RBSC Carnivore2 User manual

1/30
Carnivore2 User Guide
English version
Copyright (C) 2020 RBSC (Russian Bear Service Crew)
Русская версия находится здесь: Инструкция по эксплуатации Carnivore2
About the project
Carnivore2 is the multi–functional cartridge for the MSX platform that was created in 2017 by RBSC. The project is still
supported — new firmware for FPGA is being released, as well as the software — the tools for working with the cartridge, the
Boot Menu (boot block), etc. The website of RBSC can be found here.
Carnivore2 features
External storage: CF card (CompactFlash)
Nextor is used as DOS (built-in support for FAT12/16, maximum partition size: 4 GB)
High read and write speeds

2/30
Supports SD and MicroSD card adapters
Nextor supports floppy disk emulation with DSK files
Utilities compatible with MSX-DOS versions 1 and 2
The cartridge can be configured as a RAM extension, IDE disk, FMPAC and SCC/SCC+ sound cards, or a combination of
these devices
RAM: 2048 KB (2 MB)
Includes:
1024 KB main RAM with mapper
256 KB for ROM shadowing
720 KB additional RAM with a mapper, similar to MegaRAM
4 KB (in the last 64 KB–block) for the FMPAC SRAM (a backup battery is needed to save data after turning off the power)
Flash memory (FlashROM): 8 MB capacity, 64 Mbit/s
The first 256 KB are used for service information and ROM BIOSes
Mapper emulation:
Linear 64 KB mode
ASCII8
ASCII16
Konami4
Konami5 (SCC/SCC+)
Custom mapper
Sound
PPI and PSG emulation
Konami SCC and SCC+ emulation
OPLL emulation (YM2413, MSX – Music), BIOS IU translated to English
Volume setting for all emulated audio devices
PSG and PPI can be enabled and disabled in the user interface
Additional features
Boot menu with a choice of games and configurations saved in flash memory
Sorting of directory records
Customizable user interface (colors, sorting, key repeat speed, fade effects)
Help system
Joystick and joypads support
50/60Hz instant switching support
Selectable Turbo or R800 modes
Auto-Start of configuration entries and ROMs with a startup delay
Allows to run 2 ROMs at the same time in the Dual-Slot screen
Mono/stereo modes for FMPAC output
Allows to set the default startup frequency (50 or 60Hz)
The device is designed in the form factor of the standard MSX cartridge
It operates at the standard frequency of 3.58 MHz, as well as turbo frequencies up to 7.11 MHz
Implemented on FPGA (EP2C5Q208C8 Altera Cyclone II)
Special software is used to control all functions
Download programs in ROM format to flash memory and RAM
Backing up flash memory, configuration RAM settings, and FMPAC RAM contents
Program for testing the IDE interface, etc
Easy setup and user–friendly interface
Links to important Carnivore2 documents and websites
The below table contains the links to important Carnivore2 documentation and websites.
CF card and adapter compatibility reference List of compatible cards and adapters
Detailed technical description of the cartridge Internal blocks and data layout
Changelog Version-based list of changes
Partslist List of components and their nominals

3/30
Circuit diagram (clickable)
Schematics
Link to official site RBSC's website
Repository on GitHub Source code, board files, documentation
Article on MSX Wiki Official MSX Wiki article
List of authorized distributors
The below table contains the list of authorized Carnivore2 manufacturers and distributors.
Order from Maxiol (RBSC) Official distributor in Russia
Purchase from 8bits4ever online store Official distributor in Spain
Purchase from Retro Game Restore online store Official distributor in Taiwan
Order from Carmeloco Official distributor in Spain
Photos of the cartridge board
The board from a test batch, assembled by RBSC:
The board assembled by 8bits4ever (authorized manufacturer/seller, Spain):

4/30
Thе board assembled by Maxiol (authorized manufacturer/seller, Russia):
Thе board assembled by Carmeloco (authorized manufacturer/seller, Spain):
Thе board assembled by Retro Game Restore (authorized manufacturer/seller, Taiwan):

5/30
Note: on the board produced by Maxiol some tantalum capacitors were replaced with ceramic ones, also the audio socket was
moved to the back of the board.
Important information
WARNING! To avoid damage to the Carnivore2 cartridge and your MSX computer hardware never insert or
remove the cartridge when a computer is powered on! Always power off your computer before inserting or
removing any cartridges!
If any of your CF cards or SD-to-CF adapters no longer work with Carnivore2, try to replace the IDE bios with
an alternative version. To do this, rename BIDECMFC.ALT into BIDECMFC.BIN and write the IDE BIOS into
Carnivore2 with the C2MAN or C2MAN40 utility.
CF card and adapter compatibility reference
The correct operation of the Carnivore2 cartridge is not guaranteed in the R800 mode on Panasonic Turbo-R
computers. There may be various anomalies in this mode, for example the games that require a system
restart as well as the configuration entries won't work correctly. So for such games and configuration changes
it's not recommended to enable the R800 mode in the Boot Menu. Certain features of Carnivore2 may not
work correctly on computers with less than 16kb of RAM (for example on Casio PV-7).
Carnivore2 is incompatible with Yamaha's network modules:
network module КУВТ (installed into Yamaha YIS-503IIR)
network module КУВТ2 — Yamaha Serial I/O Unit (CB55448) (installed in Yamaha YIS-503IIIR and
Yamaha YIS-805-128R2)
If those modules are detected, Carnivore will show a warning message and halt a system to prevent conflicts.
In this case you need to remove the network module from a computer and also remove the network ROM
cartridge from the front slot of the YIS-503II MSX1.

6/30
Certain MSX computers activate the built–in software after power–on and this prevents Carnivore2's Boot
Menu from being started. To bypass the built–in software it's usually enough to hold the defined key during a
computer's startup. For example Panasonic A1 (as well as on A1 MK2), you need to hold the DEL key until the
Boot Menu appears or MSX-DOS is loaded.
Certain games with the so–called “delayed start”, for example Metal Gear 2 and King's Valley 2, will not work
on the Yamaha YIS-503IIIR because of incompatibility with the built–in CP/M. It is advised to removed the CP/M
from the SubROM on these computers, by writing this file into the 27с256 chip and replacing the Subrom chip
on the board. Alternatively you can use a different file with Subrom and TESTRAM. This file can be downloaded
from here.
On several MSX computers (for example on Casio PV models) as well as on several MSX clones (for example on
Omega) there's no +12v and -12v power on the cartridge slots. This power is needed for the audio amplifier
that is installed on Carnivore2 cartridge's board. Without this power Carnivore2 will not be able to play FMPAC,
SCC and PSG music and sound effects.
When a computer is just powered on with the Carnivore2 cartridge inserted into a slot, it may reboot twice.
This is normal and was implemented to make sure that the cartridge is fully initialized after the cold boot. You
can enable the dual–reboot feature in the Configuration settings.
The Boot Menu can detect that it is running on Korean or Arabic MSXs and in case it is not compatible with
those systems, it will output a message and will try to boot to DOS after 10 seconds. In such a case a
compatible Boot Menu (BOOTCMFC.BIN) should be installed into the cartridge (see the “Special” subfolder in the
repository for the compatible version of the boot menu).
The Setup
If you purchased the already assembled and configured cartridge, you don't need to do the firmware and BIOS
uploading.
After assembling, the cartridge needs to be programmed in order to function properly. The following steps are necessary:
Upload the Altera's firmware1.
Initialize the directory2.
Write the Boot Menu3.
Write the IDE BIOS4.
Write the FMPAC BIOS5.
Restart MSX6.
The below described features are supported in the Boot Menu and FPGA firmware starting from version 2.40; in the older
versions, these features may be missing or have different functionality.

7/30
How to prepare the CF card
The CF card needs to be formatted in the FDISK program and needs Nextor's files to be copied onto it.
Partitioning of CF memory card must be done in Carnivore2 cartridge!
Insert CF memory card into the cartridge and start the computer1.
When the boot menu appears, press the Esc button to boot using the default configuration2.
The computer boots into the MSX-BASIC3.
Type CALL FDISK and press Enter ⏎ to run the partitioning program4.
Create one or more partitions using the FDISK interface5.
When finished, restart the computer6.
You need to write the Nextor system files so that you can boot into MSX-DOS2 from the card. To do this, copy the files7.
from the archive or disk image that are available here and here (as disk image) into the root directory of the CF card
Example of copying files from a floppy disk to the main section of a CF memory card using a GoTek–based drive emulator:8.
copy "b:\*.*" to "a:\"
a: — mounted CF card's partition
b: — another drive (GoTek emulator, a physical 720kb
drive, a disk of another IDE controller)
How to upload the firmware
Before uploading the firmware please make sure that the CF card is not inserted!
For updating/uploading of the firmware you will need:
Quartus II Web Edition (Free) 15.0 software1.
Byte Blaster or USB Blaster programmer (can be purchased on Ebay or AliExpress)2.
From the Individual Files tab please download and install the following software:
Quartus II Software (includes Nios II EDS)
Cyclone IV device support
The following actions need to be performed:
Connect the USB Blaster programmer to the PC1.
Run the program Quartus II Web Edition2.
Select menu item Tools/Programmer3.
In the Programmer window:4.
Click Hardware setup
in the Hardware setup → Hardware Settings → Currently selected hardware choose your programmer device
Click Close
The device's name will be displayed to the right of the Hardware setup button and to the right of the Mode field, there you
need to select Active Serial Programming
Click Add Device
in the Select Devices chose the EPCS4 device
Click Ok
Right click on the device, chose Change File and select the desired firmware file with the .pof extension from your hard
disk
Make sure to check these options:
✔ Program/Configure
✔ Verify
✔ Blank-Check
Supply 5 volts to the cartridge board (mind the polarity!)
A simple USB cable to power–up the cartridge:

8/30
Power cable connected to the cartridge:
Connect the programmer's cable to the cartridge's AS connector (make sure the cable is connected correctly!)
To connect the programmer to the AS connector on the cartridge, you need a dual–row pin header (PLD 2 × 5, 2.54 mm) that must be
inserted into the programmer cable's connector:
Then the programmer’s connector must be inserted into the AS connector of the cartridge and slightly tilted to ensure good contact
between the pins and the board:

9/30
Click Start and follow the programming and verification process while firmly holding the connector. After successful5.
completion of the firmware uploading you should get this message:
When the operation is complete, disconnect the cables from the cartridge in the following order:6.
programmer cable from the AS connector
power cable
How to enable the cartridge and install BIOS ROMs
Please always use the latest version of the C2MAN and C2MAN40 utilities to write necessary software into the
cartridge!
The freshly–assembled Carnivore2 cartridge will not boot to MSX-DOS2 without the specific software that needs to be loaded
into the FlashROM chip from any disk drive.
Insert the cartridge into the MSX slot, preferably into the first slot. Power up MSX and check if it works well. If the computer
doesn't work properly, remove and inspect the cartridge. To fully configure the cartridge the following actions need to be
performed:
Make sure that all 3 BIN files (BIDECMFC.BIN, BOOTCMFC.BIN, FMPCCMFC.BIN) are in the same folder with the utilities1.
Run the C2MAN.COM or C2MAN40.COM (for MSX1 only) utility2.
When asked, enter the slot number where the cartridge is located (for example “10” for first slot, “20” for second slot,3.
etc.)
From the main menu select “Open cartridge's Service Menu” using the 9 key4.
With the 7 key select “Fully erase FlashROM chip” and confirm twice; if you are only updating the cartridge, this step5.
may be skipped
With the 3 key select “Init/Erase all directory entries” to initialize the directory6.
With the 4 key select “Write Boot Menu (BOOTCMFC.BIN)” to write the Boot Menu7.
With the 5 key select “Write IDE ROM BIOS (BIDECMFC.BIN)” to write Nextor IDE BIOS8.
With the 6 key select “Write FMPAC ROM BIOS (FMPCCMFC.BIN)” to write the English FMPAC BIOS9.
If there were no errors during the steps 5–9, then power down and start your MSX10.
There's also another way to write the Boot Menu and BIOSes into the FlashROM chip. This can be done on a diskless MSX
computer by loading the necessary files via the cassette interface and copying them from the specially formatted CF card into
the FlashROM chip. Please see the file. Be advised that after this operation you need to update the Boot Menu and BIOSes to
the latest versions downloaded from the repository.
Usage instructions
The program that serves as the main interface of the Carnivore2 cartridge after a computer is powered on is called the Boot
Menu. It can be also referenced as “Boot Block” or “bootblock”.

10/30
If the cartridge is inserted into slot 3, the system will be halted immediately. In this case please power down the system and
insert the cartridge into another free slot..
If the Boot Menu version is incompatible with the MSX computer, the following warning message will be shown and the
cartridge will try to boot into MSX-DOS2 within the next 10 seconds. In this case please write the special version of the Boot
Menu into the cartridge (see the Special folder in the repository).
If there's a network module from KYBT or KYBT2 system (Yamaha–based computer classes that were distributed in USSR), the
following warning message will be shown and the system will be halted. In this case please remove the network module from
the computer.