The following memory maps provide a guide which shows which special locations are set
aside for use by the VlC's operating system . . . and what those locations are used for.
* Useful memory location HEX DECIMAL DESCRIPTION 0000 0 Jump for USR 0001-0002 1-2 Vector
for USR 0003-0004 3-4 Float-Fixed vector 0005-0006 5-6 Fixed-Float vector 0007 7 Search
character 0008 8 Scan-quotes flag 0009 9 TAB column save 000A 10 0=LOAD, 1=VERIFY 000B 11
Input buffer pointer/# subscript 000C 12 Default DIM flag 000D 13 Type: FF=string,
00=numeric 000E 14 Type: 80=integer, 00=floating point 000F 15 DATA scan/LlST quote/memory
flag 0010 16 Subscript/FNx flag 0011 17 0 = INPUT;$40 = GET;$98 = READ 0012 18 ATN
sign/Comparison eval flag 0013 19 Current l/O prompt flag *0014-0015 20-21 Integer value
0016 22 Pointer: temporary string stack 0017-0018 23-24 Last temp string vector 0019-0021
25-33 Stack for temporary strings 0022-0025 34-37 Utility pointer area 0026-002A 38-42
Product area for multiplication *002B-002C 43-44 Pointer: Start of Basic *002D-002E 45-46
Pointer: Start of Variables *002F-0030 47-48 Pointer: Start of Arrays *0031-0032 49-50
Pointer: End of Arrays *0033-0034 51-52 Pointer: String storage (moving down) 0035-0036
53-54 Utility string pointer *0037-0038 55-56 Pointer: Limit of memory 0039-003A 57-58
Current Basic line number 003B-003C 59-60 Previous Basic line number 003D-003E 61-62
Pointer: Basic statement for CONT 003F-0040 63-64 Current DATA line number 0041-0042 65-66
Current DATA address *0043-0044 67-68 Input vector 0045-0046 69-70 Current variable name
0047-0048 71-72 Current variable address 0049-004A 73-74 Variable pointer for FOR/NEXT
004B-004C 75-76 Y-save; op-save; Basic pointer save 004D 77 Comparison symbol accumulator
004E-0053 78-83 Misc work area, pointers, etc 0054-0056 84-86 Jump vector for functions
0057-0060 87-96 Misc numeric work area *0061 97 Accum#1: Exponent *0062-0065 98-101
Accum#1: Mantissa *0066 102 Accum#1: Sign 0067 103 Series evaluation constant pointer 0068
104 Accum#1 hi-order (overflow) *0069-006E 105-110 Accum#2: Exponent, etc. 006F 111 Sign
comparison, Acc#1 vs #2 0070 112 Accum#1 lo-order (rounding) 0071-0072 113-114 Cassette
buffer length/Series pointer *0073-008A 115-138 CHRGET subroutine (get BASIC char)
007A-007B 122-123 Basic pointer (within subroutine) 008B-008F 139-143 RND seed value *0090
144 Status word ST 0091 145 Keyswitch PIA: STOP and RVS flags 0092 146 Timing constant for
tape 0093 147 Load=0, Verify=1 0094 148 Serial output: deferred char flag 0095 149 Serial
deferred character 0096 150 Tape EOT received 0097 151 Register save *0098 152 How many
open files *0099 153 Input device (normally 0) *009A 154 Output (CMD) device, normally 3
009B 155 Tape character parity 009C 156 Byte-received flag 009D 157 Direct=$80/RUN=0
output control 009E 158 Tape Pass 1 error log/char buffer 009F 159 Tape Pass 2 error log
corrected *00A0-00A2 160-162 Jiffy Clock (HML) 00A3 163 Serial bit count/EOI flag 00A4 164
Cycle count 00A5 165 Countdown, tape write/bit count 00A6 166 Pointer: tape buffer 00A7
167 Tape Write ldr count/Read pass/inbit 00A8 168 Tape Write new byte/Read error/inbit cnt
00A9 169 Write start bit/Read bit err/stbit 00AA 170 Tape Scan;Cnt;Ld;End/byte assy 00AB
171 Write lead length/Rd checksum/parity 00AC-00AD 172-173 Pointer: tape buffer, scrolling
00AE-00AF 174-175 Tape end addresses/End of program 00B0-00B1 176-177 Tape timing
constants *00B2-00B3 178-179 Pointer: start of tape buffer 00B4 180 Tape timer (1
=enable); bit cnt 00B5 181 Tape EOT/RS-232 next bit to send 00B6 182 Read character
error/outbyte buffer *00B7 183 # characters in file name *00B8 184 Current logical file
*00B9 185 Current secondary address *00BA 186 Current device *00BB-00BC 187-188 Pointer:
to file name 00BD 189 Write shift word/Read input char 00BE 190 # blocks remaining to
Write/Read 00BF 191 Serial word buffer 00C0 192 Tape motor interlock 00C1-00C2 193-194 I/O
start addresses 00C3-00C4 195-196 KERNAL setup pointer *00C5 197 Current key pressed *00C6
198 # chars in keyboard buffer *00C7 199 Screen reverse flag 00C8 200 Pointer: End-of-line
for input 00C9-00CA 201-202 Input cursor log (row, column) *00CB 203 Which key: 64 if no
key 00CC 204 cursor enable (0=flash cursor) 00CD 205 Cursor timing countdown 00CE 206
Character under cursor 00CF 207 Cursor in blink phase 00D0 208 Input from screen/from
keyboard *00D1-00D2 209-210 Pointer to screen line *00D3 211 Position of cursor on above
line 00D4 212 0=direct cursor, else programmed *00D5 213 Current screen line length *00D6
214 Row where cursor lives 00D7 215 Last inkey/checksum/buffer *00D8 216 # of INSERTs
outstanding *00D9-00F0 217-240 Screen line link table 00F1 241 Dummy screen link 00F2 242
Screen row marker *00F3-00F4 243-244 Screen color pointer 00F5-00F6 245-246 Keyboard
pointer 00F7-00F8 247-248 RS-232 Rcv pointer 00F9-00FA 249-250 RS-232 Tx pointer
*00FB-00FE 251-254 Operating system free zero page space 00FF 255 Basic storage 0100-010A
256-266 Floating to ASCII work area 0100-013E 256-318 Tape error log 0100-01FF 256-511
Processor stack area *0200-0258 512-600 Basic input buffer *0259-0262 601-610 Logical file
table *0263-026C 611-620 Device # table *026D-0276 621-630 Secondary Address table
*0277-0280 631-640 Keyboard buffer *0281-0282 641-642 Start of memory for op system
*0283-0284 643-644 Top of memory for op system 0285 645 Serial bus timeout flag *0286 646
Current color code 0287 647 Color under cursor *0288 648 Screen memory page *0289 649 Max
size of keyboard buffer *028A 650 Key repeat (128=repeat all keys) *028B 651 Repeat speed
counter 028C 652 Repeat delay counter *028D 653 Keyboard Shift/Control flag 028E 654 Last
keyboard shift pattern 028F-0290 655-656 Pointer: decode logic *0291 657 Shift mode switch
(0 = enabled, 128- locked) 0292 658 Autoscrolldownflag (0=on) 0293 659 RS-232 control
register 0294 660 RS-232 command register 0295-0296 661-662 Nonstandard (Bit time/2-100)
0297 663 RS-232 status register 0298 664 Number of bits to send 0299-029A 665-666 Baud
rate (full) bit time 029B 667 RS-232 receive pointer 029C 668 RS-232 input pointer 029D
669 RS-232 transmit pointer 029E 670 RS-232 output pointer 029F-02A0 671-672 Holds IRQ
during tape operations 02A1-02FF 673-767 Program indirects *0300-0301 768-769 Error
message link 0302-0303 770-771 Basic warm start link 0304-0305 772-773 Crunch Basic tokens
link 0306-0307 774-775 Print tokens link 0308-0309 776-777 Start new Basic code link
030A-030B 778-779 Get arithmetic element link 030C 780 Storage for 6502 .A register 030D
781 Storage for 6502 .X register 030E 782 Storage for 6502 .Y register 030F 783 Storage
for 6502 .P register 0310-0313 784-787 ?? 0314-0315 788-789 Hardware (IRQ) interrupt
vector (EABF) 0316-0317 790-791 Break interrupt vector (FED2) 0318-0319 792-793 NMI
interrupt vector (FEAD) 031A-031B 794-795 OPEN vector (F40A) 031C-031D 796-797 CLOSE
vector (F34A) 031E-031F 798-799 Set-input vector (F2C7) 0320-0321 800-801 Set-output
vector (F309) 0322-0323 802-803 Restore l/O vector (F3F3) 0324-0325 804-805 INPUT vector
(F20E) 0326-0327 806-807 Output vector (F27A) 0328-0329 808-809 Test-STOP vector (F770)
032A-032B 810-811 GET vector (F1F5) 032C-032D 812-813 Abort l/O vector (F3EF) 032E-032F
814-815 user vector (FED2) 0330-0331 816-817 Link to load RAM (F549) 0332-0333 818-819
Link to save RAM (F685) 0334-033B 820-827 ?? *003C-03FB 828-1019 Cassette buffer 0400-0FFF
1024-4095 3K expansion RAM area 1000-1DFF 4096-7679 User Basic area 1E00-1FFF 7680-8191
Screen memory 2000-3FFF 8192-16383 8K expansion RAM/ROM block 1 4000-5FFF 16384-24575 8K
expansion RAM/ROM block 2 6000-7FFF 24576-32767 8K expansion RAM/ROM block 3 NOTE: When
additional memory is added to block 1 (and 2 and 3), the KERNAL relocates the following
things for BASIC: 1000-11FF 4096-4607 Screen memory 1200-? 4608-? User Basic area
9400-95FF 37888-38399 Color RAM 8000-8FFF 32768-36863 4K Character generator ROM 8000-83FF
32768-33791 Upper case and graphics 8400-87FF 33792-33815 Reversed upper case and graphics
8800-8BFF 33816-35839 Upper and lower case 8C00-8FFF 35840-36863 Reversed upper and lower
case 9000-93FF 36864-37887 I/O BLOCK 0 9000-900F 36864-36879 Address of VIC chip registers
9000 36864 bits 0-6 horizontal centering bit 7 sets interlace scan 9001 36865 vertical
centering 9002 36866 bits 0-6 set # of columns bit 7 is part of video matrix address 9003
36867 bits 1-6 set # of rows bit 0 sets 8x8 or 16x8 chars 9004 36868 TV raster beam line
9005 36869 bits 0-3 start of character memory (default = 0) bits 4-7 is rest of video
address (default= F) BITS 3,2,1,0 CM startinq address HEX DEC 0000 ROM 8000 32768 0001
8400 33792 0010 8800 34816 0011 8C00 35840 1000 RAM 0000 0000 1001 xxxx 1010 xxxx unavail.
1011 xxxx 1100 1000 4096 1101 1400 5120 1110 1800 6144 1111 1C00 7168 9006 36870
horizontal position of light pen 9007 36871 vertical position of light pen 9008 36872
Digitized value of paddle X 9009 36873 Digitized value of paddle Y 900A 36874 Frequency
for oscillator 1 (low) (on: 128-255) 900B 36875 Frequency for oscillator 2 (medium) (on:
128-255) 900C 36876 Frequency for oscillator 3 (high) (on: 128-255) 900D 36877 Frequency
of noise source 900E 36878 bit 0-3 sets volume of all sound bits 4-7 are auxiliary color
information 900F 36879 Screen and border color register bits 4-7 select background color
bits 0-2 select border color bit 3 selects inverted or normal mode 9110-911F 37136-37151
6522 VIA#1 9110 37136 Port B output register (user port and RS-232 lines) PIN 6522
DESCRIPTION EIA ABV ID ID C PB0 Received data (BB) Sin D PB1 Request to Send (CA) RTS E
PB2 Data terminal ready (CD) DTR F PB3 Ring indicator (CE) RI H PB4 Received line signal
(CF) DCD J PB5 Unassigned ( ) XXX K PB6 Clear to send (CB) CTS L PB7 Data set ready (CC)
DSR B CB1 Interrupt for Sin (BB) Sin M CB2 Transmitted data (BA) Sout A GND Protective
ground (M) GND N GND Signal ground (AB) GND 9111 37137 Port A output register (PA0) Bit
0=Serial CLK IN (PA1) Bit 1=Serial DATA IN (PA2) Bit 2=Joy 0 (PA3) Bit 3=Joy 1 (PA4) Bit
4=Joy 2 (PA5) Bit 5 = Lightpen/Fire button (PA6) Bit 6=Cassette switch sense (PA7) Bit
7=Serial ATN out 9112 37138 Data direction register B 9113 37139 Data direction register A
9114 37140 Timer 1 low byte 9115 37141 Timer 1 high byte & counter 9116 37142 Timer 1
low byte 9117 37143 Timer 1 high byte 9118 37144 Timer 2 low byte 9119 37145 Timer 2 high
byte 911A 37146 Shift register 911B 37147 Auxiliary control register 911C 37148 Peripheral
control register (CA1, CA2, CB1, CB2) CA1 = restore key (Bit 0) CA2 = cassette motor
control (Bits 1-3) CB1 = interrupt signal for received RS-232 data (Bit 4) CB2=transmitted
RS-232 data (Bits 5-7) 911D 37149 Interrupt flag register 911E 37150 Interrupt enable
register 911F 37151 Port A (Sense cassette switch) 9120-912F 37152-37167 6522 VIA#2 9120
37152 Port B output register keyboard column scan (PB3) Bit 3 =cassette write line (PB7)
Bit 7 =Joy 3 9121 37153 Port A output register keyboard row scan 9122 37154 Data direction
register B 9123 37155 Data direction register A 9124 37156 Timer 1, low byte latch 9125
37157 Timer 1, high byte latch 9126 37158 Timer 1, low byte counter 9127 37159 Timer 1,
high byte counter timer 1 is used for the 60 time/second interrupt 9128 37160 Timer 2, low
byte latch 9129 37161 Timer 2, high byte latch 912A 37162 Shift register 912B 37163
Auxiliary control register 912C 37164 Peripheral control register CA1 Cassette read line
(Bit 0) CA2 Serial clock out (Bits 1-3) CB1 Serial SRQ IN (Bit 4) CB2 Serial data out
(Bits 5-7) 912D 37165 Interrupt flag register 912E 37166 Interrupt enable register 912F
37167 Port A output register 9400-95FF 37888-38399 location of COLOR RAM with additional
RAM at blk 1 9600-97FF 38400-38911 Normal location of COLOR RAM 9800-9BFF 38912-39935 I/O
block 2 9C00-9FFF 39936-40959 I/O block 3 A000-BFFF 40960-49152 8K decoded block for
expansion ROM C000-DFFF 49152-57343 8K Basic ROM E000-FFFF 57344-65535 8K KERNAL ROM
USEFUL MEMORY LOCATIONS This is a more in-depth guide to some of the memory locations
you can use. HEX DECIMAL DESCRIPTION 0014-0015 20-21 Where BASIC stores integer variables
used in calculations. The fixed-float and float-fixed routines (vectors at 1-2 and 3-4)
use the value in this area. 002B-002C 43-44 The start of the BASIC program in memory.
Location 43 contains the low byte, and location 44 has the high byte. To compute the start
of BASIC in decimal, use the formula: PEEK(43) + 256 * PEEK(44) 002D-002E 45-46 The start
of the numeric variables, which is usually immediately after the end of the BASIC program.
002F-0030 47-48 The start of arrays in memory, usually immediately following the numeric
vari- ables. 0031-0032 49-50 The end of the arrays in memory. 0033-0034 51-52 Bottom of
string storage, moving from the top of available memory down to the top of arrays.
0037-0038 55-56 The top of free RAM. By lowering this value, some RAM can be
"protected" against BASIC putting values here. 0043-0044 67-68 Jump vector for
INPUT statement. 0061-0066 97-102 Floating point accumulator #1 for cal- culations.
0069-006E 105-110 Floating point accumulator #2. 0073-008A 115-138 The CHRGET subroutine
resides here. This routine gets the next BASIC character from machine language. 0090 144
Status word ST. 0098 152 Number of open files. 0099 153 Device number for input, normally
0 (keyboard). 009A 154 Output (CMD) device, normally 3 (screen). 00A0-00A2 160-162 3 byte
jiffy clock. The Tl and Tl$ variables are translations of these loca- tions. 00B2-00B3
178-179 Points to the start of the tape buffer. Can be used as an indirect zero-page jump
to a routine in the buffer. 00B7 183 Number of characters in filename. 00B9 185 Which
secondary address is currently being used. 00BA 186 Current device number being accessed.
00BB-00BC 187-188 Points to location of filename in memo- 00C5 197 Current key being held
down. There will be a 64 here if nothing is held down. If more than 1 key is down, the key
with the highest number on the chart is what shows up here. # key # key # key # key 0 1 16
none 32 space 48 Q 1 3 17 A 33 Z 49 E 2 5 18 D 34 C 50 T 3 7 19 G 35 B 51 U 4 9 20 J 36 M
52 O 5 + 21 L 37 . 53 @ 6 £ (pound) 22 ; 38 none 54 ^ (up arrow) 7 DEL 23 crsr lt/rt 39
f1 55 f5 8 <- 24 STOP 40 none 56 2 9 W 25 none 41 S 57 4 10 R 26 X 42 F 58 6 11 Y 27 V 43 H 59 8 12 I 28 N 44 K 60 0 13 P 29 , 45 : 61 14 * 30 / 46="62" HOME 15 RETURN 31 crsr up/dn 47 f3 63 f7 00C6 198 Number of characters currently in key- board buffer. 00C7 199 Flag for reverse on/off. A 1 here is on, a 0 is off. 00CB 203 Same as 197. 00D1-00D2 209-210 Address of start of line where cursor is. 00D3 211 Position of cursor on line. 00D5 213 Current screen line length--either 21, 43, 65, or 87. 00D6 214 Screen row where cursor is. To change the cursor position, locations 209, 210, 211, and 214 must be changed. 00D8 216 Number of spaces left in INSERT mode. POKEing this to a zero will turn off insert mode. 00D9-00F0 217-240 Screen line link table. A 158 means that the line is finished at the end of that line, and a 30 means that the line continues on the next line. 00F3-00F4 243-244 Pointer to the current space in color memory. 00FB-00FE 251-254 Available locations in zero page. 0200-0258 512-600 BASIC input buffer--where the charac- ters being INPUT will go. 0259-0262 601-610 Logic 1 file table for OPEN files. 0263-026C 611-620 Device # table for OPEN files. 026D-0276 621-630 Secondary address table 0277-0280 631-640 Keyboard buffer. If characters are POKEd in here and location 198 (# of characters in buffer) is changed, it will be as if the characters were typed from the keyboard. 0281-0282 641-642 Start of memory pointer. 0283-0284 643-644 Top of memory pointer. 0286 646 Current color code. This holds the color number that goes into color memory during PRINT operations. 0288 648 Screen memory page. If you want the operating system to know where screen memory is, this must be changed as well as the VIC chip. 0289 649 Maximum size of keyboard buffer. If this is set greater than 10, vital pointers will be destroyed. 028A 650 Keyboard repeat flag. If this is a 0, only cursor controls repeat; if 128, all keys repeat. 028B 651 This determines how long the VIC waits before repeating key. 028D 653 Keyboard SHIFT, CTRL, Commodore flag. The SHIFT sets the 1 bit, Commo- dore sets the 2 bit, and the CTRL sets the 4 bit. 0291 657 Setting this location to 128 will disable switching case, and a 0 here enables the ability to switch. 0300-0301 768-769 This is the jump vector for errors. By changing this vector, a routine can intercept any error condition. 033C-03FB 828-1019 Cassette buffer. This is where data files are held before they are INPUT. When not using files, this is available for POKEing or machine language pro- grams.
