Date   : Thu, 28 Jul 2005 18:33:36 +0000
From   : Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk@...>
Subject: Re: ARM copros, speech cartridges, real time

On Thu, 2005-07-28 at 18:25 +0100, Jonathan Graham Harston wrote:
> > Message-ID: <1122458365.15644.6.camel@...>
>  
> Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk@...> wrote:
> > On Wed, 2005-07-27 at 01:35 +0100, Jonathan Graham Harston wrote:
> > > Unless you want to give the external processor its own serial
> > > and/or video system. The Torch Z80 coprocessors has their own
> > > serial port,
> > 
> > Only the 'Tosca' boards - and they're not very common. The standard
> > boards were purely a Z80 with all I/O done through the BBC.
>  
> Well, of the Torches I've got, four have their own serial ports -
> the Torch network stations[1] - and only one doesn't - the Torch
> Hard Drive system[1]. That would suggest to me the other way round
> - Torch boards with their own serial port are common, and the ones
> /without/ their own serial ports are not very common.

Curious. I don't have one of the Torch net stations (I think it's a 301
from memory). But yep, the hard drive machines never seemed to have the
type with the serial port, and nor did any I've seen fitted to BBC
micros. Maybe the serial port type only went into the net station for
some reason - although I'm not sure what would have been driven from it.
I've got upgrade guides for the 301 (adding hard disks etc.) but I don't
think I've got any kind of owner guide.

Of the Torch Z80 boards I've got, only one has the serial port and the
other 7 or 8 are just plain old Z80. Main reason for supposing that it
as a rarer board though is that it's not really mentioned in any of the
advertising or service stuff I've got - but there must have been a good
reason for them building it. Maybe the intention was for a modem to be
hung off that port...

cheers

Jules