Msg: 3485 *Conference*

12-01-92 22:14:59

From: TRACY ALLEN

To : GARY WEBER

Subj: REPLY TO MSG #3470 (XR4 <--> NEC 8201?)

Dear Gary,
   I don't hear from many NEC8300 owners.  That's a very interesting machine,
developed from the 8201.  It's too bad Tandy didn't follow some of the same
paths to increase the built-in memory capacity.  
  
  Just the other day someone called up our office wondering if we knew where
they could lay hands on a hundred 8300s. Apparently someone out there is still
using them in an OEM application and is willing to pay to find more.  But I
sure wouldn't know where to get one.
  
  One big difference between the Tandy computers and the other Kyocera laptops
has to do with the wiring of the option ROM socket.  Most of the Kyocera's,
including the 8201 and 8300 use an industry standard ROM pinout.  But Tandy, in
their great wisdom, or in an effort to lock up the option ROM market for
themselves, remapped the wiring of the option ROM socket.  They had custom
wired ROM chips masked to work in it.  The upshot is that to use standard ROM
chips in the Tandy, you have to have an adapter between the ROM pins and the
socket to undo what Tandy wrought.  At the present time we (EME Systems)
manufacture the only option ROM adapter (ROMBO) (and the best one ever, I must
add :-).  Well, after we started making ROMBOs, it was a relatively easy step
to put a 32K RAM in that same space by adding a couple of additional parts.
And then it was a quest to cram 128k into the same space.  Those RAM-ROMs are
our extRAM and new XR4 respectively.  The trouble is, they are adapted
specifically from our ROMBO, which we have been able to manufacture in a
quantity now approaching 10000 pieces.  That is the very same option ROM
adapter board that unscrambles Tandy's weird wiring.  Therefore, the adapter
board and the extRAM/XR4 hardware don't work in the 8201 or 8300, I'm sorry to
say.  It wouldn't be too hard to lay out a circuit board that would work in the
NEC machines, but the economics of these specialized flexible circuits require
a minimum investment of about $1200 before we even get to the software.  I
agree, the software would not be too much of an obstacle, at least for the most
useful functions.  But it doesn't look feasable.
  
  Were you particularly interested in the N2X.CO program?  It allows swapping
ROM images rapidly to and from the RAMPAC.  Do you have a RAMPAC or DATAPAC on
your 8300?
  
  -- Tracy