Acorn IEEE488 interface

[Jules Richardson]

Eelco Huininga wrote:
> Does anyone have any documentation or software (other than IEEEFS 0.5 
> and NIEEE 0.2) for Acorn's IEEE488 interface for the beeb? 

Amazingly, I've got the "IEEE488 interface user guide" for the BBC micro.

I remember your message on the BBC list about this, and had a *really* vague 
recollection at the time of seeing something to do with the unit a while back 
amongst piles of other stuff. I had absolutely no idea where it'd be though - 
assuming I hadn't imagined it anyway (and that it was even something useful).

Then I went and spotted the darn thing on top of a pile of to-be-sorted Acorn 
stuff about an hour ago - so good timing on a second posting here!

It's 86 pages including covers, but it is A5 size, so I could try and scan it 
at two pages per scan on my A4 scanner sometime - not sure if I'll get chance 
this side of Christmas, although I can try....

Oh, I probably already have a scan of the Acorn advertising for the unit too 
(it'll just be an A4 page), although I'm surprised that's not already out 
there in electronic form.

I've also got the schematic for the Acorn System IEEE488 card somewhere - it 
wouldn't surprise me if the BBC unit is based heavily on this (I don't think I 
have the actual BBC version's schematics though, although I'll check)

 > It seems like almost nothing has survived...

I don't think they were widely used. I suppose the BBC micro came with enough 
expansion options that most people had no need for it.

Cambridge university still had one as of last year, but I'm not sure what's 
happened to it since or if there was any software with it (almost certainly 
not; hardware from there seems to usually get thrown out separately to 
software / manuals). This was heard via someone else, so I'm not even sure who 
the contact there was.

Kent uni almost certainly used to have one too, as that's where my Teletext 
adapter came from - with an IEEE488 box lid!

I've also got a complete unit in the cupboard (but no BBC-side ROM to go with it)

I *think* Tony Duell (on this list) has one too. Other than that, those are 
the only four (well, three and a lid) I've ever heard of.

cheers

Jules