I made a PCB layout from EasyEDA (using the autorouter). I decided not to breadboard the entire circuit as it would be quite tedious to do so, wouldn't fit on my small breadboard, and the design looked stable and had been verified by others, so I opted to move directly to a PCB layout.
Genius g540 free#
Then I got the 6809 to free run by forcing all the data lines all low. I breadboarded the CPU, clock, and reset circuit on a solderless breadboard. I found and fixed a small typo that might have affected the PRINT USING command. I took the BASIC firmware and got it to build under Linux using the as09 cross-assembler with no warnings. You can find online copies of books on the Colour Computer and its version of BASIC. Apparently this was the last version of Microsoft BASIC that Bill Gates personally worked on. Extended Color Computer BASIC has some additional commands that are useful like RENUMber, additional math functions, PRINT USING, TRON/TROFF and even EDIT to support editing program lines. available memory i available from the variable MEM rather than a function FRE(). Pretty typical of Microsoft BASIC of the era, it has a few quirks, e.g. graphics, sound, cassette tape i/o) were removed.
Genius g540 code#
In Grant Searle's port, all code and commands that were not applicable (e.g. A disassembly of it was published in two books. The provided BASIC is a port of Microsoft Extended BASIC for the 6809-based Radio Shack Color Computer. It is powered by USB (taking about 230 mA of current) and you communicate with it using a terminal emulator.
Genius g540 serial#
The system can plug into a computer's USB port where it shows up as a serial port.