Amstrad Communications Interface

[acsi]

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.

[David]

There is a youtube video of a guy in the UK using something like that with a modem on it to dial into a BBS with it he has a terminal rom in his
amstrad and with the modem comms stuff as well. You might like to have a look for his video and some info. Has a RS232 interface on it
for a modem.

David B

[tezza]

What a great find. I't amazing how many of these misc. peripherals are (were!) out there for home computers of the day.