Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 19:15:44 +0100
From: Liam Proven <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
On 7/29/05, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I know this is not a Newton site but I was wondering if there is any plac=
e
to download or buy Newton OS 2.1. I am planning on using the Newton with=
my
color classic.
The Newt 2000 can run OS 2.1, which makes it into a 2100, effectively.
Mine does. You had to send it to Apple for a ROM replacement.
/Possibly/ some enterprising hacker *might* be able to do an
unofficial ROM swap, but it'd be risky...
Most ROMs can be replaced with EEPROM, EPROM or Flash chips which
have identical (for purposes of reading) pinouts. It is very rare to
find a ROM which does not have a corresponding EEPROM or flash chip.
For example, I've replaced the ROMs on the x500 series of machines,
the 7200 and the Power Tower Pro with Hyundai Flash chips programmed
with the 9600 Enhanced ROM code. This solves the Speculative
Processing issue with G3 processors.
On the other hand, building a IIci ROM for the SE/30 (ahh, on topic
at last) was complicated by the fact that the ROM chips used on the
SE/30 module are all so old that no corresponding chips are available
any more.
And the Beige G3 uses a pair of bizarre 32 bit wide ROM chips with
70-something pins. For those, there is no corresponding EEPROM or
Flash--or if there ever was, it went out of production so quickly it
didn't leave a hint of its datasheet anywhere on the internet.
So the questions to be answered are what kind of ROM is used in the
Newton--anyone have an image of the ROM chip?
How difficult is it to remove the ROM and replace it?
I have a chip programmer, but very little interest in Newtons. If
someone wants to come up with a 2.1 Newton ROM I can probably run
them a few backup copies.
Brian's message (see below) seems to imply that replacing the ROM is
not unthinkable. So we may be able to increase the supply a bit. It
is at least worth looking into, it seems. The difficulty for most
folks will probably be that once they have their hands on one ver.
2.1 ROM, they won't need any more, so rather than run copies, they'll
just install it in their Newton. :-)
Spare ROMs are made of unobtainium but you can transplant one from a dead
MP120/2.0 if you get one on ebay or whereever.
Jeff Walther
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