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Website :
https://github.com/spartaomg/Sparkle2
Credits :
Download :
Look for downloads on external sites:
Pokefinder.org
Summary Submitted by Sparta on 4 May 2022
Sparkle is an IRQ loader and linking solution for the Commodore 64 inspired by the loaders of Lft, Krill, and Bitbreaker. It utilizes on-the-fly GCR processing, fast data transfer, and blockwise data compression. Disks are built using loader scripts, files are bundled together and are loaded in batches. Sparkle handles multi-disk projects and offers limited file saving capability. A Windows tool is provided to edit script files and build Sparkle disks.
New in version 2.1:
- Full rewrite of the GCR loop resulting in a much wider disk rotation speed tolerance of at least 269-314 rpm across all 4 speed zones. Checksum verification happens on-the-fly for disk zones 0-2 (tracks 18+) while it is done partially outside the GCR loop for zone 3 (tracks 1-17). Since the native interleave of this zone is 4 but fetching and transferring a block requires only a little bit more than 3 sectors passing under the RW head, there is plenty of time left to finish checksum verification outside the loop without a performance penalty.
- Reintroduced the second block buffer feature which was first invented for Sparkle 1.x but was dropped in Sparkle 2 due to drive memory constraints. Rewriting the GCR loop allowed freeing enough memory in the drive’s RAM for this feature, so Sparkle 2.1’s speed is now on par with Sparkle 1.5.
- Implemented an ATNA-based transfer loop.
- Added full block ID check to improve reliability and to avoid false data blocks on Star Commander warp disks.
- Commenting the script. In the Editor, there are two options to add comments. Each file entry has a File Comment subentry for file specific comments. The other option is adding Comment entries to the script that can be placed anywhere between Disk, Bundle the Script entries. Comment entries cannot be inserted as subentries into Disk, Bundle or Script entries. If the script is manually edited in a text editor, comments can be added anywhere as long as they are separated by one or more tabs from the rest of text in the line or are placed in separate text lines. Sparkle handles everything as a comment it doesn’t recognize as a standard script entry. The user may choose their preferred comment identifier or use nothing as long as the comment cannot be misinterpreted as a script entry. When the script is saved from the Editor, Sparkle will use the #comment format. Comment identifiers are only visual aids and are not used to determine whether an entry is a comment or not.
- Other stability improvements and bug fixes. |
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