Looking for Spectrum/8 Series III v1.3 ROM

[BFEXTU]

I am looking for an image of the Spectrum/8 Series III v1.3 ROM.

Does anyone happen to have a board with this ROM version or know where one can be found?

I have looked online, but have not had any success.

Version 1.3 added support for additional SuperMac, Miro and Apple monitors -- 16", 17" and 20" -- and had some additional bugfixes, I think. It might have been from around 1992 or 1993.

Let me know! Thanks!

 

[retr01]

Hey @BFEXTU, is this what you are looking for?

SUPERMAC SPECTRUM/8 SERIES III VIDEO CARD - MAME (MAME) rom download | WoWroms.com

SUPERMAC SPECTRUM/8 SERIES III VIDEO CARD rom for MAME (MAME) and play SUPERMAC SPECTRUM/8 SERIES III VIDEO CARD on your devices windows pc , mac ,ios and android!

wowroms.com

 

[BFEXTU]

I found those - didn't see any indication of a clear version number...and those are the same files that are included in other archives. I have to de-invert them to check the versions.

 

[BFEXTU]

That's it! I created a new .zip file with renamed ROMs, bitwise inverted files and a text file with the part numbers (in case anyone really cares what the part numbers were).

Zip File Contents:
Spectrum8SeriesIII-v1.2-ROM.bin
Spectrum8SeriesIII-v1.3-ROM.bin
S83-v1.2-Inverted.txt
S83-v1.3-Inverted.txt
Spec8IIIROMPart#.txt

I included the inverted files in case anyone wants to see what clear text might be present (or disassemble them). Otherwise, the ROM files are identical.

Now, I just need to get some 27C256s to burn a 1.3 for my board and re-burn the 1.1 for my Spec/24 III that is currently using a cloned ROM in a 27C512.

And I will throw disassembly into the task pile -- this board is a good target, since it doesn't have the extra complexity of acceleration code or other add-on code.

UPDATE - 9/22/2022:
- I verified the v1.2 image against my vintage physical ROM and it matches
- I burned the v1.3 image into a new 27C256 device and the board works fine.
The original ROM on the board was a Fairchild NM27C256Q-200. I replaced it with an Atmel AT27C256R-70.

So, the attached files appear to be good.

 

[retr01]

Cool. @Trash80toG4 is a Radius person. I am not sure who else is a SuperMac person besides @JDW.

I am glad you got what you needed, @BFEXTU.

 

[BFEXTU]

My Spec/8 III board is v1.2, so when I get the replacement ROM, I will compare the ROM against the enclosed file to make sure it matches for the sake of completenesws. But...much better to use v1.3 for the Spectrum/8 Series III anyway.

I have mentioned SuperMac's VDI implementation in other threads From looking at the ROMs, this board supports the following SuperMac VDI calls:

VDI_GETVERSION / VDI_SETVERSION
VDI_GETRESOURCE / VDI_SETRESOURCE
VDI_GETVIEW / VDI_SETVIEW
VDI_GETZOOM / VDI_SETZOOM

The goal of VDI was to be able to talk to the cards in a generic way via a vendor-specific Control and Status interface in order to perform basic functions, patch functionality, and not have to special case every call for every different kind of SuperMac board or user config. There may have been some patch releases that involved certain video cards and accelerator or digital video functionality, but practically speaking, VDI was planned for use by SuperVideo 3.x that shipped later (after 1992). SuperVideo 2.xx versions do not use VDI.

The v1.2 ROM supports the following video configs:
SuperMac 19" 60Hz
Apple 13" RGB
SuperMac 19" 75Hz
NTSC RGB
SuperMac 16" 75Hz
PAL RGB
Portrait Monitor

The v1.3 ROM supports the following video configs:
-------base v1.2 configs-----------
SuperMac 16" or 19" 60Hz (same as above)
Apple 13" RGB
SuperMatch 20 Color (same timing as 19" 75Hz above)
NTSC Underscan (renamed, not broadcast)
SuperMac 16" 75Hz
PAL Underscan (renamed, not broadcast)
Apple 15" Portrait

------+ new v1.3 configs--------
RasterOps 19" 75Hz
Miro Trinitron
SuperMatch 17 Color
SuperMatch 20T Color
SuperMatch 20 Dual-Mode
SuperMatch 17T
SuperMac Platinum 20
Apple 16"
Apple 12" RGB

 

[BFEXTU]

I received my 27C256s, so I will try the 1.3 ROM tonight. I did some manual disassembly on it and the declaration ROM doesn't seem right to me, but I will burn it and see. I have started to refresh my memory from SlotEqu.a, ROMEqu.a and Designing Cards and Drivers, and it didn't look like the ROM offsets were aligning properly, but I may be making a mistake. However, whoever built that ROM failed to update an internal version that is begin shown as 1.3a4. So...we'll see if it works properly.

 

[BFEXTU]

I checked the v1.2 and v1.3 ROM files and they are both OK. I also updated the above post with the ROM .zip file with the verification info. So, I will find/fix my disassembly error. Maybe just an offset problem

Update: Yes - I was forgetting that offsets are relative to the start of each field in the sRsrc tables (vs. base of the ROM). However, as above, the vendor info does not appear to be accurate (including the alpha version label), but SuperVideo and Monitors cdevs just display the name string vs. vendor info, which is probably why it was never detected as a bug.

 

[BFEXTU]

I extracted the Apple Sample Video ROM from the 1990 version of Designing Cards and Drivers. This example ROM was the original basis for SuperMac's Spectrum boards. I used it as an exercise to refresh my memory in Declaration ROMs, assembly, etc. I am most of the way through an initial parsing/manual disassembly of Spectrum/8 Series III v1.3.

The attached retro files may be helpful to others vs. reading from a PDF, etc. There may be a few errors or typos here and there, but I think I caught most of them. Also, the "2012" date is because of conversion from SheepShaver to Windows.