Looking for keyboard controller ROM

[mizapf]

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).

[FDOS]

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)

[jedimatt42]

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.

[RickyDean]

I have used many different XT and AT/XT switchable keyboards successfully with my Genny, I don't believe there would be proprietary roms in there.

[mizapf]

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

Edited March 28, 2017 by mizapf

[RickyDean]

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.