Talking of the 380Z...

[Tony Duell]

> Not me yet... more interested in their SASI controller at this stage to
> be honest as I really need a way of getting the 380Z fileserver backed
> up!

What about hacking around with the Acorn SASI controller, e.g. the one in 
your ACW? I assume you have schematics, etc for that.

> 
> > > Actually, info on the various PAL chips would be handy; RML didn't half
> > 
> > THere were no PALs in the original set of boards (CPU, VDU, hi-res, disk, 
> > etc). WHat there were -- and were to excess -- were small bipolar PROMs. 
> > Those were often colour-coded.
> 
> That's what I'm thinking of :)  I haven't seen their contents noted down
> anywhere. My programmer here might well handle them, I just don't want
> to risk toasting one out of a running machine!

I'll send you a uuencoded tar.gz file of the ones in my machine (CPU, RAM 
expansion, 40 column video, hi-res). May be a start.

> "COS checks to see if there is a VDU plugged into the SIO-4 socket. If

What does it look for? One of the handshake lines being asseted?

> there is, all subsequent output via the scroller output EMTs is sent to
> this VDU. Graphical output, such as the front panel, or low or high
> resolution graphics, still appear on the RML screen. If a character is

Argh!. While twin monitor setups are useful in some cases, this sounds 
like something of a kludge.

> received from the VDU at 9600 baud, COS also switches the keyboard EMTs
> to take all subsequent input from the VDU ignoring the RML keyboard."
> 
> So it should work with an SIO-4 (or presumably 4C). Indeed, we've
> actually got some Cifer terminals doing nothing which have nice black
> keyboards very similar in looks to the 380Z ones... 
> 
> The text implies that it's not possible to have a terminal as input-only
> though; it'll always redirect text output if a terminal's present. How
> much RML software actually uses the COS routines is another matter -

The EMTs (one of the Z80 RSTs followed by a function code byte) are 
certainly used in the CP/M CBIOS. I suspect a lot of software uses them.

> there must be at least some bits and pieces out there that talk to the
> keyboard / display directly rather than through COS, and those then
> wouldn't work...

Anything doing graphics, for a start...

Personally, I'd try to use the RML's video card for everything, which 
means kludging up a keyboard. It can't be that hard, the interface is as 
simple as it gets.

> Heh, I know what you mean! In the case of RML stuff I like to try and
> keep track of who has what anyway as it's reasonably uncommon stuff.

By my standards they're fairly common....

-tony