Tachyon RL

RAMLink Backup

This program allows you to back up CMD RAMLink to an Ultimate cartridge (1541 or II+) or SD2IEC device.

Using an Ultimate is fast, since it does not use the slow serial bus. SD2IEC is not as fast, but still more convenient and reliable than a stack of floppies.

CMD SuperCPU provides an additional speed boost.

If you don't have any device supported by Tachyon but own a CMD HD, you can create a Foreign Mode (Direct Access) Partition with Foreign Creator and back up to it with BCopy+. Both programs are on the CMD Utilities Disk.

Approximate time for backup or restore for 16 MB RAMLink (proportionally shorter for smaller size):

Method	C64	SuperCPU V1	SuperCPU V2
Ultimate	7 min	72 s	55 s
SD2IEC	72 min	60 min	60 min

Using

Ultimate

To back up or restore with an Ultimate cartridge, follow these steps:

• On the Ultimate, press the Menu button, then F2, go to C64 and Cartridge Settings. Disable Alternate Kernal (otherwise Ultimate and RAMLink are incompatible and will freeze). Enable Command Interface and REU. A REU Size of 16MB is recommended.
• If you have a SuperCPU, set the Speed switch to Turbo.
• Set the lower switch on your RAMLink to normal and the upper switch to enabled. Connect your Ultimate cartridge to the Pass-Thru port.
• Connect the RAMLink to your computer and turn it on.
• Load and start Tachyon RL.
• Select backup or restore.
• Enter the name of your backup file. This is relative to your home directory (or / if not set). A full path always works (e. g. /Usb0/backups/rl).

SD2IEC

To back up or restore with an SD2IEC, follow these steps. Please note, backing up to an Ultimate cartridge is faster by a factor of 9 to 60, depending on CPU.

• Connect your SD2IEC to the serial port.
• Turn on your computer.
• Make sure no disk is mounted in SD2IEC. If it is, use @CD← to unmount. (Disk images usually aren't big enough to hold a RAMLink backup.)
• Load and start Tachyon RL.
• Select backup or restore.
• Enter the name of your backup file. This is relative to the current directory on your SD2IEC ( / by default). A full path always works (e. g. //backups/rl).

Building

You will need cc65, the c1541 utility from Vice, and Perl.

Type make to build a D64 image and a PRG file of Tachyon RL.