Wanted: ASM-48 for Intellec MDS-2

[Dave Mabry]

F.Ulivi wrote on 4/2/2015 9:09 AM:
> Hi everyone,
>
> I'm looking for a dump (or the real floppy!) of the ASM-48 assembler
> that ran on Intel MDS-2 systems. It seems that it is very rare (maybe it
> didn't sell too well back in its days). After a few days of googling I
> still have no idea of the Intel part-number for it. Other assemblers
> (e.g. ASM80) are much more common.
> The reason I'm looking for it is to re-implement the firmware in the PIO
> processor (a 8041A) of the MDS-2 emulator I'm writing for MESS. I
> thought it would be a nice idea to write the firmware by using the
> system itself: it is a development system after all!
> I think I've no hope of finding an image of the original firmware. The
> original PIO is a masked ROM version that Intel produced for itself. The
> only way to dump it, I guess, is by decapping and photographing the die.
> By the way, if you are interested, check my preliminary version of the
> emulator (imds2 in 0.160 release of MESS): it's not complete (PIO it's
> not there, for example) but it can run all ISIS-II sw I could find.
> I hope I'm not "offending" anyone in this forum by mentioning an
> emulator, it looks like you are mostly focused on real (vintage) hardware..
>
> Just out of curiosity: is there anyone among you who owns a MDS-2 system?
>
> Thanks!
> -- F.Ulivi
>

Sounds like an interesting project.  But I'm a bit confused. I've sent 
you via private email the assembler you are looking for.  What hardware 
are you looking to write/disassemble code for?  Are you talking about 
something that exists in the hardware of the Intel Series II development 
system?  Off the top of my head the only 8041 is in the keyboard, but I 
may be forgetting one.

I have a few working MDS Series II systems in various configurations.

Dave