Sinclair QL Greek rom burn.

[chriskgnr]

Is there a greek rom for the Sinclair QL? Yes there is! It's the 1Σ13 version(1Sigma13) and i want my QL to run with it! But i have no luck. While the things seem to be ok with the eproms programming, when i put the chips into the sockets, the QL crashes at the dots starting screen. I use a Genius G540 eprom programmer and first i download the rom from the site http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/qlrom/ then i split the rom in a 32k part and the following 16k in a second part. I program the first 32K in a 27C256 eprom and the next 16k in a 27C128 eprom. What am i doing wrong?

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

You can not put Eproms into the QL ROM Sockets, they are only designed for QL ROMS.

The QL ROM chip has different pin arrangements.

The Minerva Operating System, was put into Eprom, but had a Printed Circuit Board to change the signals from Eprom to QL Rom.

Derek

[dex]

http://qlforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=409&p=3040

[chriskgnr]

Hmmm, so there is a pinout incompatibility between the rom sockets and the eproms pinout. From the first glance it seemed that they are compatible... I believe it's difficult nowadays to find the 23128 and 23256 chips with the greek firmware. The ic socket--->eprom adaptor pcb seems to be a one way road. The Minerva firmware is a good upgrade from JS or MG?

[dex]

Minerva is incompatible with some old games (and Tandata communication software).
But YES, it is a step forward, half way to SMSQ.
Adds support of both VideoRAMS, several instances of SuperBasic in multitasking, some speed improvements, baudrate split for Hermes, warm reset and autoboot (waits only a short while for F1/F2) and expanded character set including Greek characters together with loadable foreign keyboard driver.

E.g., there are 3 daughter SuperBasic programs running in separate windows on Minerva:
http://www.8bity.cz/wp-content/gallery/ ... g_8215.jpg

[RWAP]

If you definitely want to run the Greek code, I can provide a second hand Minerva EPROM PCB and the blank EPROM for £15 plus postage.

You then just need to combine the Greek ROMs and burn the image onto the EPROM

[chriskgnr]

It sounds quite interesting but the chinese programmer that i have(Genius G540) is a little bit of "selective" with the eprom chips. While it programs the TMS27C512JL(i have tested already with a diy Minerva pcb), for some reason that i don't know, it doesn't support AMD, ST and NS 27(C)512 eproms. Could you provide me just the pcbs without the 27512 eproms?

[chriskgnr]

...and expanded character set including Greek characters together with loadable foreign keyboard driver...

the expanded character set and the keyboard driver is part of the Minerva code or i must load them from a boot file?

[RWAP]

I only have one spare (second hand) Minerva PCB. If you need more, then you would have to ask Tony Firshman.

As for Minerva - yes, it is compiled only with the UK character set and keyboard driver. The Greek character set / keyboard driver (one file) would have to be loaded from microdrive or disk on boot up.

I did ask Tony about re-compiling Minerva with a foreign language pre-installed, but he couldn't find his notes about how to do this.

[chriskgnr]

As for Minerva - yes, it is compiled only with the UK character set and keyboard driver. The Greek character set / keyboard driver (one file) would have to be loaded from microdrive or disk on boot up.

Loading on boot the greek character set and keyboard map is a good solution. Can anyone inform me where to find the Greek character set / keyboard driver?