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The Andrew Lynch remake

A project log for ISA bus slave NS32016 processor board

By Dave Rand and George Scolaro, 1985.

keithKeith 02/02/2024 at 23:420 Comments

Andrew Lynch converted the design into a modern electronic description (KiCad) around 2016, which well and truly captures the design for posterity.

If anyone wants to build one, I'm happy to send some programmed PAL chips.

I tend to look at things and immediately think "it would be better if..." and then it ends up completely different. For example, I'd replace the 2M DRAM and controller with four 512Kx8 SRAM chips, the ISA bus with a USB FIFO, and make it a 160 or 220 mm Eurocard. Or recreate the lot in an FPGA. Or simulate everything in a modern PC, which would probably be fastest of all....

I feel it would be okay to reproduce the board with mods to accept modern EEPROM chips, because few people will accept the fuss of UV erasers these days. It would also make it easier to 'piggy back' some big SRAM chips over them if you can't get the DRAM modules.

These photos of the original board are copied from http://ftp.berklix.org/~dlr/pd32/

It is a full-length ISA bus board.

The NS32202 is an Interrupt Control Unit.

The NS32819 is a DRAM interface chip, for the eight 256K x 8-bit modules.

I have many DRAM modules but not in 0.1" pitch.

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