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Looking for keyboard controller ROM


mizapf

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Yes, the Geneve keyboard (or any other PC-like keyboard) contains a microcontroller with a ROM that may be read out. In the Geneve keyboard it is a i8049 from Intel's MCS-48 family, with an internal ROM space of 2 KiB. The Geneve keyboard is a XT-compatible MF1 code keyboard with 101 keys.

 

I'm looking for the dump of that controller; there are some easy procedures to read out the contents, but it still involves unsoldering the controller chip. This is what I generally try to avoid with my original hardware.

 

... hence my question whether someone among us has a spare keyboard, or maybe a broken one (unless it is the controller that is broken).

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Michael, I have one that is not in use right now, so not really a spare. It is an original from Myarc, therefore, I too am reluctant to de-solder a controller chip. I would, however, be willing to ship to someone who is qualified to de-solder and can do the read out for you. Any takers?

 

Bill R Sullivan (fdos)

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Do you really think Myarc included proprietary code in the Keyboard?

 

Standard pc/xt keyboards work. I always hoped they were smart enough to not waste engineering dollars there.

 

-

 

If you point at the procedure for dumping the chip, I might find that a fun distraction.

 

I have one of there giant desk hogging keyboards with the + shaped arrow keys. But I use a USB keyboard on the Geneve with one of my adapters.

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No, this is not a proprietary keyboard (no Swan sticked on top ;-) ). But at MAME we did not even have controller ROMs from general XT keyboards until now. However, one of the devs just uploaded a collection of ROMs yesterday; I'll have to check whether a 101-key keyboard is among that set.

 

A procedure to dump the 2K ROM of the keyboard is described here: http://www.sbprojects.net/projects/8049spy/index.php

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No, this is not a proprietary keyboard (no Swan sticked on top ;-) ). But at MAME we did not even have controller ROMs from general XT keyboards until now. However, one of the devs just uploaded a collection of ROMs yesterday; I'll have to check whether a 101-key keyboard is among that set.

 

A procedure to dump the 2K ROM of the keyboard is described here: http://www.sbprojects.net/projects/8049spy/index.php

I have some old XT keyboard in storage, let me know if you just need a dump of one still, I'll see what I can do.

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