AD680 Editor/Assembler Error 017

[George W4AVO]

I have spent last few days investigating what could cause a correct small assembly language program to cause an ERROR 017 when assembled on my new AD680. I have corresponded with Chris about this and we agree on possible causes and my proposed work around. He posted a good summary on https://adwaterandstir.com/instructions-680/ . Thanks Chris.

What I find interesting is one possible cause is a flaw in the original Altair Editor/Assembler code that has been latent for 50 yrs. As Chris observed, it has probably never been tested with a machine with 64k ram. My MITS680 has 17k.

I have attached  a complete stream that shows the assembly procedure from start to finish. This may be helpful to demo how the work-around is done and could be a good intro to the AD680 Editor/Assemble for users with no assembly language background.

If you built the AD680 I recommend you try the included Editor/Assembler. It will move you back to where 8 bit computer programming was 50 years ago. It's a blast.

GH 12/15/25

[Chris Davis]

Thanks for your thorough research into the 680 emulator George.  I have moved the info on this and the CPU speed to this page: https://adwaterandstir.com/operation-680/

[Tom Lake]

Is there any way to limit the emulator to use the original maximum of the Altair 680? I'd like the original experience with all its limitations.

[Chris Davis]

I guess I probably could add some option to set the physical memory size.  I'll look into that.