well, the main reason for the 'IBM Fluke' idea, was with an open source
program (which is what I plan to do if it ever becomes reality) extra
options not in the original fluke could be added - for instance the 9010 has
a mask for ram tests, useful where the colour map ram is only 4 bits for
instance, this could very easily be done in software. other ideas were to
allow 'templates' for boards to be created, detailing memory maps, rom
signatures, page mechanisms (to allow all pages to be checked) etc. - for
building the original (simple) templates it would be fairly easy to add an
option for mame to create them (at least ram/rom checksums (multiple where
various bootlegs exist)
other advantages include reading roms direct to files on the PC, using built
in ROMIDENT to identify roms - basically, anything you lot can think of!
I have a bid on an 8088 pod (which I can;t check, becuase my stupid
microsoft based internet connection just decided to drop the line and the
wife is now on the phone!) which I am hoping to use to test the
communication protocol without risk to my more useful pods (z80 and 68000)
if anyone has info on the connections etc, then it will all be appreciated
and may help the idea become reality
oh, and the other reason for the idea, when I go anywhere to look at arcade
stuff, I always take the laptop and the eprom programmer, so if I can drive
the pod from the laptop, I don;t need to take the fluke too!
Received on Tue Feb 26 16:18:36 2002
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