Specifications
2.3.3 Byte-Wide
Memory
Sockets
The Little
Board/PC
has two
onboard
byte-wide memory device sockets that
can
accommo-
date a variety
of
EPROM
and
nonvolatile
RAM
(NOVRAM)
devices,
used
for simple pro-
gram storage
or
as "Solid State Disk" (SSD) drives.
Some
of
the
byte-wide devices
that
can
be used in these sockets
are
shown
in
Table 2-5
and
2-
6,
along
with
the
jumpering
required
to
support
each
type
of
device.
The
NOVRAM
car-
tridges
described
in
the
table
connect
with
a
short
ribbon
cable
(Dallas
P
/N
DS9000)
to
a
byte-wide socket:
UI5
or
U26. Devices used in these sockets must be
300
oS
(or
faster).
Direct
Program
Access
The
memory devices installed in
UI5
and
U26
can
be
accessed directly
by
your application
software, provided
the
program knows about them.
The
byte-wide
memory
sockets reside
at
the following memory addresses:
•
U15
is
at
FOOOOh
• U26
can
start
at
any
of
the following addresses, depending
on
the
type
of
device installed
and
the
setting
of
the socket configuration jumpers (see Table 2-5):
.
EOOOOh
E8000h
ECOOOh
EEOOOh
Through
a technique known as a "ROM-BIOS extension", it
is
possible
to
have
the
system
run
its entire application from byte-wide socket memory devices, instead
of
from disk drives. This
is discussed
in
Ampro
application note AAN-8702.
Solid
State
Disk
(SSD) Drives
The
optional
Ampro
Solid
State
Disk
(SSD)
Support
Software, allows
you
to
configure a
Little
Board/PC
system
to
boot,
operate,
and
even
store
data
using
one
or
two
EPROM
and/or
NOVRAM
solid-state "drives" under control
of
the DOS (version 3.3
or
later)
operat-
ing system.
No
custom
programming
is
required,
other
than
use
of
the
development
tools
provided
in
the
SSD Support Software. Using
the
Ampro
SSD software,
the
byte-wide sock-
ets
can
serve
as
individual SSD drives,
or
they
can
be combined into
one
larger drive. SSD
drives
can
be
used along with
normal
(floppy
and
hard disk) drives.
Ampro's
SSD Expansion
Board
provides additional SSD sockets.
Based
on
these
devices,
some
of
the
configurations possible using
the
Ampro
SSD
support
are:
• Single
EPROM
Drive: -- U15 alone,
or
U15 combined with U26, as a bootable
EPROM
drive.
Up
to
I28K bytes capacity results from one socket,
or
256K bytes
if
the
two
are
combined.
•
One
EPROM
drive,
and
one
NOVRAM drive: --
UI5
as
a
boot
able
EPROM
drive
(I28K
bytes capacity),
and
U26
as a
NOVRAM
cartridge drive
(up
to
5I2K
bytes capaci-
ty).
2-7