A82: Re: PROPOSAL: TI-82 "Enhancement" Project
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A82: Re: PROPOSAL: TI-82 "Enhancement" Project
To make this project work some one will have to open up their calc and
find out which chip it uses to store the ROM in. Then someone has to find
a new chip which can be used as a replacement for the old one (e.g. a 100%
compatible chip).
Unless it is possible to "burn" the chip without special equipment, only
very few people will do this, so some kind of a FLASH ROM is needed. So
the first problem is to find a combatible FLASH ROM.
Nathan suggested that the ROM was rewritten from scratch. I believe that
is not possible, unless you only plan to include a few functions.
Therefore the best solution is proably to modify the existing ROM, so it
supports assembly, and things like that. The developers of the "new" ROM
would then release a program which modifed a ROM dump so it included all
the new features. This would mean that you would have all the functions
you normally see, and the extra functions which was included in the
program.
A lot of the functions included in the TI82 ROM are slow, and it would be
easy to write functions which where faster. If the project was done like I
suggested, all the slow functions could be rewritten, giving you a faster
TI82. Besides that it would be possible to upgrade your ROM from <19 to
19.
As it is now the TI82 has empty spaces, these could be filled with
functions needed in assembly lanuage programs (like sprite routines).
Besides that the support for asm programs could be added to the existing
ROM.
I do think that it is possible to make a better TI82 ROM, but someone has
to find a compatible FLASH ROM. If someone does that i would be willing to
help with both the hardware and the software.
Dines
BTW wouldn't it be great if it was possible to download new ROM versions
to your calc like any other program ? When a new version was released you
could just start the rom loading program and upgrade your calc.
_______________________________________
Dines Justesen
Email: dines@post1.com or
c958362@student.dtu.dk
WWW : http://www.gbar.dtu.dk/~c958362/
_______________________________________
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