ROM on Altair front panel board

From: Kapteyn, Rob <kapteynr_at_cboe.com>
Date: Mon Jul 28 13:40:01 2003

Which version Altair ?
The original Altair has no ROM anywhere.

I think you are looking at the "turn-key" version.
It has no switches for manual intervention, so it would have to have some intelligence,
in the form of a boot-loader.

I have never worked with a turn-key version, so I am not sure.

-Rob




-----Original Message-----
From: Cini, Richard [mailto:RCini_at_congressfinancial.com]
Sent: Monday, July 28, 2003 12:15 PM
To: CCTech (E-mail)
Subject: ROM on Altair front panel board


Hello, all:

        I was just looking at the schematics for the display/control board
for the Altair 8800 and saw that there is a 1702 EPROM on the board. The
lowest 4-bits of the EPROM's address bus are connected to a 7493 binary
counter and the highest 4-bits are connected directly to the address bus.

        What's the purpose of the EPROM? Did the front panel have some
intelligence?

Rich
Received on Mon Jul 28 2003 - 13:40:01 BST