Topic : The ATARI Compendium Author : Scott Sanders / JAY Software Version : 1.25 (20/6/2003) Subject : Documentation Nodes : 1117 Index Size : 32614 HCP-Version : 6 Compiled on : Atari @charset : UTF-8 @lang : en @default : @help : %About @options : +g -i -t4 +y +z @width : 100 View Ref-File C04 XBIOS The eXtended Basic Input/Output System (XBIOS) is a software sub-system of TOS which contains functions used to interact with and control Atari computer hardware. The availability of many of these functions is dependent on hardware whose presence can be determined by the current TOS version or by interrogating the system 'cookie jar' (see Chapter 3: BIOS for more details). Some functions (notably video hardware and storage device related functions) should only be used by device drivers and system level software as they represent a non-portable method of hardware interaction which may be unsupported in future Atari computers. As a general rule, GEMDOS and VDI functions should be used, when possible, rather than XBIOS calls. The GEMDOS and VDI provide a software abstraction layer which will make software applications much more compatible across new computer releases. ∙ Video Control ∙ The Falcon030 Sound System ∙ The DSP ∙ User/Supervisor Mode ∙ MetaDOS ∙ Keyboard and Mouse Control ∙ Disk Functions ∙ The Serial Port ∙ Printer Control ∙ Other XBIOS Functions ∙ XBIOS Function Calling Procedure ∙ XBIOS Function Reference