Atari File Management Subsystem

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(Boot record)
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Sector 1 is the boot record. It has this structure:
 
Sector 1 is the boot record. It has this structure:
  
* ''Byte 0'': 0 (representing boot flag)
+
* '''Byte 0''': 0 (representing boot flag)
* ''Byte 1'': 1 (representing the number of sectors the boot record takes)
+
* '''Byte 1''': 1 (representing the number of sectors the boot record takes)
* ''Byte 2-3'': Boot address (0700)
+
* '''Byte 2-3''': Boot address (0700)
* ''Byte 4-5'': Init address
+
* '''Byte 4-5''': Init address
* ''Byte 6'': 4B (JMP command used with address in following 2 bytes)
+
* '''Byte 6''': 4B (JMP command used with address in following 2 bytes)
* ''Byte 7-8'': Boot read continuation address
+
* '''Byte 7-8''': Boot read continuation address
* ''Byte 9'': Max # of files open concurrently (1-8)
+
* '''Byte 9''': Max # of files open concurrently (1-8)
* ''Byte 10'': Specific drive numbers supported (bitmap where low-order bit means drive 1, next bit drive 2, and so on up to 4)
+
* '''Byte 10''': Specific drive numbers supported (bitmap where low-order bit means drive 1, next bit drive 2, and so on up to 4)
* ''Byte 11'': Buffer allocation direction (set to 0)
+
* '''Byte 11''': Buffer allocation direction (set to 0)
* ''Byte 12-13'': Boot image end address + 1
+
* '''Byte 12-13''': Boot image end address + 1
* ''Byte 14'': Boot flag (must be nonzero if DOS.SYS is on disk)
+
* '''Byte 14''': Boot flag (must be nonzero if DOS.SYS is on disk)
* ''Byte 15'': Sector count (not used)
+
* '''Byte 15''': Sector count (not used)
* ''Byte 16-17'': DOS.SYS starting sector number
+
* '''Byte 16-17''': DOS.SYS starting sector number
* ''Byte 18-127'': Code for second phase of boot
+
* '''Byte 18-127''': Code for second phase of boot
  
 
== Links ==
 
== Links ==

Revision as of 07:11, 18 March 2013

File Format
Name Atari File Management Subsystem
Ontology

The Atari File Management Subsystem (FMS) is the filesystem on an Atari 810 floppy disk.

The 720 sectors of the disk were numbered from 1 to 720, but (perhaps due to poor communication between the different development teams at Atari) the FMS filesystem was designed to support sector addresses in the range from 0 to 719, which meant that sector 720 was not addressable but a nonexistent sector 0 was. This resulted in the filesystem only using the 719 sectors in the overlap between what is addressable and what actually exists, so sector 720 is unused (a waste of a perfectly good 128 bytes).

(Note to self: Is there a way to hack the system to stick hidden messages in that 720th sector?)

The bytes within a sector are numbered from 0 to 127, because at least the development teams managed to agree on zero-based numbering there.

Sector map

This filesystem is pretty narrowly tailored to the particular type of disk used by the Atari 810 drive, with various hard-coded sector positions.

  • Sector 1: Boot record
  • Sector 2-n: DOS.SYS file (on system disks)
  • Sector n+1-359: User file space
  • Sector 360: VTOC (Volume Table of Contents)
  • Sector 361-368: Directory
  • Sector 369-719: User file space
  • Sector 720: Unused

Boot record

Sector 1 is the boot record. It has this structure:

  • Byte 0: 0 (representing boot flag)
  • Byte 1: 1 (representing the number of sectors the boot record takes)
  • Byte 2-3: Boot address (0700)
  • Byte 4-5: Init address
  • Byte 6: 4B (JMP command used with address in following 2 bytes)
  • Byte 7-8: Boot read continuation address
  • Byte 9: Max # of files open concurrently (1-8)
  • Byte 10: Specific drive numbers supported (bitmap where low-order bit means drive 1, next bit drive 2, and so on up to 4)
  • Byte 11: Buffer allocation direction (set to 0)
  • Byte 12-13: Boot image end address + 1
  • Byte 14: Boot flag (must be nonzero if DOS.SYS is on disk)
  • Byte 15: Sector count (not used)
  • Byte 16-17: DOS.SYS starting sector number
  • Byte 18-127: Code for second phase of boot

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