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Amstrad Serial Interface

782 bytes removed, 06:50, 26 July 2010
== I/O Ports ==
 
Here are the I/O Ports (same for original and Pace version):
FADCh Amstrad RS323 Z8470 (Z80 DART) Channel A Data (R/W)
A vast range of comms software was available for [[CP/M]], including [[Bulletin board|bulletin board]] hosts, offline readers (notably [[CRR]] - CP/M Read and Reply), and many terminals.
 
== 8250 Information (probably nonsense) ==
 
'''Below is information about the 8250 UART chip. As far as known, the Amstrad Serial Interface does NOT use that chip, a 8253 yes, but not a 8250. No idea why that information is here...?'''
 
Like the original interface, the Pace design used an 8250 [[UART]] chip (really???), which was reliable up to 9600 baud and could sometimes function at faster speeds. The possibility has been discussed of replacing this with a pin-compatible 16550 and gaining even faster transfer speeds, but this is not believed to have been tested.
 
This [http://www.systemed.net/pcw/cps8256.html webpage about the CPS8256] (the Amstrad serial interface for the PCW) also includes some CPC information. Caution: that webpage seems to be confused/bugged. There is no 8250 chip used at all. Baudrate MSB/LSB are exchanged, and for both CPC and PCW, the clock source should be 2MHz instead of 1.84375MHz, etc.
 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8250_UART Link to Article on Wikipedia about the 8250 UART used (or rather NOT used???) in the interface]
 
== Manual ==
 
[[Original Amstrad RS232 interface|Manual of the original RS232 by Amstrad (OCR)]]
== Pictures ==
image:Amstrad_Computer_User8509028.jpg|
</gallery>
 
== Manuals ==
 
* [[Original Amstrad RS232 interface|Manual of the original RS232 by Amstrad (OCR)]]
* Pace Manual... none such scanned yet...
 
== Downloads ==
 
* ROM Image for original version - none such (?)
* [[Media:AmstradPaceSerialInterfaceCommstarRomImage.zip|ROM Image for Pace version]] - 32K ROM (two 16K banks)
[[Category:Hardware]] [[Category:Peripherals]] [[Category:Serial_interfaces]][[Category:Amstrad Products]]
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