pixels from screen memory                bit     6,a     ;is ZXID present?                scf                ret     nz      ;return if so with CF set                ld      hl,ZXIDBitmap                ld      (hl),a  ;store saved value read to memory buffer                inc     hl
LoopGetBitmap   in      a,(c)                ld      (hl),a                inc     hl                bit     7,a                jr      nz,LoopGetBitmap                ld      ix,ZXIDBitmap                or      a                ret
ZXIDBitmap      db      256 dup(0)  ;up to 256 bytes of ZXID information.                                    ;a routine looking for a specific feature                                    ;can stop data retrieval early, to keep with                                    ;the byte containing the desired feature                                    ;to check

After calling this routine, checks can be performed like this:

bit 0,(ix+1); checks whether ULAplus is available

A '1' (NZ condition) on any of these bits means that the feature or operation mode addressed by that bit is available. A '0' indicates that the feature or operation mode is not available (this last condition can be due to the hardware not actually supporting the feature, or to a control register/dipswitch/pinheader that are disabling the feature.

Byte    Assigned bit    Nmemonic        Description
0       0               48K             48K mode (no 128K memory, or locked by bit 5 of                                        7FFD)        1               128K            128K standard MMU         2               2A              +2A/+3 standard MMU        3               48U             48K ULA active        4               128U            128K ULA active        5               AY              AY-3-8912 available         6               0               Always 0         7               EOB             End Of Bitmap (0=last byte of the bitmap. 1=not                                        last byte of the bitmap)
1       8               UP              ULAplus available        9               THI             Timex hi-color available        10              THR             Timex hi-res available        11              PEN             Pentagon ULA active        12              256K            256K capable (Pentagon layout)        13              512K            512K capable (Pentagon layout)        14              TMM             Timex MMU enabled        15              EOB             End Of Bitmap
2       16              TS              Turbo Sound available        17              SPD             SpecDrum available        18              COV             Covox available         19              GS              General Sound available        20              7M              7 MHz capable        21              14M             14 MHz capable        22              21M             21 MHz capable        23              EOB             End Of Bitmap
3       24              28M             28 MHz capable        25              56M             56 MHz capable        26              112M            112 MHz capable        27              RAD             Radastan mode available        28              ZE0             ZEsarUX mode 0 available        29              ZE1             ZEsarUX mode 1 available        30              ZE2             ZEsarUX mode 2 available        31              EOB             End Of Bitmap
4       32              AL2             Alicia 2bpp video modes available        33              AL4             Alicia 4bpp video modes available        34              AL8             Alicia 8bpp video mode available        35              ALA             Alicia attribute video modes available        36              ALF             Alicia 15 color video mode available        37              0               Reserved        38              ZGX             ZEsarUX sprite chip present        39              EOB             End Of Bitmap
5       40              0               Reserved        41              TSST            TSConf sprites and tiles available        42              1M              1MB capable        43              2M              2MB capable        44              4M              4MB capable        45              TSM             TSConf memory manager enabled        46              PMM             Prism MMU available        47              EOB             End Of Bitmap
6       48              0               Reserved        49              SID             SID available        50              SAA             SAA1099 available        51              ZRI             ZX-UNO raster interrupt available        52              0               Reserved        53              TRI             TSConf raster interrupt available        54              DMA             ZX-UNO DMA available        55              EOB             End Of Bitmap
7       56              ZDM             Z80-DMA chip available        57              TSD             TSConf DMA available        58              0               Reserved        59              0               Reserved        60              0               Reserved        61              0               Reserved        62              0               Reserved        63              EOB             End of Bitmap
8       64              0               Reserved        65              0               Reserved        66              0               Reserved        67              0               Reserved        68              0               Reserved        69              0               Reserved        70              0               Reserved        71              EOB             End of Bitmap
9       72              0               Reserved        73              0               Reserved        74              0               Reserved        75              0               Reserved        76              0               Reserved        77              0               Reserved        78              0               Reserved        79              EOB             End of Bitmap   

Final list of features and assigned bits to be discussed with creators of clone systems and enhanced Spectrums after an HDL description of the ZXID device is designed and tested. Devices that do not respect the ZXI standard will not be included.

The intention is that the list of features to have the most standard features on lower bytes so a cheap implementation (with one or two 8 bit hardwired registers) would be possible to be added as an internal device into original systems, if desired.

The ZXID system is licensed under the ZXI license.

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