AMSDOS uses two memory blocks. The first is always at BE40h..BE7Fh (on the 464 this region was used as Stack). The second is allocated from User RAM, typically located at A700h..ABFFh (unless other expansion ROMs with higher ROM bank number have already allocated RAM at that locations).
AMSDOS RAM 1 (always at BE40h..BE7Fh)
BE40 2 Pointer to CP/M DPH for Drive A and drive B (A910h) (CPM:AE58h) (see below) BE42 2 Pointer to XPDB for Drive A and drive B (A890h) (CPM:ADD8h) BE44 2 Delay for Motor Spin-up in 1/50 seconds (0032h) BE46 2 Delay for Motor Spin-down in 1/50 seconds (00FAh) BE48 1 Delay for Formatting in whatever units (AFh) BE49 1 Delay for whatever in milliseconds (0Fh) BE4A 1 Delay for Track-Settle in milliseconds (0Ch) BE4B 1 Number of bytes received in Result Phase BE4C 7 Response from FDC in Result Phase BE53 1 Drive HS/US BE54 1 Track BE55 1 Record BE56 1 Drive HS/US BE57 1 Track BE58 1 Sector BE59 1 Number of Records per Track? or (Blockmask+1)? BE5A 1 Drive HS/US BE5B 1 Track BE5C 1 Record BE5D 1 ? BE5E 1 Flag Read/Write Sector BE5F 1 Flag On/Off Motor BE60 2 Pointer to 128-byte Directory Record I/O Buffer (A930h) (CPM:0080h) BE62 2 Pointer to 512-byte Sector I/O Buffer (A9B0h) (CPM:AEF8h) BE64 2 Stack...Temporary...? (BFxxh) BE66 1 Number of retries (10h) BE67 6 Ticker Block (Chain,Count,Reload) BE6D 7 Event Block (Chain,Count,Class,Proc,Bank) BE74 1 Desired Track or Sector Number BE75 1 FDC Command Number BE76 2 Pointer to 512-byte Sector I/O Buffer (A9B0h) (CPM:AEF8h) BE78 1 Flag Enable/Disable Error Messages BE79 1 Reserved, CPC+: 00h=Normal, FFh=Enable Keyboard Scanning during I/O BE7A 1 Reserved, CPC+: 00h=No Disc (464+), FFh=Disc (6128+) BE7B 2 Reserved BE7D 2 Pointer to Memory Pool (A700h) (CPM:N/A) BE7F 1 Hook (C9h)
AMSDOS RAM 2 (usually at A6FCh..ABFFh)
A6FC 4 AMSDOS RSX Block (Next block, AMSDOS ROM bank) (0000h,0007h) A700 1 Default Drive (00h or 01h) A701 1 Default User (00h and up) A702 1 Active Drive (00h or 01h) A703 2 Pointer to DPH for Active Drive (A910h or A920h) A705 1 Flag if OPEN on Default Drive A706 2 Stackpointer A708 36 Extended File Control Block for OPENIN A72C 36 Extended File Control Block for OPENOUT A750 74 File Header for OPENIN A79A 74 File Header for OPENOUT A7E4 128 Temporary Record & Filename Buffer A864 39 Original CAS_Function Vectors (13 x 3 bytes) A88B 3 FAR Address for RST4 in patched CAS_vectors A88E 2 ? A890 64 Extended Disk Parameter Block Drive A A8D0 64 Extended Disk Parameter Block Drive B A910 16 Disk Parameter Header Drive A A920 16 Disk Parameter Header Drive B A930 128 Record Buffer for Directory Records A9B0 512 Sector Buffer ABB0 80 Reserved
Extended File Control Block (FCB) for OPENIN/OPENOUT
00h 1 Drive Number (00h=A, 01h=B, FFh=Not Open) 01h 1 User Number 02h 8 Filename (padded with 20h) 0Ah 3 Extension (padded with 20h) 0Dh 1 Extent Number (00h=First directory entry of file) 0Eh 2 Zero 10h 1 Number of Records in current Extent 11h 16 Block Numbers for current Extent 21h 3 Number of previously accessed Records
File Header for OPENIN/OPENOUT
00h 1 Access Mode (1=CHAR, 2=DIRECT) 01h 2 Pointer to 2K work buffer 03h 2 Pointer to current CHAR in 2K work buffer 05h 16 User Number and Filename (padded with 00h) 15h 1 Block Number (whatever, can be zero) 16h 1 Last Block (whatever, can be zero) 17h 1 File Type (00h=Basic, 01h=EncryptedBasic, 02h=Binary) 18h 2 Data Length (whatever, can be zero) 1Ah 2 Load Address in memory 1Ch 1 First Block FFh 1Dh 2 Filesize (excluding the 80h-byte header) 1Fh 2 Entrypoint (for executable binary files) 21h 36 Unused (free for user?) (parts are used for OPENOUT) 45h 3 24bit Filepos in CHARs, or 16bit Filesize if non-ASCII file 48h 2 Checksum accross [05h..47h]
Disk Parameter Header (DPH) for Drive A/B
00h 2 XLT Skew Factor Translation (physical-to-logical sector) (not used) 02h 2 TRACK Current Track (misused as DIRNUM by AMSDOS) 04h 2 SECTOR Current Sector 06h 2 DIRNUM Current Directory Number 08h 2 DIRBUF Pointer to Directory Buffer (A930h) 0Ah 2 DPB Pointer to DPB/XDPB (A890h/A8D0h for Drive A/B) Drive Param Block 0Ch 2 CSV Pointer to CSA (A8A9h/A8E9h for Drive A/B) Checksums 0Eh 2 ALV Pointer to ALT (A8B9h/A8F9h for Drive A/B) Allocation Table
Extended Disk Parameter Block (XDPB,CSA,ALT) for Drive A/B
00h 2 SPT Records per Track (CPM/Data=36, IBM=32) 02h 1 BSH Block Shift (3) (records per block = 1 SHL N) 03h 1 BLM Block Mask (7) (records per block minus 1) 04h 1 EXM Extend Mask (0) 05h 2 DSM Max Block Number (CPM=170, Data=179, IBM=155) 07h 2 DRM Max Dir Entries-1 (63) 09h 2 AL Directory Allocation Table (11000000b,00000000b = Block 0,1) 0Bh 2 CKS Check Area Size (Size of the "CSA" field) (0010h) 0Dh 2 OFF Track Offset (Size of Bootstrap) (CPM=2, Data=0, IBM=1) 0Fh 1 FSC First Sector on Track (CPM=41h, Data=C1h, IBM=01h) 10h 1 PST Physical Sectors per Track (CPM/Data=9, IBM=8) 11h 1 GPS GAP3 for Sector Read/Write (2Ah) 12h 1 GPT GAP3 for Track Formatting (52h) 13h 1 FLB Fillbyte for Track Formatting (E5h) 14h 1 BPS Bytes per Sector (2=512) (80h SHL N, Shift amount or so?) 15h 1 RPS Records per Sector (4) 16h 1 Current Track 17h 1 Recalibrate Track 0 Flag 18h 1 Flag Login on any access ? (re-detect CPM/Data format?) 19h 16 CSA Checksums (directory record chksums, for sensing disk-changes) 29h 23 ALT Block Allocation Table (23x8bit = 184bit) (only 180bit used)
Finding the XDPB for a drive
The 2 byte pointer at &BE40 points to a list of DPH structures, 1 per drive, listed in order. In most AMSTRAD dos there is space for 2 only.
To get the XDPB for a drive (this works on VDOS, X-DDOS, AMSDOS and ParaDOS:
;; A = drive ld l,a ld h,0 add hl,hl add hl,hl add hl,hl add hl,hl ld de,(&be40) add hl,de ld de,&A add hl,de ld a,(hl) inc hl ld h,(hl) ld l,a ;; HL = address of XDPB
On VDOS, to access the XDPB for the 3rd drive, you need to use |S,1:|A and then read it.
On Dobbertin HD and Vortex HD you can't get the XDPB for the hard disc partitions using the above code.