Friends, I humbly wish to clarify, without any offense to anyone, that this thread is entitled "
SMC ROM SIMM Prototype". It is therefore tied to Kay Koba's products found at his website here:
Crucible V2.0-beta Released! (Nov 14, 2024)Explore the latest beta version of Crucible, the ultimate ROM programming app for vintage Mac enthusiasts. New Features in V2.0-beta: Flexible ROM File Creation Create ROM files in single, 2-split, or 4-split modes, accommodating different...
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Features & OverviewThis is a brand-new ROM card that installs into the PDS slot of the Macintosh SE/30, completely bypassing the aging and often unreliable ROM SIMM socket. It provides stable contact and long-term reliability. Functionality is based on the previously released SMC ROM SIMM...
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Steve Chamberlin of BMOW made his BASE ROM FILE, which supports
his FC8 compression, freely available to owners of any ROM SIMM, be that from Kay Koba or anyone else. The main caveat being that ROM SIMM vendors cannot bundle Steve's Base ROM file without permission. Getting permission is not hard, and you don't need to spend thousands on lawyers to get it either. Just talk to Steve if you are a vendor. It's not difficult.
But there is also another Base ROM file from Rob Braun which doesn't require special permissions (from what I understand), and I believe it is that or some variant of it, that is used when flashing the "SMC" branded ROM SIMM.
Both Base ROM files are linked below (a copy/paste from the text description under my ROM SIMM video):
Base ROM Files
• Rob Braun (FC8 not supported):
https://bit.ly/3R7PyI1
• BMOW*:
https://bit.ly/3Z8NTnu
* 9/8/2023: Steve Chamberlin made it free to use on any vendor's ROM SIMM!
(Vendors need permission to distribute.)
In Sept. 2023, I made
this ROM SIMM video which showcases ROM SIMM from all vendors, including Kay's, and includes the
ROMmate Programmer (a photo of which is shown in the previous post by
@V.Yakob ). That video explains very clearly that there is a fundamental difference between the ROB BRAUN Base ROM File and the BMOW (Steve Chamberlin) Base ROM File. Use Rob's Base ROM file, and you WILL NOT get FC8 support. Use Steve's (BMOW) and you WILL get FC8 support. FC8 lets you use bigger Disk Images — more files on your ROM SIMMs. Steve created FC8. It's his baby. He alone determines who can use it.
As I explain in my video, if you compress your disk image with FC8, if you don't also concatenate that FC8-compressed image with the
BMOW Base ROM File, it won't work. Why? Because the BMOW Base ROM file knows how to decompress FC8 while Rob's ROM file doesn't. It's that simple.
Now for people who own Kay Koba's ROM SIMM (with 4 socketed chips), you will most likely be using his excellent
Crucible software. At the direction of Kay and the SMC team, Crucible was coded by
@OneGeekArmy , creator of the outstanding
Disk Jockey software — donations to him
accepted here — and yes, I have donated. Crucible concatenates your disk image with Rob's Base ROM (or some variant of it),
not the BMOW Base ROM. That is hard coded into Crucible. NO ONE using Crucible should be using FC8 compression on their disk images! (If that changes in the future, great, but its truth for now in May 2025.)
Also,
if you use Crucible, you should be using Kay Koba's ROM SIMM products because Crucible is tied to those products and is not intended for use with other ROM SIMMs. It's a morals and ethics thing, not a technological limitation.
So what do you do if you want to use FC8?
Because Kay and the SMC team have not sought a deal with Steve (to my knowledge), the BMOW Base ROM file isn't used in Crucible and therefore the FC8 topic itself is rather "off topic" when it comes to this thread. But for the sake of not leaving everyone hanging, I will say this...
As mentioned in my ROM SIMM video, you must use Downtown Doug Brown's
SIMM Programmer 2.0 app on your Mac. That software lets you use any Base ROM, be that from Rob or BMOW or something else I've not heard of. And yes, you can flash the ROM SIMM (4 socketed chips) from Kay Koba too (which means you would use it instead of Crucible.)
The only thing Doug's SIMM Programmer 2.0 app
CANNOT do (as of May 2025) is
concatenate a disk image and Base ROM intended for the CayMac
Universal ROM SIMM that is used in the LC575 or Quadra machines.
(My video doesn’t talk about the Universal ROM SIMM because it didn’t exist when my video was made.) SIMM Programmer 2.0
CAN FLASH an already concatenated file (disk image + Base ROM) to the Universal ROM SIMM. It simple cannot do the concatenation for reasons that only Doug Brown knows. I have a Universal ROM SIMM and am still working with
@Jockelill and another person named "frontein1" at the MLA forum to see if we can't crush all the bugs. For now, I have it running in my Mystic using the R key to boot from ROM, but booting from RAM isn't bug-free yet. I mention this because the previous post is using the Universal ROM SIMM (Quadra compatible).
With all that said, this thread is focused on the products from
@Kay K.M.Mods , so it's best we strive to keep on topic. As you have just read, there is some overlap on this rather complex topic; but overall, I strongly recommend discussions about SIMMs and Programmers
FROM VENDORS OTHER THAN KAY be placed into their own threads, so that:
1. They get the attention they deserve, and
2. So that we don’t cause offense to Kay Koba, who makes some amazing products and software.
I consider Kay a friend and I am trying to watch out for him by saying all this.
Thanks for your kind understanding, and best wishes to my fellow ROM SIMM enthusiasts!
The first half feels like an elevator action. Unfortunately, my office isn't a splendid building like your anime.
colors are featured in everything 
