(71B) FORTH questions

[rprosperi]

(08-01-2023 04:55 PM)Sylvain Cote Wrote:  

(08-01-2023 03:46 PM)floppy Wrote:  the question remain: what setup is the best for Forth 71B?
- 2x 62KB RAM & ROM Forth or
- 1x 128KB & ROM Forth or
- 4x32KB and move the Forth/assembler into Multimod?

Knowing that the FORTH working environment is kept in main RAM.

• FORTHRAM for FORTH/Assembler ROM
• FTH41RAM for HP-41 Translator ROM
  

Using one or multiple front port RAM module and/or a card reader RAM module changes nothing.
Ultimately, you have to merge those RAM modules with main RAM for the FORTH working environment.
Now, the main RAM space you need depend on the size of your FORTH application.
The initial FORTH work space is a little bit under 3K, you grow it and add RAM as you need.

edit: Robert was faster than me.

One other point to make. The speed of the assembler (and the Forth Compiler) on an actual 71B is quite poor, but adding system RAM definitely improves this; I don't know if there is an upper point of diminishing return, back in the day I couldn't afford hundreds of KB of RAM.

Bottom line, configure Emu-71 with maximum system RAM and assemble/compile on Emu71. Once complete, you can simply copy the FORTHRAM file to your device.