Virtual Machines and CPU emulation - update.

The prior architecture of my emulator has not been easy to expand.
I decided to improve it a bit by adding a new abstraction layer.
To demonstrate it I also added basic graphics raster device to the system.

In microprocessor based systems in majority of cases communication with
peripheral devices is done via registers which in turn are located under
specific memory addresses.
Programming API responsible for modeling this functionality is implemented
in Memory and MemMapDev classes. The Memory class implements access to
specific memory locations and maintains the memory image.
The MemMapDev class implements specific device address spaces and handling
methods that are triggered when addresses of the device are accessed by the
microprocessor.
Programmers can expand the functionality of this emulator by adding necessary
code emulating specific devices in MemMapDev and Memory classes implementation and header files.

In current version, two basic devices are implemented:

- character I/O and 
- raster (pixel based) graphics display. 

Character I/O device uses 2 memory locations, one for non-blocking I/O
and one for blocking I/O. Writing to location causes character output, while
reading from location waits for character input (blocking mode) or reads the
character from keyboard buffer if available (non-blocking mode).
The graphics display can be accessed by writing to multiple memory locations.

If we assume that GRDEVBASE is the base address of the Graphics Device, there are following registers:

Offset   Register               Description
------------------------------------------------------------------------------    
 0       GRAPHDEVREG_X_LO       Least significant part of pixel's X (column)
                                coordinate or begin of line coord. (0-255)
 1       GRAPHDEVREG_X_HI       Most significant part of pixel's X (column)
                                coordinate or begin of line coord. (0-1)                                      
 2       GRAPHDEVREG_Y          Pixel's Y (row) coordinate (0-199)
 3       GRAPHDEVREG_PXCOL_R    Pixel's RGB color component - Red (0-255)
 4       GRAPHDEVREG_PXCOL_G    Pixel's RGB color component - Green (0-255)
 5       GRAPHDEVREG_PXCOL_B    Pixel's RGB color component - Blue (0-255)
 6       GRAPHDEVREG_BGCOL_R    Background RGB color component - Red (0-255)
 7       GRAPHDEVREG_BGCOL_G    Background RGB color component - Green (0-255)
 8       GRAPHDEVREG_BGCOL_B    Background RGB color component - Blue (0-255)
 9       GRAPHDEVREG_CMD        Command code
10       GRAPHDEVREG_X2_LO      Least significant part of end of line's X
                                coordinate
11       GRAPHDEVREG_X2_HI      Most significant part of end of line's X
                                coordinate                                
12       GRAPHDEVREG_Y2         End of line's Y (row) coordinate (0-199)

Writing values to above memory locations when Graphics Device is enabled
allows to set the corresponding parameters of the device, while writing to
command register executes corresponding command (performs action) per codes listed below:

Command code                    Command description
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GRAPHDEVCMD_CLRSCR = 0          Clear screen
GRAPHDEVCMD_SETPXL = 1          Set the pixel location to pixel color
GRAPHDEVCMD_CLRPXL = 2          Clear the pixel location (set to bg color)
GRAPHDEVCMD_SETBGC = 3          Set the background color
GRAPHDEVCMD_SETFGC = 4          Set the foreground (pixel) color
GRAPHDEVCMD_DRAWLN = 5          Draw line
GRAPHDEVCMD_ERASLN = 6          Erase line

Reading from registers has no effect (returns 0).

Above method of interfacing GD requires no dedicated graphics memory space
in VM's RAM. It is also simple to implement.
The downside - slow performance (multiple memory writes to select/unselect 
a pixel or set color).
I plan to add graphics frame buffer in the VM's RAM address space in future
release.

Simple demo program written in EhBasic that shows how to drive the graphics
screen is included. Please check the newest update in my github repository.

I added a User Manual and Programmers Reference document to the project that describes in more detail the architecture of the emulator and how programmer can expand upon it.

After you built the code, start DOS prompt in the program's directory and type:

vm65 ehbas_grdemo.snap

Re-focus on DOS window and in Debug Console prompt enter:

x ffc3

then press ENTER and then type:

RUN

and press ENTER.

Enjoy!

M.K.
8/10/2016