Talking of the 380Z...

[Jules Richardson]

On Tue, 2005-07-05 at 01:09 +0100, Tony Duell wrote:
> > 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.

Yep, could do - plus I've got the schematics for the Torch one
somewhere. Just wanted to check that there wasn't anything funny about
the RML one (there shouldn't be) - SASI should be SASI no matter what.

> [PROMS]
> 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.

Brilliant - ta muchly for that. I'll see if I can work my programmer out
and read the others that I have...

> > "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?

Doesn't say, unfortunately. I actually think that RML started out with
the best intentions when producing their documents and wanted to
document everything - with the result being that time constraints meant
things were somewhat patchy! Related stuff seems to be spread over lots
of docs seemingly randomly in places, plus there are some big holes...

> > 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.

Yep I agree - still, it's nice that the functionality's sort of there.
I'll have to try it sometime - just got my own 380Z up and running
again.

> 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.

Well that's a good thing in this case :)

> 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.

Yep, true. I'll have to have a look inside one of the Cifer keyboards
sometime as they look the part - maybe one of those can be hooked up via
an interface...

> > 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....

Oh sure, not super-rare - but it's much easier to pick up an S100 system
(say) than a 380Z or other systems of similar age / performance /
flexibility. I seem to have been pretty lucky with RML finds over the
years.

seeya

Jules