[NTLK] Newton Mp2x00 Extract the ROM, request for help

Frank Gruendel newtontalk at pda-soft.de
Sat Jan 31 07:28:54 EST 2015


> One of you could help me to solve a problem with a special ROM of 
> MP2000. This ROM is a different version from that of the 
> MP2x00US or MP2x00DE, because it is the version FR (French).

> I have a self-made hardware that can read your ROM card and put the
> result into an 8MB file. I am not sure though if you can do anything
useful
> with that file. EInstein will probably not run very well or at all because
> some patches are needed that are likely not at the same address in this
ROM.

Sylvain, Matthias,

it would be terrific to create this file anyway. If we did this, we could,
at least theoretically, duplicate the ROM boards.

It shouldn't be all that difficult to have new ROM chips burned somewhere
and use them to replace the chips on a standard 2x00 ROM board. I could do
the replacement, and I guess I could figure out a way to get these chips
burned. Come to think of it, I wouldn't be overly surprised if in some
drawer in your (Matthias') laboratory we'd find, covered by dust, a pile of
wires, components and connectors temporarily attached to a breadboard that
can do just this...

Might be a problem to get ROM chips that fit on the 2x00 ROM board, but us
engineers have this tendency to take problems not as obstacles, but as
challenges.

I, for one, would love to get my hands on such a board. It would allow us,
at least theoretically, to make a real French 2x00 Newton. While we are at
it, we could even try to use larger ROMs and put the English and the GERMAN
OS in along with the French one.

As to the French OS, maybe we'd fail miserably, for example because some I/O
addresses aren't identical on the Watson's and the 2x00's hardware.

But it'd certainly be fun to try. 

Cheers

Frank

-- Newton software and hardware at http://www.pda-soft.de




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