30-09-2021, 06:41 PM
The Texas Instruments SN76489AN PSG and accompanying audio amplifier were added to the Alpha Plus prototype (aka Premium Series) as a feature bump.
However when it was sold both of these features remained unpopulated. Prior to that the General Instrument AY-3-8910 was sold as the BeeThoven expansion accessory. PSG were not overly expensive but the microbees were made to a price point for the NSW Education department thus omitted.
Other features that were on the prototype and not included in the sold model include:
Texas Instruments RS232 transceiver
Motorola MC146818 RTC (Real Time Clock & RAM)
8K Char, Attribute & Colour RAM
As for software for the SN76489AN, there's a Jukebox program that plays 3 channel music.
Someone doesn't know whether the MWBASIC was updated to support it.
However when it was sold both of these features remained unpopulated. Prior to that the General Instrument AY-3-8910 was sold as the BeeThoven expansion accessory. PSG were not overly expensive but the microbees were made to a price point for the NSW Education department thus omitted.
Other features that were on the prototype and not included in the sold model include:
Texas Instruments RS232 transceiver
Motorola MC146818 RTC (Real Time Clock & RAM)
8K Char, Attribute & Colour RAM
As for software for the SN76489AN, there's a Jukebox program that plays 3 channel music.
Someone doesn't know whether the MWBASIC was updated to support it.