IEEE488 INTERFACE 02

[Maddog Bailey]

Hi all.
I recently took delivery of three BBC Master 128s.
Out of those, one is now pristine. One is mostly harmless (keycaps missing).
The third, motherboard and PSU work but case cracked and key switches/keycaps missing.
All are fitted with a ROM which shows up as 'ROM 8 IEEE488 INTERFACE 02'.
I understand it was some communications standard, like RS232, for use between devices.
Anyone have memories of this standard?

[baz4096]

No memories but IEEE-488 is also known as GPIB and was used extensively on Hewlett-Packard equipment for quite some time. I believe it's a parallel interface, and has a connector that's similar to a Centronics one, albeit shorter with fewer pins than the typical "printer port" connector. A wide array of devices used this as their main communication system, leading to many add-on interfaces being produced for the various home computers of the time.

[james]

Some information at http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org ... chive=orig

Edit: Now I think about it, and glancing at the Acorn manual, and having to address a device over a data channel. There was a CBM 3022 printer attached to the PETs at school which had to be addressed with “OPEN4,4” and that was over IEEE488 (a great thick rubbery cable, bolted on at both ends) http://www.zimmers.net/cbmpics/pieee1.html. So, yes, Commodore printers and disc drives, eons ago.

[BigEd]

Yep, the ANK01 cheese wedge - but also note beebmaster says:

As far as I know, this adapter is the only one to have cheese-wedge and non-cheese-wedge varieties. The metal box type is the later variety and I am lucky enough to have one of each.

[BeebMaster]

More here about all my IEEE488 kit, not that I did much with it, as nobody has yet donated an IEEE488 device I can use with any of it:

https://www.beebmaster.co.uk/CheeseWedges/IEEE488.html

What I found interesting when playing about with an Acorn Communicator with BigEd a year or 4 ago was that some of its functions required writing to open files in a similar way to the IEEE488 control functions.

[BigEd]

Ah, that's the page I should have linked!

I think (ah, yes, see here) IEEE488 might be a peer-to-peer bus, so perhaps you could connect two Beebs and communicate over it?

[1024MAK]

I presume y'all read the Wikipedia page?

Mark

[sweh]

Back in the mid/late 90s my company had a couple of HP9000/K400 servers connected to printers with GBIP. As part of a building refurb they got a real computer room (not just a closet with too much crap stuck in it; UPS, air-con, door entry cards... the works!) and had a secondary room for the printers outside of the secure area.

The day after the move they realised "oh shit, the HPs are too far away; the cables are too short; we can't print! End of month reporting is tomorrow!" and asked me "err, can you solve this?"

I looked and found the printers also had a normal parallel port and came up with a plan; "you won't like this but we stick a Linux machine next to the printer, have the HP remotely spool to the Linux machine". This was back when Linux was still a hobbyist OS (no "enterprise" editions). They agreed so I pulled an old desktop off the decom pile, installed RedHat, got it talking to the printer, got the HP talking to RedHat... and it all worked.

This was all part of my sneaky plan to get Linux into the company; I'd already built a monitoring system (based on Big Brother), a backup firewall (incase the Sun Firewall-1 machine died) and a proxy server; wasn't gonna use NT for that!!

[fordp]

I used the IEEE488 Acorn Wedge interface at Sunderland Polytechnic around 1985 or 1986 on the project as part of the control theory part of the course.

I know it involved talking to more than one device with at least one being a HP product. I wrote all the code in BBC Basic myself. I could not get it working and ended up talking to the Author of the ROM on the phone who was blind. There was a mistake in the manual.

The project involved controlling and recording data and making graphs as the output. The other thing I remember is that it involved Perspex tanks of water.

[BeebMaster]

There was a mistake in the manual.

Yes, I fell foul of the same thing:

https://www.stardot.org.uk/forums/viewt ... 755#p46755

[Maddog Bailey]

I presume y'all read the Wikipedia page?

Mark

You presumed did you? Ah Bless yah !!!

But seriously folks.....

It's interesting that if you ask a question in the right place, how many people will remember pertinent information.

I remember in the early days of Maplin Electronics.
All of the projects that were designed to connect to 'A' computer, had some version to connect to a BBC.
So many different ways to connect to different devices.

Thanks all for your comments.

Stewart.

[Multiwizard]

Hi,

I have this:

viewtopic.php?t=13565

viewtopic.php?p=198038#p198038

Perhaps this helps:

viewtopic.php?t=4769


Greetings, Wim...

[Maddog Bailey]

OK.
Thanks all again for your input.
Upshot is, I have three of these ROMS which I will never use.
If you want them I am happy to send them, hopefully you will agree to cover the postage.
If they turn out to be more valuable to one, or the other, then you can fight amongst yourselves.
Best Regards,
Stewart.

[Multiwizard]

OK.
Thanks all again for your input.
Upshot is, I have three of these ROMS which I will never use.
If you want them I am happy to send them, hopefully you will agree to cover the postage.
If they turn out to be more valuable to one, or the other, then you can fight amongst yourselves.
Best Regards,
Stewart.

Thanks for the offer but actually I also wanted to ask you in my previous post if it would be possible to make & post a rom dump zip file of it...

Then it's also archived/preserved on *. & available for everyone

[Maddog Bailey]

Ok.
That is an interesting idea. Not one I have thought of because I have no means to copy a ROM yet.
Have considered a burner for other stuff but never "needed" that kind of hardware so far.
Anybody want a ROM to copy and make it available to all?
Happy to provide one or all to further the cause.

[Multiwizard]

Ok.
That is an interesting idea. Not one I have thought of because I have no means to copy a ROM yet.
Have considered a burner for other stuff but never "needed" that kind of hardware so far.
Anybody want a ROM to copy and make it available to all?
Happy to provide one or all to further the cause.

I hope someone in the UK will respond,

I can copy/read out roms but I'm in the Netherlands...

Sadly the IEEE488 wedge isn't that popular to many people...

[Maddog Bailey]

Nice part of the World. I worked in Maasvlakte a few years ago.

P.M. your address if you wish and I will mail one of the ROMS.

Best Regards,
Stewart.

[Multiwizard]

Nice part of the World. I worked in Maasvlakte a few years ago.

P.M. your address if you wish and I will mail one of the ROMS.

Best Regards,
Stewart.

Hi Stuart,

pm sent...

[Maddog Bailey]

Address received.
I understand the excess costs of postage and customs since Brexit. I will cover the cost provided that:
You make the code available to all on Stardot.org.uk.
It does not cost me more than 15 Euro.

Will post on Monday 12-02-1014.

That means there is now 2 ROMs available.

Best Regards,
Stewart.

[Multiwizard]

Address received.
I understand the excess costs of postage and customs since Brexit. I will cover the cost provided that:
You make the code available to all on Stardot.org.uk.
It does not cost me more than 15 Euro.

Will post on Monday 12-02-1014.

That means there is now 2 ROMs available.

Best Regards,
Stewart.

Will do...

Many thanks for all this, it's much appreciated...

[1024MAK]

if it helps, you can use a utility ROM to copy most sideways ROMs in a BBC B. The question is, do you have a way to transfer data between your Beeb and a PC?

Alternately, although I have no use for this ROM myself (not having the hardware interface), I can copy the ROM. So if you wish, you could send it to me. I would post a copy of ROM file here on the forum, and would make the ROM chip available for any member at no charge apart from postage. Or to save postage costs, at the upcoming ABug South meeting.

If you do want me to help, please let me know and I will PM my address to you.

Mark

[Maddog Bailey]

Hi Mark.
That is interesting. Whilst looking through the disks on the Gotek, I came across a utilities disk.
On it there was a ROM copy program. It crashed, but I was running it on a BBC Master 128.
I note that you mention specifically a 'BBC B'.

As mentioned, I have a Gotek. I also have a Pi Econet Bridge setup, so I am able to copy stuff from BBC to PC and vice versa.

I'm not too worried about the cost of postage if it is going to the cause.

Are you the same Mark from RetroClinic?
If so, I have your address. If not. P.M. Me please.

Where and when is the Abug South Venue?

Best Regards,
Stewart.

[Multiwizard]

We have several Mark's here on *. ,

the one you meant (RetoClinic) is Mark Haysman...

I'm expecting nothing just do as you please it's ok...

[Maddog Bailey]

Ah sorry. My mistake.
Please PM your address to me.

Best Regards,
Stewart.

[Multiwizard]

Ah sorry. My mistake.
Please PM your address to me.

Best Regards,
Stewart.

Just to be sure?...

Did you reply to Mark (1024MAK) or me?...

[Maddog Bailey]

OK. It got confusing.

Multiwizard. I will send a ROM to you at the address provided.

1024MAK. I will send a ROM to you at the address you provide.

I now have one surplus IEEE488 ROM remaining.

Best Regards,
Stewart.

[1024MAK]

That is interesting. Whilst looking through the disks on the Gotek, I came across a utilities disk.
On it there was a ROM copy program. It crashed, but I was running it on a BBC Master 128.
I note that you mention specifically a 'BBC B'.

The Master already has some commands for copying sideways ROMs. See *SRSAVE (but this only works for saving sideways RAM).
There are more flexible and less restrictive utilities available.

The BBC B running DFS does not have any build in commands. Hence you either need to load a suitable utility ROM into sideways RAM, actually have a physical ROM (EPROM) in your system or use a floppy disk utility.

I was actually thinking about "Advanced ROM Manager" specifically (for the BBC B). But also see this set of tools on mdfs.

Are you the same Mark from RetroClinic?

No.

Where and when is the Abug South Venue?

Details of ABug South are in this topic

Mark

[Pernod]

Hi Mark.
That is interesting. Whilst looking through the disks on the Gotek, I came across a utilities disk.
On it there was a ROM copy program. It crashed, but I was running it on a BBC Master 128.
I note that you mention specifically a 'BBC B'.

Assuming you have a writeable floppy image in the Gotek you can save the ROM image with:
*SRWRITE 8000 C000 2000 8
*SAVE IEEE 2000+4000 8000 8000

This copies the ROM image to RAM, then saves to the floppy image in Gotek.

[Multiwizard]

Stuart,

yesterday I received the rom & did manage to read it out & saved into a ZIP file, see attachment...

[Maddog Bailey]

Hi Mark.
That is interesting. Whilst looking through the disks on the Gotek, I came across a utilities disk.
On it there was a ROM copy program. It crashed, but I was running it on a BBC Master 128.
I note that you mention specifically a 'BBC B'.

Assuming you have a writeable floppy image in the Gotek you can save the ROM image with:
*SRWRITE 8000 C000 2000 8
*SAVE IEEE 2000+4000 8000 8000

This copies the ROM image to RAM, then saves to the floppy image in Gotek.

Hi Mark,
I think this may be beyond my knowledge at the moment.
Are you assuming I have some sideways RAM?
If I WAS able to copy it to disk, could I then run it from floppy?
Or would I still need to copy it to an EPROM?

Best Regards,
Stewart.