Re: What card is this?

[mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon)]

Roger Johnstone wrote:

>In <5e7193b4.0402182103.22fbc085@posting.google.com> Willi Kusche wrote:
>> Hi, y'all!
>> 
>>     I have a small card with 3 chips.  Two are 8K by 8 static RAM
>> chips (TC5565APL) and the other is marked PAL 20R4AC6N.  Across the
>> top is "(C) 1986 THE ENGINEERING DEPT. INC.".  Up the side is
>> "SR010081".
>> 
>> Willi
>
>I believe you have a 16KB language card for an Apple II or II+. By the 
>time this card came out 16KB of static RAM was cheap enough that it was 
>worth using instead of dynamic RAM. Dynamic RAM is cheaper than static 
>RAM, but it requires a lot more support circuitry. The other chip is a 
>PAL, or programmable array logic, which can be used to replace several 
>normal logic chips.
>
>The Engineering Department is best know (or least known?) as the company 
>that designed the PC Transporter, the IBM PC emulation card for the 
>Apple II. Applied Engineering bought the PC Transporter from them and 
>finished the development of it. I don't know if they bought the entire 
>company, but I suspect AE hired their engineers and bought any other 
>products they had, so this card may have been sold by Applied 
>Engineering.

Yes, and Applied Engineering (a connection?) also built the Pocket Rocket
16KB card, with four chips--the two SRAMs, a 16L8 PAL, plus a 74LS245
data buffer (maybe the SRAMs didn't have enough drive for reliability in
a loaded system).

Date codes for the Pocket Rocket I have (thanks, Bill!)  indicate a mid-'87
manufacture.  This sounds like the follow-on design to the OP's card.

-michael

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