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+--- Thread: Two Dick Smith Technical Bulletins for the System-80 (/thread-564.html)
Two Dick Smith Technical Bulletins for the System-80 - ChickenMan - 20-09-2022
Thanks to GeorgeK for providing quality scans of these 2 Technical Bulletins, number 18 & 37. No 18 is 2 pages of A4, no. 37 is 3 pages and both were converted to searchable PDF's as usual.
dse_technical_bulletin_18 is titled DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE SYSTEM-80 AND TRS-80 COMPUTERS AFFECTING SOFTWARE COMPATIBILITY. Dick Smith originally advertised that the System-80 was fully compatible with the TRS-80 Model I Level 2 but soon received lots of complaints that statement was not true. See the dse_compatibility_note.pdf in the Repository for further explanation. The Bulletin lists 5 differences between the 2 computers -
1. Cassette Interface (use different port/memory addresses)
2. Printer Interface (use different port/memory addresses)
3. Serial Interface (use different port/memory addresses)
4. Keyboard Differences (no CLEAR or Right Arrow keys)
5. Video Display of Arrow keys
dse_technical_bulletin_37 is WHAT YOU CAN DO IF PROGRAMS WRITTEN FOR THE TRS-80 DON'T PRINT OUT PROPERLY ON THE SYSTEM-80 COMPUTER. The printer port on the X-4003 System-80 computer is configured at the Z-80 CPU's I/O port address FD hex (253 decimal), not at memory address 37E8 hex (14312 decimal) as used in the TRS-80. It then details how to modify the X-4010 Expansion Unit to fix this problem. The X-4020 Expansion Unit already incorporates dual addressing, while the X-4013 Printer Interface cannot easily be modified.
So in the MbeeTech Vintage Repository in the new System-80\Documentation\Technical_Bulletins folder we placed
dse_technical_bulletin_18_trs80_and system-80_differences.pdf
dse_technical_bulletin_37_trs80_programs_dont_print_on_system-80_fix.pdf