Re: Help ID Card: Giantek Chinese ROM Card?

[Martin Landhage <martin.landhage@certeam.se>]

I have not seen this card but it looks for me that the first one contain 8 K

ROM and second one 12K ROM (usually 2716 EPROMs), Z80A CPU
(usualy runs at arond 3MHz) and 2K RAM. So acually a complete
computer on a card. I guess the large amount of ROM is for storing
chineese characters.

If it works like an 80-column card, it should go into slot 3 in an Apple II+

Regards

Martin Landhage

"Brian A. Davis" wrote:

> Hi;
>
> I recently got a set of two Apple II expansion cards thatI would like
> help identifying. The two cards are connected together with a fourteen
> pin ribbon cable.
>
> The first card has "Giantek Technology Corp." and "Super E-Card" printed
> on the board. The card consists of five ROM sockets. Four of these
> sockets are filled with EPROM chips labeled ROM-1 to ROM-4. The ROM's
> are also labeled in what I believe to be Chinese.  There is also an
> empty ROM socket after ROM-4. There are two smaller chips with the
> markings sanded off and a larger 20-pin chip hideen under a plastic
> coating. This last chip has a paper label also written in Chinese.
>
> The second card has six EPROM chips labeled ROM-1 to ROM-6. The ROM's
> are also labeled in Chinese. There are six smaller chips with the
> markings sanded off. In addidion, there three other chips. One, which
> really confused me, is a Z80A CPU chip. The board's configuration does
> not resemble any type of CP/M card that I have seen. The second chip is
> marked "HM6116P-2". The third chip is a socketed with "M5L8255AP-5" and
> "84A609" written on it.
>
> An Internet search reveled that Giantek Technology Corp. is now a large
> manufacturer of LED display boards. Further searching revealed that in
> 1983 Giantek developed the first "Chinese Generation Interface Card" for
> the Apple II. That might mean these cards are a Chinese screen character
> generator.
>
> Any help would be appreciated. I do not want to plug in these boards
> until I can figure out exactly where they should be placed.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Brian
>
> --
> Brian A. Davis
> Courseware Developer
> Fredericton, NB, Canada