Our Majorcan MSX user Konamiman has published a pack of updates for some of his projects:

  • The MSX UNAPI specification project has got its own repository in GitHub. It contains the specification documents as well as the source code of the example implementations and the tools.
  • The TCP/IP UNAPI specification steps up to version 1.1. It adjusts a few small issues of version 1.0 (for example, the routine to report the TTL and ToS of outgoing datagrams is now optional) and adds support for TLS on TCP connections.
  • InterNestor Lite for Ethernet UNAPI steps up to version 2.1. This new version implements the new specification version 1.1 (but no, it still doesn't support TLS, sorry), but it also introduces a significant change: now InterNestor requires the presence of the MSX-DOS 2 mapper support routines to work. "But how do I install it in MSX-DOS 1 then?", you may ask. This leads us to...
  • MSR.COM is a new tool that installs MSX-DOS 2 compatible mapper support routines in MSX-DOS 1. This allows to use software that depends on these routines, provided that they don't depend on any other of the MSX-DOS 2 features. Additionally, this tool also installs the UNAPI RAM helper as RAMHELPR.COM does.
  • Speaking about RAMHELPR.COM, this tool also gets updated to version 1.2. Older versions did read the mapped memory ports, which is something forbidden by the MSX standard. The new version doesn't.
  • MEM.COM, an old tool (from 1996!) that lists the existing memory mapper slots and the allocated and free segments, gets also an update to work when the mapper support routines are installed via MSR.COM (by simply searching for the routines instead of checking the presence of MSX-DOS 2).
  • Last but not least, the ObsoNET BIOS gets a small update that fixes a stack management bug that caused crashes when using external memory mappers.

Relevant link: Konamiman's MSX page
Relevant link: MSX UNAPI repository in GitHub

Comments (11)

By konamiman

Paragon (1198)

konamiman's picture

24-06-2019, 22:34

Fun fact: MSR.COM implements the mapper support routines by directly stealing the code for these from the sources of Nextor Cool

By Manuel

Ascended (19469)

Manuel's picture

24-06-2019, 23:51

konamiman: it would be surprising if it wouldn't have!

Great job with these great updates!

By sd_snatcher

Prophet (3659)

sd_snatcher's picture

25-06-2019, 00:34

Thank you again for all your dedication, konamiman! Smile

By Grauw

Ascended (10771)

Grauw's picture

25-06-2019, 01:24

Nice, an alternative to MU.COM Smile. Also good that the ram helper doesn’t read mapper ports anymore. And everything else’s good too!

By edoz

Prophet (2482)

edoz's picture

25-06-2019, 09:02

Nice to read news post! And Lot of cool new features! Are you planning to do TLS on MSX?

By konamiman

Paragon (1198)

konamiman's picture

25-06-2019, 09:19

edoz wrote:

Are you planning to do TLS on MSX?

That's impossible without extra hardware, there's no way a Z80 can handle the required encryption algorithms (yes, I tried a few years ago).

By edoz

Prophet (2482)

edoz's picture

25-06-2019, 15:27

konamiman wrote:

That's impossible without extra hardware, there's no way a Z80 can handle the required encryption algorithms (yes, I tried a few years ago).

Yes. I was wondering this as well. But you added the option in the specifications for future use in combination with hardware?

By konamiman

Paragon (1198)

konamiman's picture

25-06-2019, 17:16

edoz wrote:

But you added the option in the specifications for future use in combination with hardware?

Yes, that's exactly what I did. Some changes will be needed in existing applications to support TLS once there are implementations providing it, though.

By edoz

Prophet (2482)

edoz's picture

25-06-2019, 20:45

Thanks! Maybe handy for future use indeed! It is just cool that people are now starting to develop network tools on MSX. It is just funny to see that it happens now and not some years ago. I'm still working on my email program.. but it is more work and harder then i thought it was Wink You have to use real hardware all the time for proper testing. (And wireshark is your debug tool) But it is fun to do and i already learned a lot.

By karloch

Prophet (2159)

karloch's picture

25-06-2019, 22:37

Great work and great updates! I always wondered if the TLS support would be something that could be implemented with the help of the powerful FPGA that GR8NET uses.

By edoz

Prophet (2482)

edoz's picture

26-06-2019, 13:17

Yes.. Konamiman is the core master Wink

Adding it into GR8NET would be very nice as well