Amstrad Communications Interface
Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 8:55 pm
So a few years ago I picked up this expansion for the CPC range. I forget what it came with and never tested it - until now.
First thing was to try and identify what exactly it was. It has few external marking other than on some of the ports and a button. (Reset, User Port, Expansion Port)
The closest I could come to was this link thanks to the v1.5 Rom and Panda on the PCB's. Plus two of the ports look like CBM serial ports.
http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Panda_Electronics_Communications_Interface_Unit
So I finally decided it was high time to find out if I was right and turn the thing on. And yes it appears to be one of these *RARE* pieces of equipment. I should point out that the first test was done using a CPC464, this resulted in a warning message saying there was no CPM ROM available. All further testing was done on a CPC6128.
There are four ROM's on board but only 3 display on the boot screen. So what is the forth ROM? It is labelled UT on a handwritten sticky dot.
After a bit of playing around I discovered the |HELP command
So the last ROM is a Utopia ROM.
I have yet to find any significant information on the web regarding this device. There are copies of the ROM but no sign of a user manual.
Ill keep working on this as it looks like quite an interesting device.
First thing was to try and identify what exactly it was. It has few external marking other than on some of the ports and a button. (Reset, User Port, Expansion Port)
The closest I could come to was this link thanks to the v1.5 Rom and Panda on the PCB's. Plus two of the ports look like CBM serial ports.
http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Panda_Electronics_Communications_Interface_Unit
So I finally decided it was high time to find out if I was right and turn the thing on. And yes it appears to be one of these *RARE* pieces of equipment. I should point out that the first test was done using a CPC464, this resulted in a warning message saying there was no CPM ROM available. All further testing was done on a CPC6128.
There are four ROM's on board but only 3 display on the boot screen. So what is the forth ROM? It is labelled UT on a handwritten sticky dot.
After a bit of playing around I discovered the |HELP command
So the last ROM is a Utopia ROM.
I have yet to find any significant information on the web regarding this device. There are copies of the ROM but no sign of a user manual.
Ill keep working on this as it looks like quite an interesting device.