Turbo MMC: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 16:46, 1 September 2025

Background

Turbo MMC is a modern solid-state storage solution for the BBC Micro Model B, B+, and Master. It emulates a DFS environment using an MMC/SD card, allowing access to hundreds of virtual floppy disks without the need for original drives and media.

OldSkoolCoder reviewing BBC Micro MMC

Running Software

Once Turbo MMC is active, you can launch the games menu with:

*DBOOT 0

(or use the shorthand *DB.0).

Not all games work perfectly across all BBC models (for example, Alien Dropout has issues on the BBC Master).

Disk 2 contains a small number of games and demonstration programs. You can run these in two ways:

Use *DBOOT 2 – this inserts disk 2 into drive 0 and automatically boots it.
Or use *DIN 2 followed by CHAIN "MENU"

The first method is faster, while the second gives you manual control.

Accessing Disks and Files

Turbo MMC provides four logical drives (0–3). Up to 511 virtual disks can be stored on the card. You “insert” a disk into a drive with *DIN.

Example – insert disk 300 into drive 0 and list its contents:

*DRIVE 0
*DIN 300
*CAT

Think of the MMC card as a box of hundreds of DFS floppy disks – you must insert the one you want before accessing it.

Example: Utilities on Disk 300

Disk 300 includes sideways ROM images: BUTIL, AXR, and MXR.

BUTIL – BASIC utility ROM toolkit
AXR – Assembler Extension ROM
MXR – Maths ROM

Manuals for these are provided with Turbo MMC distributions, and the ROMs remain © IFEL.

Other included tools:

RFS – formats programs for the ROM Filing System (see RFS.pdf)
RLOAD – loads sideways ROM images into sockets. Syntax:

*RLOAD <image> <ROM socket in hex> (Q)

Example:

*RLOAD BUTIL B Q

Loads BUTIL into socket B (11 in decimal). The Q parameter speeds loading by using main memory as a buffer, but corrupts RAM in the process.

Formatting and Copying

Example: format and use a new disk (312 in drive 2):

*DRIVE 2
*DIN 312
*DFORM 312
*DIN 312
*CAT

Assigning a title:

*TITLE MYDATA

Copying files:

*COPY 0 2 RLOAD (copies RLOAD from drive 0 to drive 2) *COPY 0 2 *.* (copies all files from drive 0 to drive 2)

Resetting the BBC Micro

A quick reset command (equivalent to power cycling):

?&FE4E=127

or

*FX 151 78 127

Press BREAK afterwards. On a Master with MOS 3.50 this also clears sideways RAM.

The !BOOT File

Disks may contain a special !BOOT file, which runs commands automatically.

Run manually:

*EXEC !BOOT

If it needs to be executed:

*/!BOOT
*RUN !BOOT

If configured, holding SHIFT at power-on auto-executes !BOOT from disk 0, usually displaying a menu.

Useful References

DUTILS.pdf – details MMC utilities and commands
Manuals for BUTIL, AXR, and MXR ROMs
RFS.pdf – using the ROM Filing System formatter

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+== Background ==
+Turbo MMC is a modern solid-state storage solution for the BBC Micro Model B, B+, and Master. It emulates a DFS environment using an MMC/SD card, allowing access to hundreds of virtual floppy disks without the need for original drives and media.
-=OLD VERSION=
-Modern solid-state storage solutions for the [[BBC Micro]] Model B, B+, and Master.
 <youtube description="OldSkoolCoder reviewing BBC Micro MMC">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBwWylnRbSA</youtube>
-Available to purchase from ctorwy31's eBay store [https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Acorn-BBC-Micro-B-Master-128-MMC-solid-state-disk-drive-The-No-1-Beeb-storage/223499741111 here].
+== Running Software ==
+Once Turbo MMC is active, you can launch the games menu with:
-'''Running software'''
+<code>*DBOOT 0</code>
-Once the MMC system is active you can run the games menu by entering;
+(or use the shorthand <code>*DB.0</code>).
-<code>*DBOOT 0</code> (or <code>*DB.0</code> should work)
+Not all games work perfectly across all BBC models (for example, ''Alien Dropout'' has issues on the BBC Master).
-There is no guarantee that all the games will work on all machines. Alien Dropout, for instance, does not work properly on a BBC Master.
+Disk 2 contains a small number of games and demonstration programs. You can run these in two ways:
-Disk number 2 contains a small number of games or demonstration programs. You can run these using any of the following:
-<code>*DBOOT 2</code>
+* Use <code>*DBOOT 2</code> – this inserts disk 2 into drive 0 and automatically boots it.
+* Or use <code>*DIN 2</code> followed by <code>CHAIN "MENU"</code>
-<code>*DIN 2</code> followed by <code>CHAIN “MENU”</code>
+The first method is faster, while the second gives you manual control.
-'''Accessing individual disks and files'''
+== Accessing Disks and Files ==
+Turbo MMC provides four logical drives (0–3). Up to 511 virtual disks can be stored on the card. You “insert” a disk into a drive with <code>*DIN</code>.
-What follows now is a brief guide to some of the basics. The MMC filing systems is effectively a DFS environment rather than ADFS. There are four drives available numbered 0 to 3. The MMC card will contain up to 511 disks which are inserted into the currently selected drive using the *DIN command. It may help to think of the MMC card as being a box containing (typically) several hundred 80-track single sided disks. Just like the 5.25" drives of old, you need to ‘insert’ disks in order to use them. Of course, this is done with a software command rather than fumbling about in a box of diskettes. For example, disk 4 has been loaded with a few utilities and you can access them like this:
+Example – insert disk 300 into drive 0 and list its contents:
-<code>*DRIVE 0</code>
+<pre>
+*DRIVE 0
+*DIN 300
+*CAT
+</pre>
-<code>*DIN 300</code>
+Think of the MMC card as a box of hundreds of DFS floppy disks – you must insert the one you want before accessing it.
-<code>*CAT</code>
+== Example: Utilities on Disk 300 ==
+Disk 300 includes sideways ROM images: '''BUTIL''', '''AXR''', and '''MXR'''.
-What this does is select drive 0, insert disk 300 and then show the filenames on that disc. Many * commands can be abbreviated, but we will use the full commands here for clarity. Three of the files shown are sideways ROM images. These are BUTIL, AXR, and MXR.
+* '''BUTIL''' – BASIC utility ROM toolkit
+* '''AXR''' – Assembler Extension ROM
+* '''MXR''' – Maths ROM
-Very briefly, BUTIL is a general purpose BASIC ‘toolkit’ ROM. The AXR is the Assembler Extension ROM and the MXR is a Maths ROM. The full manuals for these products are included on the CD. The AXR and MXR are perhaps a bit specialised but we believe that you will find B-Utility quite handy. The three ROM images and their respective manuals remain the copyright of © IFEL.
+Manuals for these are provided with Turbo MMC distributions, and the ROMs remain © IFEL.
-RFS is a machine code program to format programs for the ROM filing system. See the RFS.pdf document for a full explanation of how to use it.
+Other included tools:
-RLOAD is a small program which can be used to load sideways ROM images into any chosen socket, The syntax is:
+* '''RFS''' – formats programs for the ROM Filing System (see RFS.pdf)
+* '''RLOAD''' – loads sideways ROM images into sockets. Syntax:
-<code>*RLOAD <image name> <ROM socket in hex> (Q)</code>
+<code>*RLOAD &lt;image&gt; &lt;ROM socket in hex&gt; (Q)</code>
-The Q (Quick) parameter is optional. When Q is included then loading will be much faster but the main memory will become corrupted because it is used as a buffer. Leave off the Q if you don’t want this to happen. For instance
+Example:
 <code>*RLOAD BUTIL B Q</code>
-will attempt to load the file BUTIL into socket number 11 (hex B) and will use main memory as a buffer to speed the process up.
+Loads BUTIL into socket B (11 in decimal). The Q parameter speeds loading by using main memory as a buffer, but corrupts RAM in the process.
-Returning to the basics of the MMC, you could try the following;
-<code>*DRIVE 2</code>
-<code>*DIN 312</code>
-You will almost certainly get an error message saying that the disk is not formatted. To remedy this just enter:
-<code>*DFORM 312</code>
-<code>*DIN 312</code>
+== Formatting and Copying ==
+Example: format and use a new disk (312 in drive 2):
-<code>*CAT</code> will now show a newly formatted disk but with no files on it. Remember that this is disk number 312 in drive 2.
+<pre>
+*DRIVE 2
+*DIN 312
+*DFORM 312
+*DIN 312
+*CAT
+</pre>
-As with DFS, you can give disks titles. For instance:
+Assigning a title:
 <code>*TITLE MYDATA</code>
-You will see this title when you catalogue the disk (*. is an abbreviation for *CAT)
+Copying files:
-The currently selected drive is 2 and contains a blank, newly formatted disk 312. Drive 0 still contains disk number 300. One of the files on drive 0 is RLOAD. To copy this to disk 312 in drive 2 you could use:
-<code>*COPY 0 2 RLOAD</code>
+<code>*COPY 0 2 RLOAD</code>      (copies RLOAD from drive 0 to drive 2)
+<code>*COPY 0 2 *.*</code>        (copies all files from drive 0 to drive 2)
-is the source drive, 2 the destination drive and RLOAD is the file to copy
+== Resetting the BBC Micro ==
+A quick reset command (equivalent to power cycling):
-<code>*COPY 0 2 *.*</code>
+<code>?&amp;FE4E=127</code>
-copies all files on drive 0 to drive 2.
+or
-A useful hint, nothing specifically to do with the MMC card, is that typing:
+<code>*FX 151 78 127</code>
-<code>?&FE4E=127</code> (or use <code>*FX 151 78 127</code>)
+Press BREAK afterwards. On a Master with MOS 3.50 this also clears sideways RAM.
-then pressing Break is almost equivalent to turning the machine off and then back on again. It is a handy way of performing a fairly drastic reset and you will lose the contents of main memory. In the Master with MOS 3.50 it will even clear the sideways RAM contents too.
+== The !BOOT File ==
+Disks may contain a special '''!BOOT''' file, which runs commands automatically.
-'''!BOOT'''
+* Run manually:
-A special file may exist on the disk called !BOOT. Often this file contains various lines, each of which is a command of some sort. Such files can usually be dropped into some kind of text editor (eg Wordwise) or you can even use *TYPE !BOOT to see what the file contains. It is possible to execute the commands in the !BOOT file by entering:
 <code>*EXEC !BOOT</code>
-Sometimes the !BOOT file needs to be *RUN in which case:
+* If it needs to be executed:
-<code>*/!BOOT</code> or <code>*RUN !BOOT</code>
-can be used.
+<pre>
+*/!BOOT
+*RUN !BOOT
+</pre>
-Certain MMC cards may have a suitable !BOOT file placed on disk 0. If your machine is configured to power up with the MMC system as the default filing system, then switching on the computer with the SHIFT key held down should cause the !BOOT file to be run automatically. Often this will bring up a menu of options within a second or two.
+If configured, holding SHIFT at power-on auto-executes !BOOT from disk 0, usually displaying a menu.
-Some further details on the various commands can be found in the DUTILS.pdf file.
+== Useful References ==
+* DUTILS.pdf – details MMC utilities and commands
+* Manuals for BUTIL, AXR, and MXR ROMs
+* RFS.pdf – using the ROM Filing System formatter