25 Jan
2004
25 Jan
'04
7:46 p.m.
My first attempt at the so-called killer poke on my
Commodore PET 2001-8 resulted in a 30% speed increase!
I used "POKE 59458,62"
No smoke, either!
Steve.
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25 Jan
25 Jan
8:53 p.m.
I used to use this all the time, years ago. It has something to do with
releasing the system from being locked to the video sync, so it causes
screen updates to occur much faster. A side effect is "sparkles" on the
scren when things are displayed (because both the CPU and video system are
referencing video memory at the same time)
Almost every program I wrote had this POKE at the beginning.
- Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-bounces(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces@classiccmp.org]
On Behalf Of steven
Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2004 8:47 PM
To: classic
Subject: Wow, the "killer POKE" works! (Commodore PET 2001-8)
My first attempt at the so-called killer poke on my Commodore PET 2001-8
resulted in a 30% speed increase!
I used "POKE 59458,62"
No smoke, either!
Steve.
__________________________________
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26 Jan
26 Jan
3:40 p.m.
New subject: Video "sparkles" (was: Wow, the "killer POKE" works!
A side effect
is "sparkles" on the
scren when things are displayed (because both the CPU and video system are
referencing video memory at the same time)
Hot Damn! I like sparkles. 
5:42 p.m.
New subject: Video "sparkles" (was: Wow, the "killer POKE" works!
i guess you could have dumped the flash had you synced your memory
accesses to the vertical interval? Or did you accidently kill a refresh
that was then updated when the code wrote an updated version?
Also if memory serves you could have swapped the page off visible,
copied it, and swapped it back and created quite a flash. lots of
opportunity for mischief.
Jim
Fred Cisin wrote:
how can that be (grumpy?)
Jim
Hot Damn! I
like sparkles.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com
8:09 p.m.
New subject: Video "sparkles" (was: Wow, the "killer POKE" works!
On Mon, 26 Jan 2004, jim wrote:
how can that be (grumpy?)
Somebody else wrote the desire for sparkles.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com
i guess you could have dumped the flash had you synced
your memory
accesses to the vertical interval?
Absolutely! I could have (and have done so for other programs).
But in this case,
1. I could not get the entire 4000 bytes in a single VBI
on the slower (4.77 MHz) machines.
2. I wanted absolute minimum resident size, since there was no
way to know ahead of time WHAT foreground programs would be run.
3. Once I told Sybex that it was the flash bulb, they were VERY
happy, since it provided a further visual confirmation that the
picture had been taken!
Also if memory serves you could have swapped the page
off visible,
copied it, and swapped it back and created quite a flash. lots of
opportunity for mischief.
At least one of the programs that they were trying to illustrate
was already messing with the RAM of other pages, so I thought that
it would be prudent to stand clear.
Hot Damn! I like sparkles.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com 
2:33 a.m.
On Sun, Jan 25, 2004 at 05:46:54PM -0800, steven wrote:
My first attempt at the so-called killer poke on my
Commodore PET 2001-8 resulted in a 30% speed increase!
I used "POKE 59458,62"
No smoke, either!
That's because it's a 2001-8. The old, TTL video PETs used that POKE
to, in effect, let BASIC "ignore" the vertical blanking interrupt. In
essence, the ROM routing for PRINT checks the VBI and only fiddles with
video memory when the beam is off. That's why directly manipulating
screen memory in machine language was always faster.
The problem came with _later_ models than yours. IIRC, the effect of
the "killer poke" was to change the direction of a bit in a PIA or VIA
from an input bit to an output bit. The consequence of
that is, with
one of the later models with a different video circuit, a totem-pole
transistor arrangement was permanently engaged and one of the transistors
was overdriven and smoked.
-ethan
--
Ethan Dicks, A-130-S Current South Pole Weather at 26-Jan-2004 08:20 Z
South Pole Station
PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -19.5 F (-28.6 C) Windchill -45.5 F (-43.1 C)
APO AP 96598 Wind 8.69 kts Grid 066 Barometer 688.9 mb (10293. ft)
Ethan.Dicks(a)amanda.spole.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html
12:38 p.m.
Ethan,
Are you really at the south pole?
Can I come and visit?
Steve.
--- Ethan Dicks <dickset(a)amanda.spole.gov> wrote:
On Sun, Jan 25, 2004 at 05:46:54PM -0800, steven
wrote:
http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html
__________________________________
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Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it!
http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/
My first attempt at the so-called killer poke on
my
Commodore PET 2001-8 resulted in a 30% speed
increase!
I used "POKE 59458,62"
No smoke, either!
That's because it's a 2001-8. The old, TTL video
PETs used that POKE
to, in effect, let BASIC "ignore" the vertical
blanking interrupt. In
essence, the ROM routing for PRINT checks the VBI
and only fiddles with
video memory when the beam is off. That's why
directly manipulating
screen memory in machine language was always faster.
The problem came with _later_ models than yours.
IIRC, the effect of
the "killer poke" was to change the direction of a
bit in a PIA or VIA
from an input bit to an output bit. The consequence
of that is, with
one of the later models with a different video
circuit, a totem-pole
transistor arrangement was permanently engaged and
one of the transistors
was overdriven and smoked.
-ethan
--
Ethan Dicks, A-130-S Current South Pole Weather
at 26-Jan-2004 08:20 Z
South Pole Station
PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -19.5 F (-28.6 C)
Windchill -45.5 F (-43.1 C)
APO AP 96598 Wind 8.69 kts Grid 066
Barometer 688.9 mb (10293. ft)
Ethan.Dicks(a)amanda.spole.gov
2 Feb
2 Feb
7:32 a.m.
On Mon, Jan 26, 2004 at 10:38:58AM -0800, steven wrote:
Ethan,
Are you really at the south pole?
Yes.
Can I come and visit?
If you have $25,000 you can book a tourist flight.
-ethan
--
Ethan Dicks, A-130-S Current South Pole Weather at 02-Feb-2004 13:30 Z
South Pole Station
PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -31.7 F (-35.4 C) Windchill -56.3 F (-49.1 C)
APO AP 96598 Wind 7.7 kts Grid 078 Barometer 687.8 mb (10333. ft)
Ethan.Dicks(a)amanda.spole.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html
8:23 a.m.
Ethan Dicks wrote:
On Mon, Jan 26, 2004 at 10:38:58AM -0800, steven
wrote:
If you plan on flying your own plane, be sure to pack enough fuel for
the return flight.
--jc
Ethan,
Are you really at the south pole?
Yes.
Can I come and visit?
If you have $25,000 you can book a tourist flight.
-ethan
9:41 a.m.
New subject: Southpole (was Re: Wow, the "killer POKE" works! (Commodore PET 2001-8))
On Mon, 2 Feb 2004, J.C. Wren wrote:
Ethan Dicks wrote:
And bring along an extra passenger or two for food in case you go down in
the middle of nowhere.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
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On Mon, Jan 26, 2004 at 10:38:58AM -0800, steven
wrote:
If you plan on flying your own plane, be sure to pack enough fuel for
the return flight. Ethan,
Are you really at the south pole?
Yes.
Can I come and visit?
If you have $25,000 you can book a tourist flight.
-ethan
9:54 a.m.
New subject: Southpole (was Re: Wow, the "killer POKE" works! (Commodore PET 2001-8))
On Mon, 2 Feb 2004, Vintage Computer Festival wrote:
And bring along an extra passenger or two for food in case you go down in
the middle of nowhere.
Like I80 between Auburn and Truckee, for example. At least you could get
a pass named after you...
;}
Cheers
John
10:23 a.m.
New subject: Southpole (was Re: Wow, the "killer POKE" works! (Commodore PET 2001-8))
On Mon, 2 Feb 2004, John Lawson wrote:
Frankly, I think they should've named that spot "Dumbshit Pass".
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
And bring
along an extra passenger or two for food in case you go down in
the middle of nowhere.
Like I80 between Auburn and Truckee, for example. At least you could get
a pass named after you...
10:06 a.m.
New subject: Southpole (was Re: Wow, the "killer POKE" works! (Commodore PET 2001-8))
Vintage Computer Festival wrote:
On Mon, 2 Feb 2004, J.C. Wren wrote:
"Donner, party of 150 now boarding! Excuse me? Yes sir, your special
meals request was loaded earlier."
--jc
Ethan Dicks wrote:
And bring along an extra passenger or two for food in case you go down in
the middle of nowhere.
On Mon, Jan 26, 2004 at 10:38:58AM -0800, steven
wrote:
If you plan on flying your own plane, be sure to pack enough fuel for
the return flight.
Ethan,
Are you really at the south pole?
Yes.
Can I come and visit?
If you have $25,000 you can book a tourist flight.
-ethan
10:24 a.m.
New subject: Southpole (was Re: Wow, the "killer POKE" works! (Commodore PET 2001-8))
On Mon, 2 Feb 2004, J.C. Wren wrote:
"Donner, party of 150 now boarding! Excuse me? Yes sir, your special
meals request was loaded earlier."
...in seat 3A.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
If you plan on flying your own plane, be sure to pack
enough fuel for
the return flight.
And bring along an extra passenger or two for food in case you go down in
the middle of nowhere.
7635
days inactive
7643
days old
14 comments
9 participants
participants (9)
-
bob_lafleur＠technologist.com -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
dickset＠amanda.spole.gov -
ernestls＠attbi.com -
jcwren＠jcwren.com -
jpl15＠panix.com -
jwstephens＠msm.umr.edu -
tosteve＠yahoo.com -
vcf＠siconic.com