Talk:Commodore 1540

This article is rated Stub-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Computing

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Computing, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of computers, computing, and information technology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ComputingWikipedia:WikiProject ComputingTemplate:WikiProject ComputingComputing articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by Computer hardware task force.
	This article has been automatically rated by a bot or other tool as Stub-class because it uses a stub template. Please ensure the assessment is correct before removing the `\|auto=` parameter.

Origin of the name?[edit]

How did the C-1540 come up with its name? The last two digits make it sound suspiciously similar to the 4040. What does the number '15' represent? 216.99.201.230 (talk) 06:18, 6 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The number "15" relates to the TALK/LISTEN protocol inherent in communicating with it. To pass commands over to the disk drive, it was necessary to pass a command through channel 15 so it could be acted on by the drive alone, without further supervision from the "host" computer.

For instance, the following BASIC program lets you format a diskette that has been inserted into the disk drive:

100 OPEN 15,8,15

110 PRINT#15,"N0:FORMATTING COMMAND,AB"

120 IF ST<64 THEN 120

130 IF ST>64 THEN GOTO 200

140 CLOSE 15

150 END

160

200 REM (put error handler here)

If you are familiar with the TALK/LISTEN protocol, a similar sequence is involved in assembly language, e.g.,

LDA #$08 ; device 8

JSR TALK

BIT $90 ; examine status flags stored in page zero

BMI ERROR_HANDLER

LDA #$0f ; secondary address 15

JSR TKSA

BIT $90

BMI ERROR_Handler

and so on. Pretty much ordinary, nothing too special once you get the hang of it.

All of the disk drives in the 15xx series use channel 15 for the channel you pass commands to it.

However, most people note a similarity with the Commodore 4040, which has a more extensive BASIC command set for managing ordinary disk operations. Dexter Nextnumber (talk) 02:37, 12 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]