Search found 62 matches

by dreamseal
Sat Feb 18, 2023 11:02 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Reverse engineering the 6522 VIA chip?
Replies: 7
Views: 8174

Re: Reverse engineering the 6522 VIA chip?

For those who have been wondering if I made any progress on the 6522, I didn't end up starting really, as I got sidetracked on to the HCS10017 chip at the time. I did also work on a few other chips unrelated to the Oric after that, such as the SAA5050 (used by the BBC Micro). But the good news is th...
by dreamseal
Mon Sep 24, 2018 2:11 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Poly 1 Computer
Replies: 6
Views: 6032

Re: Poly 1 Computer

It actually has two TELETEXT chips, and two separate graphics screens, that are layered on top of each other, with a single colour background "screen" behind that. It fetches the data from the four screens in parallel and there appears to be a couple of ways that they can be combined/mixed.
by dreamseal
Sun Sep 23, 2018 9:15 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Poly 1 Computer
Replies: 6
Views: 6032

Re: Poly 1 Computer

Machines made for government contracts tend to have some quite powerful features, just look at the BBC, with some quite powerful basic, 2mhz cpu, and decent graphic modes. Yes, such a shame that the New Zealand government pulled out of the deal to purchase these for schools. That was probably the b...
by dreamseal
Fri Sep 21, 2018 10:02 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Poly 1 Computer
Replies: 6
Views: 6032

Poly 1 Computer

This is totally unrelated to the Oric, but I thought that a few people might be interested in this. I discovered this only a couple of weeks ago. I am originally from New Zealand. I was born there, grew up there, went to school there, started working there. Up until about 10 years ago I was still li...
by dreamseal
Wed Sep 05, 2018 5:27 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: California Devices Inc and the HCS10017
Replies: 31
Views: 28988

Re: California Devices Inc and the HCS10017

Yes, I'm waiting to see if anyone is brave enough to take the risk on testing this feature. :D
by dreamseal
Tue Sep 04, 2018 7:50 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: California Devices Inc and the HCS10017
Replies: 31
Views: 28988

Re: California Devices Inc and the HCS10017

Also I've been in touch with Mike Brown, who has in the past done a lot of thinking about what the internals of the ULA might look like. I knew he would be very interested in the die shot, as would any Oric enthusiast. Many of you have probably been wondering where things have got to with this inve...
by dreamseal
Tue Jul 24, 2018 7:36 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: California Devices Inc and the HCS10017
Replies: 31
Views: 28988

Re: California Devices Inc and the HCS10017

Below are download links for two additional images that Mike Connors sent me with the original die shot image. The first is an image of the die shot that has been annotated, showing the pin numbers, and with many of the lines coloured: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1aezVUuZfjcjyye0w8GvJGa4LcPdEK4...
by dreamseal
Tue Jul 24, 2018 12:32 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: California Devices Inc and the HCS10017
Replies: 31
Views: 28988

Re: California Devices Inc and the HCS10017

A decap of the ULA would be awesome, specially if we can reverse the logic accurately. Some very exciting news today :D Last week (or it was probably the end of the week before), I started making a few enquiries about this. I spoke to Mike Connors (who is the same man who decapped the ZX Spectrum U...
by dreamseal
Fri Jul 20, 2018 7:52 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: California Devices Inc and the HCS10017
Replies: 31
Views: 28988

Re: California Devices Inc and the HCS10017

A decap of the ULA would be awesome, specially if we can reverse the logic accurately. The nice thing about it being a CMOS gate array is that the diffusion areas and polysilicon lines are in pre-defined areas, as are the VDD and VSS lines. I'm used to looking at fully custom NMOS die shots, and fo...
by dreamseal
Wed Jul 18, 2018 11:29 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: California Devices Inc and the HCS10017
Replies: 31
Views: 28988

Re: California Devices Inc and the HCS10017

From having studied the "CDI single metal layer gate array structure" image above for a bit, the following is what I think the "tile" is that would repeat across the chip in both horizontal and vertical directions: cdi_gate_array_tile.png This image contains four cells. Two of th...
by dreamseal
Wed Jul 18, 2018 11:00 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: California Devices Inc and the HCS10017
Replies: 31
Views: 28988

Re: California Devices Inc and the HCS10017

As promised, here is the original image from the advert placed next to and aligned with the same section from the university lecture slide image: hcs_series_closeup_side_by_side.png There are a few things missing in each case, but they are certainly the same structure. In the case of the left hand i...
by dreamseal
Wed Jul 18, 2018 10:38 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: California Devices Inc and the HCS10017
Replies: 31
Views: 28988

Re: California Devices Inc and the HCS10017

Nice and very interesting bit of research! Thanks for putting in the effort to dig that up! :wink: I have kept digging, and have managed to discover a bit about the design of the HCS10000. The eagle eyed may have noticed something quite interesting in the image of the advert that I posted in my las...
by dreamseal
Sat Jul 14, 2018 11:25 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: California Devices Inc and the HCS10017
Replies: 31
Views: 28988

Re: California Devices Inc and the HCS10017

After a fair bit of searching, I've managed to find specific details about the seven devices that made up CDI's HCS Series, from two different sources: cdi_hcs_series.png That info is from a publication called IC Master 1984, Volume 2, and is from pages 4461 and 4463. There is copy on archive.org. A...
by dreamseal
Sat Jul 14, 2018 5:22 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: California Devices Inc and the HCS10017
Replies: 31
Views: 28988

California Devices Inc and the HCS10017

I thought I would start a new topic to collect information on Calfornia Devices Inc, the company that manufactured the Oric ULA. I have spent the last few hours searching the Internet for information on this company and it appears that there is quite a lot of information out there about the company ...
by dreamseal
Sat Jul 14, 2018 11:25 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Reverse engineering the 6522 VIA chip?
Replies: 7
Views: 8174

Re: Reverse engineering the 6522 VIA chip?

Do we know, did the Pravetz 8D have the same supplier for the ULA as for the French & British built Oric machines? I assume CDI (whoever they were) created the chips for both the original Oric branded and licensed clone machines? Edit: I recall now already seeing what CDI stands for. It was Cali...