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Even though Android 6.0 Marshmallow has been available since October 2015, its market share is still less than 20 percent, according to the most recent statistics from Google. For most users, the main reason why they can’t enjoy the latest version of the Android operating system is the attitude of their wireless carrier or device manufacturer. Unfortunately, many carriers and manufacturers provide only very limited support, as they focus mostly on selling new devices.

Android and iOS are the most popular mobile operating systems on the market. Both offer a variety of apps and settings, but eventually reach their limits at a certain point. Rooting or Jailbreaking your phone (or tablet) will offer you thousands of tweaks, skins, custom ROMs, and new apps that you should not miss out on. It will also help you to remove bloatware. Browse our listings to find jobs in Germany for expats, including jobs for English speakers or those in your native language.

The great news is that you can get Marshmallow on your device by flashing a custom ROM. You will definitely need, at least, some experience with computers or a very good ability to follow directions. But the reward is certainly worth the time and effort you put into it. Let’s start with a brief introduction to custom ROMs, so that you know why you should give one of our top 3 favorite Android 6.0 Marshmallow custom ROMs a try.

A ROM (read-only memory) is a lot like a standard operating system, such as Windows from Microsoft or Mac OS X from Apple. It contains all low-level system code and basic (and not so basic) applications, such as a calendar, camera, notepad, or file manager. In most cases, each device will have its own ROM that has been customized by the carrier or manufacturer to leverage the device’s hardware to its maximum potential.

But due to time constraints, human errors, and various other factors, carriers and device manufacturers seldom manage to release a perfect ROM. Sometimes the ROM contains bloatware that causes slowdowns, or it lacks essential features that are hard to live without. That’s where custom ROMs come in. A custom ROM replaces the pre-installed version of Android with a customized operating system.

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Many custom ROMs are based on AOSP (Android Open Source Program). “It is a version of the open source code of Android, developed by Google in its consortium of brands to offer a pure version of the system, which is available to anyone. It can be modified by developers without the need to follow standards of Google applications,” explains an article on MakeUseOf.

Other ROMs are simply fine-tuned versions of the original ROM your device shipped with. In either case, there are several crucial benefits of custom ROMs.

Benefits of Custom ROMs

If your carrier or manufacturer has moved on and abandoned your aging device, a custom ROM is likely the only way how you can enjoy the latest Android operating system. Upgrading to the latest version of Android greatly increases your security, allows you to enjoy all the latest apps and games from the Play Store, and gives you access to new, handy features.

A custom ROM is also the best way how you can extend the lifespan of your smartphone or laptop by another year, or two, or maybe even three. Custom ROM developers spend hours upon hours optimizing the ROM’s performance by removing bottlenecks and by tweaking various system-level settings.

Most custom ROMs also allow you to customize your device to a much higher degree. That’s partially because they expose many hidden settings, but, more importantly, it’s because they give you root (administrative) access. With root access, a whole new world of highly capable Android apps opens for you.

Finally, a custom ROM might be the only way how you can experience Android the way it was envisioned by Google. Using your smartphone or tablet without Samsung’s TouchWiz or Xiaomi’s MIUI can be a refreshing breath of fresh air.

Flashing a Custom ROM

The process of loading a different version of the Android operating system is commonly referred to as ROM flashing. It’s usually performed using a custom recovery utility, like CWM or TWRP. This utility makes it possible to install any compatible ROM with just a few taps on the display. Since each ROM has different requirements and installation instructions, we won’t go into details in this article.

The first version of CyanogenMod 13 was released on March 15th, 2016, and it was an instant hit. CM13.0 brought many long-awaited Android 6.0.1 (r17) features, such as the battery saving doze functionality and the new permissions model.

CyanogenMod, usually abbreviated to CM, has been in development since 2008, and the project currently has over 50 million people who run CyanogenMod on their phones. CyanogenMod is based on the Android Open Source Project and designed to increase performance and reliability over Android-based ROMs released by vendors and carriers.

If you would like to try CyanogemMod 13 on your device, head over to the download section on the official website and search for your device (CTRL + F in your web browser). When you find a compatible ROM, download it to your computer and follow the installation instructions for custom recovery images and CyanogenMod installer. There are also plenty of YouTube videos, such as this one, which give you visual step-by-step instructions.

OmniROM was launched by a group of developers (Xplodwild, Chainfire, Dees_Troy, Pulser and Entropy) who were unhappy about CyanogenMod’s venture funding in 2013. The main goal of the ROM is to provide no-frills, near-stock Android experience with a few nice extracts on top.

Right now, OmniROM Marshmallow nightly releases are underway. The following devices have been included for nightly support: Nexus 5 (hammerhead), Nexus 5X (bullhead), Nexus 6 (shamu), Nexus 7 (2013) (flo), Nexus 10 (manta), and several others devices, including Nexus 4 (mako), will be added in the next several days.

OmniROM has an excellent wiki, which explains in great detail how to install the ROM. You can download a suitable ROM from the official download page, and you are also encouraged to visit the project’s GitHub page and participate in the ROM’s development, if you have the necessary skills.

As describe on the ROM’s Google Plus page, “Dirty Unicorns is currently an AOSP/CAF based project. Started in 2012 by Alex Cruz aka Mazda out of curiosity. … It was based off AOKP and really had no intention of being anything else. Times change and today we have a full roster of talented developers with huge support from themers, developers and many folks around the community as well as a few OEMs.”

Dirty Unicorns is perhaps the second most popular custom Android ROM, largely thanks to its wide selection of supported devices, which includes the Google Pixel C. The ROM is openly developed on GitHub, and you can download it from the official website. If you are not sure how to install Dirty Unicorns on your device, watch this YouTube video, which explains everything you need to know.

In the rare case that your device isn’t compatible with any of the three ROMs introduced in this article, there’s still some hope left. Head over to the XDA-Developers forums and search for your device. There, you are likely to find custom ROMs developed by independent developers and Android enthusiast specifically for your smartphone or tablet.

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The Apple II ROM can be divided into three distinct sections:

  • $C000-CFFF: Mainboard I/O and peripheral slot ROM
  • $D000-F7FF: BASIC (Applesoft or Integer)
  • $F800-FFFF: system monitor (original or autostart)

Disassemblies that cover a specific area are listed in the sections below.

James Davis created a detailed disassembly of the Apple ][+ ROM thatcovers the full span, from $C000-FFFF. See thedisassembly listing or download theproject file .ZIP.

Peripheral Card ROMs

Booting a 5.25' floppy on an Apple II begins when the firmware in thedisk controller card gets control. It has to spin up the floppy drive,seek the head to track 0, watch bytes go by until the start of sector 0is found, read 342 bytes of raw data, decode the (essentially) base64encoding to get 256 bytes of actual data, verify the data checksum, andexecute the code.

And it has to do all that in 256 bytes of 6502 code.

  • Disassembly listing of the 'BOOT0' firmware on a card in slot 6 ($C600).
  • Disassembly listing of a sample of DOS 3.3 'BOOT1' code found on track 0 sector 0.
  • Project set - project files and binaries (requires SourceGen v1.5 or later).

There's a longer explanation of the BOOT0 processhere.

BASIC ROMs

If you want to understand how Applesoft works, the most detailedinformation available is in Bob Sander-Cederlof's disassembly of theApple ][+ ROM code. This is currently available on his web site asS-C Documentor: Applesoft.

The disassembly is presented as source code for the S-C Assembler,which runs on the Apple II. Due to the constraints of 8-bit computers,the sources are split into 26 separate files, which is somewhatinconvenient on a modern system.

As an exercise, I converted the entire disassembly to a SourceGen project.This allows perusal of the entire program as a single entity, and providesfull cross-reference data. It does have a few drawbacks, notably that thelimitations on operands don't allow it to fully express the equations insome places.

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  • Disassembly listing of Applesoft as shipped in the Apple ][+.
  • Project set - project files and binaries (requires SourceGen v1.5 or later).

If you're interested in digital archaeology, thesource code for the original Microsoft BASIC has beenposted online withsome very interesting commentary.

Programmer's Aid #1

Integer BASIC was small enough to leave room for some additional functions,including music and hi-res graphics routines. These were shipped asa separate ROM, calledProgrammer's Aid #1.Some of the code, such as the hi-res functions, were included as part ofApplesoft BASIC.

James Davis created an annotated disassembly.

  • Disassembly listing of Programmers Aid #1, decomposed into sections.
  • Project set - project file and binaries (requires SourceGen v1.6 or later).

System Monitor ROMs

The Apple II Reference Manualincludes the source code for the original monitor ROM, starting on page 155,and the autostart monitor ROM, starting on page 136. The former shippedin the original Apple ][, the latter in the Apple ][+.

As an exercise, I loaded the ROM images into SourceGen and reproducedthe contents. This is a fairly faithful rendition, and provides little inthe way of additional commentary or improved formatting. It does, however,make it possible to search, and you can use SourceGen's cross-referencefeatures to see how things connect.

An excellent source of information on the Apple II monitor is the book'Apple II Monitors Peeled', published by Apple Computer in 1981.

  • Disassembly listing of the original monitor ROM. (This has significantly more comments than the autostart version.)
  • Disassembly listing of the autostart monitor ROM.
  • Project set - project files and binaries (requires SourceGen v1.4 or later).

The Oft-Misunderstood WAIT

The explanation of how long the WAIT routine at $FCA8 takes to run isincorrect in multiple sources. For example, the original monitor ROMlisting says:

Neither comment is correct. The official Apple documentation,Apple II Monitors Peeled, says:

William F. Luebbert's What's Where in the Apple says:

These are both multiplying the cycle count by the CPU's clock speed(in cycles per second) when they should be using the cycle time (in secondsper cycle). A 2MHz machine would run the code in half the time, not taketwice as long.

So what's the correct answer? Let's start by confirming the cycle count.The code is:

The inner SBC/BNE loop is usually 5 cycles, because BNE takes 3 cycles whenthe branch is taken. The last iteration takes one fewer. We decrementA each time, so if initially A=4, the inner loop executes 4+3+2+1 times. Sothis takes A*(A+1)/2 * 5 - A cycles.

The outer loop executes A times, and takes 12 cycles. Again, the last timethrough takes one fewer: A*12 - 1.

Outside of that, we have 8 cycles of non-loop stuff (SEC/RTS). If we wantto add the JSR that called here that's another 6 cycles, but I prefer to putthat in the caller's account instead (could've been a JMP at the end of afunction rather than a JSR).

Putting it together yields A*(A+1)/2 * 5 - A + A*12 - 1 + 8. Applying algebra:

Throw in the 6-cycle JSR and you get the formula fromApple II Monitors Peeled. So the cycle-count part of their formulais correct. What about the time per cycle?

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In a comp.sys.apple2 post,awanderin notes:

The CPU has 64 clock periods of 14 * (1 / 14.318181 MHz) or 0.978µs andone stretched period of 16 * (1 / 14.318181 MHz) or 1.117µs, which givesan average clock period of 0.980µs. That works out to an average clockspeed of 1.0205 MHz.

(why)This gives a final result of:

Which is about 4% less than the 'official' duration.

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Side note: calling WAIT with A set to zero is *almost* the same asA=256. The code does the subtraction before the zero test, so itdoesn't exit immediately. However, the first subtraction clearsthe carry, which means the next subtraction will subtract 2 instead of 1.So the first two executions of the inner loop have one fewer iteration(the first one because of the inner-loop SBC, the second one becauseof the outer-loop SBC). So it's 10 cycles short.

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Copyright 2019 by Andy McFadden