The Commodore 64

The Commodore PET IEEE-488 interface is based on the original IEEE-488/GPIB interface and uses an 8-bit parallel data bus. Later Commodore computers, such as the C64, used an 8-bit serial bus, using a communications protocol based on IEEE-488.

 As well as the serial nature of the interface being inherently slower than a parallel interface, Commodore's implementation of the interface was handicapped by poor firmware  - see the Throughput and Software section of the Wikipedia article on the Commodore 64's 1541 Disk Drive for details. This resulted in the speed of C64 disk operations being abysmal, with data transfer rates of 512 bytes per second!

Even without modification to the hardware, a number of Fast Loader utilities were written that could speed up disk operations, but for maximum throughput, firmware modifications were needed.

Commodore disk drives such as the 1541 have the disk controller and disk operating system (DOS) inside the disk drive and the disk access firmware in the C64 is "tuned" for the firmware in the drive. Third parties, such as Creative Micro Designs (CMD), produced replacement firmware for the C64 and disk drive which significantly improved the speed of disk operations. The CMD offering was Mark Fellows' JiffyDOS. See the C64wiki page for a speed comparison of disk operations for a number of C64 drives with and without JiffyDOS.

Although the CMD company is long dead, JiffyDOS is still under copyright and distributed under license. See Jim Brain's site for details of the JiffyDOS licensing options.

As noted above, to take full advantage of JiffyDOS, both the C64 and the target disk drive needs to have their firmware upgraded. In my case, I do not have a Commodore C64 disk drive, I use a petSD+ that I originally assembled for my Commodore PET/CBM 8096. Nils first added support for the C64's IEC serial mode in firmware version 15/03/2016 with support Fast Loaders and JiffyDOS added with firmware dated 05/04/2017. (petSD+ devices built before April 2017 require the MCU 18MHz oscillator to be replaced with a 16MHz one to support the Fast Loader functionality.)

Commodore 64 Kernal ROM Replacement

The C64 disk interface firmware was part of the 8kb Kernal ROM installed in position U4 on the original C64 computer board utilising a 2364A ROM.

To allow the user to easily select either the original Kernal ROM or the JiffyDOS ROM, JiffyDOS was supplied in a 16k ROM which included copies of both the original Kernal ROM code and JiffyDOS, installed on a small adapter PCB that plugged into the Kernal ROM socket and featured a toggle switch that allowed the user to select the desired ROM before powering up the system. The JiffyDOS ROM image can also be used to just replace the Kernal ROM image, the drawback being that "the tape routines are not available. The space taken by these routines is used for the fast access code." (1)

The adapter board was required to allow a 16kb ROM to be used in the 2364A socket

Commodore produced various versions of the C64 computer board, details can be found in the C64/C64C Service Manual that can be found on my C64 Documents page. 

The 23128 ROM can be replaced by a 27128 ROM, the biggest difficulty is that the original ROM is soldered directly onto the computer board. Although I have a decent soldering station with a hot air reworking too, I didn't want to risk damaging the PCB when replacing the ROM and decided on the easier method of removing the chip, i.e., snipping the legs off the chip and removing the legs one at a time. This would have given me the option of fitting a replacement ROM programmed with either the original Commodore Kernal/BASIC code, or an upgraded ROM with the JiffyDOS/BASIC code. By replacing the 23128 with the pin-compatible 27256, it is possible to have both versions of the ROM available with the option to switch between them as needed.

Copies of the original Commodore ROMs are available on various sites on the web, including Zimmers.net

File	ROM p/n	Size	Description
	901226-01	8k	BASIC
	901227-03	8k	Kernal (V3)
	251913-01	16k	C64C Combined
n/a	JiffyDOS	8k	JiffyDOS Kernal

Although available in a number of places on the web, the JiffyDOS Kernal is not in the public domain, it can be purchased from authorised distributors, such as Jim Brain at Retro Innovations.

A replacement 16K ROM can be made from the two 8k ROMs on a PC using DOS commands such as :-

copy /b 901226-01.bin+901227-03.bin 251913-01.bin, or

copy /b 901226-01.bin+jiffydos.bin custom.bin

These commands create either a copy of the original C64C ROM from its constituent ROMs, or a modified ROM with JiffyDOS. In my case, since I do not have any C64 tapes, then a JiffyDOS only machine is acceptable. If you need the ability to load/save C64 tapes, then a 32k ROM can be created on a PC using DOS commands such as :-

 copy /b 901226-01.bin+901227-03.bin+901226-01.bin+jiffydos.bin custom.bin

This command would create two loadable images, one with the original C64C ROMs and the other with the original BASIC ROM along with a copy of JiffyDOS that can be selected by changing the position of a switch wired to the A14 pin (27) of a 32k 27256 ROM to choose the required 16k ROM image.

Pin 27 of the 27256 is bent so that it does not fit into the socket and two position switch wired as shown. By setting A14 high or low, the the desired ROM image pair is selected. If the switch is to be permanently mounted in the case, then a hole is usually drilled in the side of the case. Rather than butcher the case, I preferred to just have the switch on wires hanging out of the rear.

	The result It works !
Switch closed - A14 = "0"		Switch open - A14 = "1"

1 JiffyDOS Reviewed - Independent Computer Products Users Group (ICPUG)

2 JiffyDOS 6.0 Review - Compute Magazine Archive