RE: Asteroids CPU repair problems

On Tue, 7 Jul 1998, David Shoemaker (Comforce/RhoTech) wrote:

> I am not sure I understand the problem with the switch PCB, but I am happy
> to tackle it to the best of my ability. Do you think you can get the logic
> PCB "on a chip"? I can work on the PC part easy enough if that is what
> works out to be the best. I know my way around PC software pretty well.
>

        The CAT box has all sorts of LEDs, 7-segment drivers, switches,
keypad, etc. The switch PCB has all this stuff, including the
switches and displays themselves, as well as the drivers, buffers, etc.

        Like I (and others) have said before the switch PCB is
probably best replaced with a PC.

        The Logic PCB can be reduced to a few chips. There is a
6502, a 6532 RAM, and a ROM that pretty much don't lend themselves
well to getting put on a PLD. The rest of the logic on there
can probably be compressed onto 1 or 2 PLDs. Thus, probably the
best we can do is a CAT box on 4 chips. It will probably be
worthwhile to find an alternate to the 6532, because those are
hard to find (BG micro is the only place that I've found that
has them.)

        Basically, what I'm saying is that I'll do the Logic PCB
if someone else will come up with some way to do all the other
stuff (that is currently on the switch PCB.) I hate to be
melodramatic, but the Logic PCB is useless without all that stuff.

Joe
Received on Tue Jul 7 15:32:48 1998