ROM emulation (was Re: Apple II for intro to microprocessors)

From: Ethan Dicks <ethan_dicks_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Thu Jul 19 01:58:53 2001

--- Mike Ford <mikeford_at_socal.rr.com> wrote:
> >> > > I bought something called a Romulator (something like that,
> >> > > http://www.romrocket.com/) that I could dump a file to over a serial
> >> > > link,
> >> > > and then it behaved in circuit exactly like an eprom.
> >
> >If it was a genuine "Romulator", it may have been made here in Columbus
> >by a friend of mine - Grammar Engine produced the Romulator about 15
>
> That be them, and where the link points.

Yep. Confirmed. That's them. I hadn't heard of the RomRocket, but I
am familiar with the older stuff. Got one here that's rigged for 16-bit
operation. Great for 68K work.

> I had you beat on turnaround time
> though, the Apple IIgs running LISA would let me make a change in the
> source (30k to 40k lines total), assemble and download ready to reset the
> target system and test in less than 2 minutes.

I was assembling on a VAX 8200 and squrting the binary out to the PROMice
over one of the internal console ports - not high speed output. 9600 bps,
but I'm pretty sure that described the bit time, not the bandwidth. We
dropped $13K on the CPU, RAM and disk controller. We did had them pull
the Ethernet and any other I/O to get the price _down_ to that! (later
we got another CPU card and I managed to fiddle around with console media
enough to get the CPU revs to match and, voila, an 8300. The last thing
I got to work in it was a couple of 4Mb VAXBI memory cards I got from a
scrapper for $10 each (he was going to strip the DRAM off of them) I have
a DEBNT but don't know how to install the cab kit).

Grammar Engine has been in the ROM emulation market since about 1988, give
or take a bit. I may be biased, but I can at least recommend their older
products.

-ethan


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Received on Thu Jul 19 2001 - 01:58:53 BST

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