Query for dec teleprinter roms
william degnan
billdegnan at gmail.com
Mon Sep 21 23:10:34 CDT 2015
Thanks. I will see what I can do.
B
Bill Degnan
twitter: billdeg
vintagecomputer.net
On Sep 21, 2015 11:02 PM, "Jonathan Gevaryahu" <jgevaryahu at gmail.com> wrote:
> There isn't a complete archive of these ROMs in existence currently. Pete
> Turnbull's site does contain an archive, but it isn't anywhere near
> complete. The drivers in MAME/MESS also act as a sort of archive as well.
>
> The direct prompt of this request was the desire to get one or more of the
> dot matrix teleprinters running in MAME/MESS, the progress of which can be
> seen at
> https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mess/drivers/decwritr.c ,
> with the LA120, but the ROMs I have right know for the LA120 fail their
> built-in checksum test, so I'm stuck at a development impasse until I can
> get some more roms to work with (or correctly re-dumped copies of the
> existing roms).
>
> The end result of what I'm trying to do would hopefully look something
> like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l20V7f2sM8c
>
> On 9/21/2015 3:19 PM, william degnan wrote:
>
> What are you going to do with these? Is there a ROM archive for DEC
> printer ROMs?
>
> On 9/21/2015 3:14 PM, Jonathan Gevaryahu wrote:
>
>> Does anyone have an LA36, LA120 or LAS12, LA34, LA100, or LA210
>> somewhere which they could dump the ROMs from?
>>
>> Notes:
>> The LA36 uses several proms for its discrete cpu, and 2 character
>> set roms which I believe have an 'odd' pinout.
>>
>> The LA120, one of the roms on the '2 rom version' is an 8k 2364 24
>> pin chip which is a bit annoying to dump, since you either need a
>> 2364->2764 24->28 pin adapter, or (better) a programmer which can
>> dump MC68764 or MC68766 24-pin 8k eproms (which have the same
>> pinout as 2364). The other rom on the 2 rom version is a 2k 2316
>> 24 pin chip.
>> The oldest LA120 version uses 5 roms, all 2k 2316s. The code on
>> the 5-rom version and the 2-rom version may very well be the same
>> (the first 4 2k chips consolidated to one 8k chip), I'm not sure.
>> Would be nice to get dumps of both versions.
>> The LAS12 uses different code from the LA120 and to the best of my
>> knowledge all LAS12s use 2 roms, one 8k and one 2k.
>>
>> LA34, theres at LEAST five firmware versions, almost certainly
>> six, and possibly as many as seven. There is also a special
>> firmware for a 'rom expansion' daughterboard.
>> The 1978 LA34 "54-13374" motherboard has a bizarre Intel i8355
>> mask rom+io chip in it, plus a separate rom as well. (there are at
>> least two versions of said i8355+rom firmware). Dumping the i8355
>> is not for the faint of heart, it would likely be easier to insert
>> a 'dumping program' eprom into the single rom's socket, and use
>> the LA34's cpu to spit its own rom contents out via serial.
>> The 1980 LA34 "54-13747" motherboard lacks the i8355 and uses 2 or
>> 3 mask roms or eproms on it instead (and 74xx logic for the i/o).
>> There are at least three rom revisions for this, possibly four or
>> five.
>>
>> LA100 (AKA LW100)... I have no idea. There's definitely at least
>> one rom revision. Also to the best of my knowledge neither the
>> maintenance print set nor the technical manual for the LA100 are
>> scanned (they certainly don't appear at
>> http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dec/terminal/la100/ ),
>> which makes it difficult to know.
>>
>>
>
> --
> Jonathan Gevaryahu
> jgevaryahu at gmail.com
> jgevaryahu at hotmail.com
>
>
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