SSD=nnn-nnn-nnn-nnn-nnn-nnn-nnn-nnn

This parameter is more for programmers of A-Shell than end users. A-Shell contains a rudimentary but effective SSD emulator, which enables the eight numbers returned by the SSDIAG program to be exactly specified. It is these numbers, padded with leading zeros to three digits, which follow SSD on the command line. It is not a true SSD simulator since it is not based on an actual SSD number, but it does enable the same PIC code to be used for any software protected by a real SSD by simply specifying the same sequence of numbers as returned by SSDIAG.RUN on that machine.

The SSD emulator does not emulate all aspects of the SSD, so it is important that the SSD is written to and read from in the same manner as by the SSDIAG program. The read/write sequence (in BASIC) required is:

io(514) = 0

for SSD'LOOP = 1 to 8

    io(514)=(2^SSD'LOOP)+1

    print io(512)

next SSD'LOOP

Failure to use this read/write sequence within an application will still generate a unique PIC on each A-Shell machine, assuming they are given differing eight-number sequences. In this case, however, it is not guaranteed that if the eight numbers produced by SSDIAG from a real SSD are used, that the PIC used on the original machine will in fact work on the machine running A-Shell.