Dear folklorists,
recently I got hands on a "Data General Dasher D1",
DGC Part number DGC 002 005116. Today I roestored it
and analyzed how it works. For those interested, here
a short description:
(a) PCB made by Keytronic Corp. KTC in 10/1979,
Part. No. A65-01538-01.
(b) On this are some well known Chips (7474, 7437
74123, ...) and a CPU labeled 30293E-003
20-04592-014.
(c) On the PCB is a 20pin PCB-connector and
according to my analysis this is a parallel
port where the Dasher directly transmits
ASCII.
(d) Protocol and pinout: 1,2 : GND
3,4: +5V (approx 350-400mA).
5: /Strobe (a low-pulse of 1us
signals that new data is valid
on the parallel output lines
D0-D7). Data is applied approx
5us before the strobe appears.
6: N.C.
7: D7, 8:D0, 9:D5, 10: D2, 11: D3,
12: D4, 13: D1, 14: D6,
15-17: N.C.
18-20: Outputs of still unkonwn
purpose (originate from the 7437).
Maybe related to the BREAK key -
this is the only key which does
not generate an ASCII-Code and a
strobe pulse.
Maybe this helps someone who wants to
restore/debug/analyze/reuse one of these
units...
Best regards,
Erik.