Howard McGinnis asked:

>What's the most efficient way to move blocks of data in a 16C77?

Since the PIC has only one index register, the general case
of a block move requires that for each byte, you move a source
pointer into FSR, then get the data, then move the destination
pointer to FSR and store the data.

Usual disclaimer applies: This code should work, I use something very
similar myself, but no warranty!  Free software can be expensive :)

;(all these RAM addresses are arbitrary)
Source   EQU    H'30'                  ;the source data, H'30'..H'5F'
Dest     EQU    H'A0'                  ;the destination, H'A0'..H'CF'

#define NBytes  H'30'                  ;thats 48 bytes to you

PtrS     EQU    H'20'                  ;the source pointer
PtrD     EQU    H'21'                  ;the destination pointer
Count    EQU    H'22'                  ;number of bytes to copy
Temp     EQU    H'23'

MemCopy:
         MOVLW  NBytes                 ;number of bytes to be copied
         MOVWF  Count                  ;init counter
         MOVLW  Source                 ;the address of the source
         MOVWF  PtrS                   ;init source pointer
         MOVLW  Dest                   ;the address of the
destination
         MOVWF  PtrD                   ;init dest pointer

MCLoop:
         MOVF   PtrS,W                 ;get the source pointer...
         MOVWF  FSR                    ;into FSR
         MOVF   INDF,W                 ;get data, indirect
         MOVWF  Temp                   ;save the data a moment
         MOVF   PtrD,W                 ;get the dest pointer
         MOVWF  FSR                    ;into FSR
         MOVF   Temp,W                 ;get the data back
         MOVWF  INDF                   ;put to destination, indirect

         INCF   PtrS,F                 ;bump source pointer to next
data
         INCF   PtrD,F                 ;bump destination pointer
         DECFSZ Count,F                ;one less to do, skip if done
         GOTO   MCLoop                 ;if not done, loop for another

;skips to here when done...

This is the best general case I know, but still not very efficent.
Another index register, anyone?

Be careful if the Source and Destination overlap!  If the source is
at a lower but overlapping address, this routine will not work
because it copies lowest address first!

Here is a good trick:  If the source and destination areas are always
the same locations, you can optimize a lot by locating them at
corresponding addresses in different banks, or otherwise so that
there is one bit difference in their addresses.  Then you can use a
BSF and BCF on one bit of the FSR to point FSR to source then to
destination. You can also do this trick by twiddling bit IRP instead,
then the source and dest are in different pages.  Note that you can
consider IRP+FSR as a 9 bit index register.

For example:

#define NBytes 30
;(these RAM addresses are carefully chosen for this trick to work.
; notice that 30h and B0h are corresponding addresses in Bank0 and 1
; and therefore differ by the high bit of their address)
Source   EQU    H'30'                  ;the source data
Dest     EQU    H'B0'                  ;the destination

Count    EQU    H'20'                  ;number of bytes to copy

Sneaky:
         MOVLW  NBytes
         MOVWF  Count
         MOVLW  Source                 ;the address of the source
         MOVWF  FSR                    ;into FSR

SCLoop:
         MOVF   INDF,W                 ;get data, indirect
         BSF    FSR,                   ;switch to dest area
         MOVWF  INDF                   ;put to destination, indirect
         BCF    FSR, 7                 ;back to source bank
         INCF   FSR                    ;point at next pair
         DECFSZ Count                  ;one less to do, skip if done
         GOTO   SCLoop                 ;if not done, loop for another
;skips to here when done...

This uses less RAM and is mush quicker, at the expense of generality
(in maintaining the code, if you decide to move variables around in
RAM, it FAILS!)

Try coding THAT trick in portable C! :)

---------------------------------------------------
Barry King
Engineering Manager
NRG Systems "Measuring the Wind's Energy"
barry@nrgsystems.com
"The witty saying has been deleted due to limited EPROM space"