Re: Digital Research Z80 "Gold Card"

[Polymorph <mike.a.stephens@gmail.com>]

On Jun 3, 11:06 pm, Steven Hirsch <snhir...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 06/03/2011 03:45 AM, AppleCPM wrote:
>
> > Hi!
>
> > On Jun 1, 1:01 am, Michael wrote:
> >> That's my understanding, too.  "Gold Card" is just a re-branding.
>
> >      Sorry, Michael, but your understanding is wrong.  The "Gold Card"
> > is NOT a re-branding of an AppliCard.  They do seem similar at first
> > glance .  The cards are the same size and the eight 64Kx1 RAM chips
> > are arranged the same way at the left side of the card.  But, on the
> > AppliCard, the remainder of the chips are arranged horizontally
> > whereas on the "Gold Card" they're arranged vertically.  Also, the
> > "Gold Card" has chips that are not used on the AppliCard.  They are:
> > two 6116s (2Kx8 static RAM) and an HD46505 (CRT controller).
>
> According to the review that Willi posted on the Yahoo Apple/CPM group, the
> Gold Card had its own on-board CRT controller!  What a cool idea.  I wish I
> had one of these (with the software, of course).
>
> Willi, have you captured any scans of the card that are detailed enough to
> reverse-engineer the board?  Does it use any programmable logic (PALs or PLDs)?
>
> Steve

Hi Willi,

On a whim, I did a bit of a search but all I could turn up of any
substance was the following comp.os.cpm post (scroll down until you
see the topic "Free to a good home - DRI CPM "Gold Card" docs..."):

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.cpm/tree/browse_frm/month/1999-08?_done%25253D

Mr. Hirsch was actually involved in the discussion (albeit briefly),
but I won't hold that against him seeing as it was nearly 12 years
ago.  :-P

Not much I know, but there might be a possible lead, and at least you
can see what disks were available for the Gold Card...

Cheers,
Mike