[NTLK] A new ROM board

[Jeff Sheldon]

Matthias,

Congratulations on a huge accomplishment.  As you mentioned, this opens the door for original hardware to have different personalities with board swaps.  (Would be neat if there was some way to use empty memory regions for multiple ROM images and control what’s loaded.)

I had attempted to reverse the ROM board about 15 years ago and abandoned the idea, partly due to the programmer needs.  Very proud of your achievement.  


-Jeff

> On Feb 22, 2022, at 18:08, Matthias Melcher <m.melcher at robowerk.de> wrote:
> 
> 
>> On 22. Feb 2022, at 13:30, Jake Bordens <jake at allaboutjake.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Nicely Done.  Can’t wait to get my hands on a couple of these!
> 
> So I did manage to boot my MessagePad after all. I took out the old board and put in the new board that I flashed with the US NewtonOS ROM, pulled the power switch, and waited. 
> 
> And waited.
> 
> Nothing.
> 
> Sigh. I put the Newton to the side in frustration, and as I was about to leave the room, I heard a very familiar chime! And then I remembered: when changing the ROM, NewtonOS clears the entire system before booting which takes 15 or so seconds. I was just not patient enough:
> 
> https://youtu.be/Ou_3aya1ujI
> 
> At the moment, these cards need an external programmer hardware to write the operating system, but I plan to write some app that can update the ROM board while it is in the Newton without hardware.
> 
> If anyone has ideas and can help, maybe even write some code, I'll be happy to send a card and a programmer to you.
> 
> - Matthias
> 
> 
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