On Mar 12, 22:01, Doug Yowza wrote:
> Speaking of IMSAI's, I just bought a PROM/RAM board from somebody (it's on
> its way) without knowing exactly what it is (that's my standard MO). All
> I know is that it's a Vector Graphics board for an IMSAI (and comes with
> the original receipt from IMS, as well as an original IMSAI catalog!) and
> I can tell from Bill R's Tandy catalog
> (http://incolor.inetnebr.com/bill_r/Tandy_TOC_Frames_Page.htm)
> that it was intended as a front-panel replacement (are your fingers red
> and swolen?).
>
> My guess is that a PROM/RAM board is sort of a ROM emulator. Am I close,
> or is it just a board that can handle PROMs and RAMs?
I'd expect it's just a board that can hold either PROMs or static RAM. A "ROM
emulator" usually refers to some plug-in device, often controlled by a logic
analyser or EPROM programmer with a ribbon cable, that pretends to be a ROM.
Used for development purposes: instead of switching the machine off, counting
to 15, pulling the EPROM, blowing another, fitting it, straightening the pins,
fitting it again, powerering up... you can modify the code on the fly (or while
the machine is halted).
Do you mean it's a board that can do vector graphics, or that it was made by
"Vector Graphics"? I assume the latter, as the former doesn't fit with the
rest of your description. A "front panel replacement" usually means a
ROM/PROM/EPROM board with bootstrap and perhaps monitor code, so you could type
simple commands and get a (textual) response on a VDU instead of having to
toggle the switches and watch the blinkenlights. Quite often, ROM boards could
be could be jumpered for different addresses, not just a bootstrap address, and
sometimes they could hold byte-wide static RAM instead of byte-wide EPROM.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
Received on Fri Mar 13 1998 - 06:56:17 GMT