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breakintoprogram / agon-mos

Official AGON QUARK Firmware: eZ80 MOS
MIT License
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agon-light

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agon-mos

Part of the official Quark firmware for the Agon series of microcomputers

What is the Agon

Agon is a modern, fully open-source, 8-bit microcomputer and microcontroller in one small, low-cost board. As a computer, it is a standalone device that requires no host PC: it puts out its own video (VGA), audio (2 identical mono channels), accepts a PS/2 keyboard and has its own mass-storage in the form of a µSD card.

https://www.thebyteattic.com/p/agon.html

What is a MOS

The MOS is a command line machine operating system, similar to CP/M or DOS, that provides a human interface to the Agon file system.

It also provides an API for file I/O and other common operations for BBC Basic for Z80 and other third-party applications.

Loadig BBC Basic for Z80

  1. Download bbcbasic.bin from agon-bbc-basic releases
  2. Copy it to the root directory of the Agon SD card
  3. Insert the SD card into the AGON and reset/boot it
  4. Check the file is on the SD card with a CAT or . command
  5. Type the following commands into MOS:
    • LOAD bbcbasic.bin
    • RUN
  6. You should then be greeted with the BBC Basic for Z80 prompt

Etiquette

Please do not issue pull requests or issues for this project; it is very much a work-in-progress. I will review this policy once the code is approaching live status and I have time to collaborate more.

Build

The eZ80 is programmed via the ZDI connector on the left-hand side of the board. This requires a Zilog Smart Cable that can be purchased from online stockists such as Mouser or RS Components.

There are three compatible cables with the following part numbers:

Important! Make sure you get the exact model of cable; there are variants for the Zilog Encore CPU that have similar part numbers, but are not compatible with the Acclaim! eZ80 CPU.

You can download the ZDS II tools for free via these links. The software contains an IDE, Debugger, C Compiler and eZ80 Assembler.

You will also need a Hex2Bin utility to convert the MOS.hex file to MOS.bin ready for release.

NB:

I currently build the official Quark software on a Windows XP KVM running on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, using ZDS II Tools version 5.3.4, connecting to the Agon with the discontinued USB smart cable.

It is recommended that building and testing the MOS is done via the ZDS II tools and a Zilog Smart Cable, otherwise there is an increased risk of bricking the Agon.

Other options for developing C and eZ80 on the Agon are available. Please check the Agon Programmers Group on Facebook for more information.

Any custom settings for Agon development is contained within the project files, so no further configuration will need to be done.

Documentation

The AGON documentation can now be found on the Agon Light Documentation Wiki

Licenses

This code is released under an MIT license, with the following exceptions:

Links