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Virtual screens

A project log for Homebrew CP/M-computer powered by Arduino Nano

Homebrew computer under CP/M with TV Out and PS/2 keyboard powered by Arduino Nano

alexey-voroninAlexey Voronin 11/13/2019 at 22:180 Comments

I overcame the limitation of the physical resolution of the video output of my "nanocomputer" (45 columns) in the style of the Osborne 1 portable microcomputer - using two virtual screens.
The contents of the current virtual screen are stored in video memory (microcontroller RAM), and the contents of another virtual screen are stored in the main memory (I2C chips).
Screens are located horizontally, the resolution of the virtual screen is 40 columns and 19 lines + 1 status line:


Thus, virtual screens emulate a physical screen with 80 columns (Osborne emulated a physical screen with 128 columns through overlapping virtual screens with a width of 56 columns).
Switching modes (physical screen / virtual screens) is carried out from the monitor program.
Switching between virtual screens is done by the CTRL-O key combination.
Example:
left virtual screen


right virtual screen

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