APT PBI BIOS v.1.0 and SDX 4.46 for Incognito Background ========== As well as a PBI BIOS for Ultimate 1MB, in 2012 Sebastian Bartkowicz (Candle) asked me if I would write PBI code for the then work-in-progress Incognito board for the Atari 800. It was an honour to be involved in this exciting project, and I developed the PBI BIOS in parallel to the Ultimate version. The first version of the Incognito BIOS apparently has the rare distinction of working the first time it was tested on real hardware (it was coded "blind", since I had no prototype board and no way to emulate it). As the Ultimate PBI BIOS gained functionality, so did the Incognito BIOS, and since the two hardware platforms are so similar, I eventually found it expedient to merge both projects into a common trunk, with minor differences handled by conditional assembly in MADS. Since the BIOSes consist of nearly 4,000 lines of assembler, this really saved time as things became more complex. The end result is a consistent user experience and the ability to swap media easily between SIDE, Ultimate, and Incognito - something which would not be possible without APT standardisation across all three interfaces. The new v.1.0 BIOS provides great improvements across the board, in terms of ATR and software compatibility, efficiency, reliability and functionality. Thanks to testing data and samples provided by Marius Diepenhorst (ProWizard), many more bootable ATRs now work with the PBI BIOS than did with previous versions. Full compatibility with SpartaDOS 3.x, RealDOS and MyDOS is now also assured. Owing to bug-fixes and improvements in PBI BIOS v.1.0, it should be considered a required update. There are two ways to update the PBI BIOS in your Incognito. You can use the 12KB ROM image for use with uflash, or the stand-alone upgrade utility. Both are included in the ZIP. To complement the PBI BIOS update, a customised SpartaDOS X 4.46 ROM is also provided. As well as having all the APT tools on the CAR: device (including FDISK, MATR, APTDISK, MOUNT, etc), the uflash Ultimate/Incognito ROM flashing tool can also be run direct from CAR:. In addition, the SDX ROM automatically installs the COLLEEN.SYS driver for SIDE hardware when Incognito is run in 800 (Colleen) mode. To install the PBI ROM, either run the XEX installer or flash the ROM with uflash. To install SDX, run the ATR installer or flash the ROM using uflash. You may download uflash here. Documentation ============= The APT Toolkit user guide may be downloaded from the APT documentation page (http://atari8.co.uk/apt/docs/index.html). The BIOS documentation may be downloaded via the link below: PBI BIOS v.1.0 for Ultimate and Incognitio Donations ========= It should be remembered that while I have been privileged to be involved in the Ultimate, Incognito and SIDE projects, I enjoy no licensing arrangements with the OEMs of the hardware. Development, bug fixes, and other work essential to maintaining the usefulness of SIDE, Ultimate and Incognito are thereby undertaken gratis, and I would therefore ask that users of the firmware, drivers and partitioning tools consider making a donation via the "Donate" button on these pages. Not only does a donation assist with my equipment and web hosting overheads, but it helps justify the very large investment of time required to enable users of Ultimate, Incognito and SIDE to exploit the hardware to its fullest potential. In addition, donations encourage me to continue offering personalised technical support via email, in addition to the general support I also provide on the AtariAge forums. Thank you! Copyright (c)2009-2014 atari8.co.uk. In no way affiliated with Atari Interactive.