exorsim VS EPROM-EMU-NG

On the 6800/6809: don't forget to look at the Fairlight CMI and the Qasar M8 developed by Tony Furse: the sampling synthesizer that was the sound of the 80s.

This past summer, Tony has been retrieving his 8-inch Motorola Exorciser floppies. He encouraged me to work on my Motorola Exorciser emulator- it now emulates a 6809 version of the Exorciser:

https://github.com/jhallen/exorsim

(check out the long discussions in the issues...)

I actually used one of these things[0] during development of the DX9/7 firmware mod. I like your Mirage tools by the way! I've actually got a very battered Ensoniq Mirage I picked up for free that's badly in need of some maintenance. If I can get that running I'd love to give your firmware a try!

[0] https://mygeekyhobby.com/2020/07/05/eprom-emulator/

Well, the static RAM that the EPROM emulator uses has an access time of 55 nanoseconds. Here's a better description of the hardware.

To use an arduino you'd need to design debug and code something like this specifically to emulate the expected EPROM in the poly-800. An arduino isn't pin-compatible, you can't just shove one in there. Guessing based on the size of the dump file, it's 8k x 8bit, or 64kbit, so probably either 24 or 28 pins? Kind of boils down to how valuable you consider your own time and how much you want to spend to build something for what is basically a one-off, because nobody really needs that.

I’ve recently started using the EPROM-EMU-NG to replace the EEPROM with a second SRAM chip, along with an Arduino Nano and some shift registers to be able to program the SRAM from your development station. It holds RST low on the 6502 while it’s doing its work, and can be powered by either USB or the EEPROM power rails.