Thaler AG is a German company, still in business. Around 1983 the company sold a 6502 development system in the format of a SBC, size 2x Euroboard, and several enhancements for it under the name CT-6502 or CT-65. 6502 based, hex keyboard and the usual 6 seven segment LED displays, audio cassette storage.
In 1984 a smaller and stripped version SBC was produced, named MPS-65, size Euroboard. Accompanied by add-on boards such as VIA board and cassette interface. Same software, same keyboard and displays, more modern technology, no cassette storage, less ROM sockets.
In the German magazine MC adverts and articles were published in 1983 and 1984 (thanks user GaBuZoMeu on 6502.org), shown here:
CT-6502
(video by the previous owner, Cristian)
A SBC in the KIM-1 style. Keyboard with 24 keys, 6 seven segment LED displays, simple audio cassette storage, 2K RAM, 2K EPROM.
The manual contains a description of the extensive commands available on the keyboard, circuit diagrams and other interesting facts. A source listing of the system ROM has never been published, only the entry points are documented in the (enhanced) manual.
MPS-65
A rare 6502 SBC. Only two have been seen by me. One is shown by user mba on the forum at 6502.org, who also dumped the system ROM in EPROM. The other was shown on the Facebook group “6502 Homebrew Hardware and Programming” by user Ian Day. who build this system in the 80ties. The MPS65 is a stripped down version of the CT-65, missing ROM sockets and audio cassette storage.
The Euroboard sized SBC has a 6-digit LED display, a 24 keyboard with hex keys and several function keys. Requires a stabilized power supply 5V. WIth expansion connector 64 pins, Siemens SMP bus compatible. On the board is written MPS 65-2. At the bottom of the inscription Thaler (the same inscription is in ROM, in addition to the date 1984.
“MPS 65-2”, “THALER” and “85-1-1” are labels on the CPU board (mba system). The ROM contains (C)BY THALER1/1984
MPS 65-2 owned by mba
Ian Day system
Address selection MPS-65
Ian supplied a dump of the still operational 82S126 PROM.
Output 4 is Rom (16 pages, 8 would be enough for 2716, optional 4K 2732?), three is Ram (8 pages, 2K SRAM 6116) and two is VIA 6522, one page .
Note that the CT-65 has a different PROM and four chip select lines are generated, see the manual.
Memory map MPS-65 and CT-65
0000 RAM, 6116 2K (2x 2114 on CT-65)
A000 6522
E000 and E003 addresses are called by routines in the system ROM. The ROM socket for ROM at E000 are not present on the MPS-2, only on the CT-65.
F800 ROM, 2K 2716
Requires a stabilized power supply 5V
CPU
A 1 (mba system) or 2 (Ian Day) MHz crystal delivers the clock. CPU can be 6502 (mba) or 65C02 (Ian Day)
Power on Reset
A transistor a capacitor and resistor (and the 74LS00) drive the power on reset.
LED and Keyboard
A VIA 6522 supplies I/O for the keyboard/LED display. The darlington array ULN2003 (mba system) or RS307-109 (Ian Day) is driven from the 6522 and goes through limiting resistors and up to the 7 individual segments of the LEDS. So this drives the rows of the display. 6 transistors drive the columns.
RAM is 6116 SRAM, supplying zero page, stack and the RAM for user programs at $0200. The CT-65 uses 2 2114 for 1K RAM
ROM is 2K 2716 at $F800 (memory decode may point to 2732 support). Empry IC sockets on the CT-65 for E000-F7FF
System Rom
The MPS-2 and CT-65 systems seem to share the same system ROM. Some functions can not be used on the MPS_2 such as Load and Save due to missing hardware.
User mba made a dump of the MPS-2 sytem ROM. Binary file here, in hex format here. In theory this is the same system ROM as the CT-65 uses. From the magazine article I read that an updated version for the CT-65 was developed, it is safe to assume this updated version is also used for the later MPS-65.
A disassembly has been made by me, see the assembler source here
Not too much comments yet. The jumptable at the start has been filled in with information found in the manual. Not yet tried to assemble the source!
Ian Day also disassembled his ROM of the MPS-65 and it is different in subtle ways, see it here. And here the dump of his ROM.
Ian Day designed a clone of the MPS-65. All design files here at Easy EDA
Replacement of some old prom by a GAL, Application to a Thaler MPS-65 board
Didier form aida.org was approached by his friend Erik about a malfunctioning MPS-65.
By studying the material on this page and doing measurements on the board it was decided the PROM on the board was malfunctioning.
So Didier designed a GAL replacement for the PROM and the board came back to life!
The MCS6501, a first and very rare member of the MOS Technology 65xx CPU family.
Introduced in 1975 with the MCS6502 to MCS6505, pin compatible with the Motorola 6800 and, after legal issues, not produced afterwards. The (preliminary) datasheet of August 1975 is the only document where the 6501 is documented
The MCS6501, a first and very rare member of the MOS Technology 65xx CPU family.
Introduced in 1975 with the MCS6502 to MCS6505, pin compatible with the Motorola 6800 and, after legal issues, not produced afterwards.
An advert in the magazine Electronics August 1975, the price is incredible low for these days at $20.
With the name SUPERKIM an engineer called Paul Lamar designed a SBC around the 6502.
The main design decisions were to be a superset of the KIM-1, requiring no alteration of KIM-1 programs or user interface (the keyboard/display!) but with much more extendable resources. And the result is just right, it Is a KIM-1 with many improvements!
I have never seen this system in real life here in the Netherlands, only advertisements in the then current, dedicated to the 6502, magazines.
The heart of the system is the 6502 at 1 MHz and the well-known KIM-1 RRIOT’s 6530-002 and 6530-003, the six seven segment led displays, a keyboard equivalent tot the KIM-1, the cassette interface and RS-232-C serial interface. Extra are 4kRAM (from 1K on the KIM-1), 4×6522 VIA’s, 8K EPROM , all socketed and not populated by default. A 8 bit priority encoded IRQ and space for wire wrapping on the board. Also included are fully decoded address map lines, tri-state buffers for address and data bus on wire wrap headers and a power supply for 12V, 1A input ging 5V and 12V.
The KIM-1 ’emulation’ is complete, since the KIM-1 6530’s are there, at the default location and relevant KIM-1 hardware like seven segment display and keyboard, audio cassette interface and tty interface and edge connector.
The SUPERKIMwas sold by Microproducts as shown in this advertisement page in the magazine Micro, issue 13 June 1979:
Paul Lamar initially developed Road Test Systems with the KIM-1 and the limitations in resources made him develop the SUPERKIM.
Articles describing the use of the SUPERKIM in robots and Road Test systems:
I came upon some photos summarizing automotive testing as practiced when I arrived at R&T in the late 1970s. One photo brought back memories of the excitement, the technical expertise, the glamor. Weighing a test car, c. 1979. We weighed our test cars at a local builders supply. The idea of having our own scales capable of obtaining individual corner weights was far off in a digital future. Rough and ready though the scene appeared, the supply-yard scales were California-certified and nearby. Track testing took place at Orange County International Raceway, a local drag strip with abbreviated road course. A fabled place: Bob Bondurant used it for his first driving school, opened in February 1968. The second week, Bob had two students: actors Paul Newman and Robert Wagner, both preparing for the movie Winning. P.L. Newman continued, racing and winning. In 1977, R&T’s John Dinkel, my predecessor as engineering editor, asked a fellow named Paul Lamar whether any new computerized gizmos might be employed in gathering acceleration and braking data.
John Dinkel, at the wheel, and Paul Lamar examine computerized data. (That’s their story; and they’re sticking to it.) This and other images from R&T, May 1977.
Paul is a cool guy. Beginning in 1966, he worked with Texan Jim Hall in developing the Chaparrals 2C, 2D and 2F. (Paul was responsible for most of the body design of the 2F.) After that, he set up his own company doing race car development and equipment design. For a long time, he has been active with aircraft applications of Mazda rotary engines, at a website proudly “Powered by Linux!”
Back in 1977, Paul said to JD (as Dinkel was known), “I recommend you consider a microprocessor. It’s the coming thing in electronics.” Paul followed up on his recommendation with devising the first computerized test equipment used by an auto magazine. Hitherto, acceleration testing was a two-person task, one driving, the other punching an array of stopwatches based on measurements of a bulky 5th-wheel. Another gizmo, the sainted R&T Tapley Meter used to give impressive data with which we younger readers were highly impressed (“Wow! Off-scale!”), though we never really understood what it was measuring. (It turns out the Tapley Meter was a pendulum-driven accelerometer.) When I began at R&T in early 1979, Paul’s computerized black box became an everyday part of my track testing. Its heart was an MOS Technology MCS 6502 Microprocessor Array. The “sixty-five-oh-two” was pivotal in the computer industry: Its price was one-sixth that of comparable products and brought about a rapid decrease in competitors’ pricing and a dramatic increase in microprocessor availability. In retrospect, it likely had the computing power of a toy digital clock operated by a potato battery, but at the time it was state-of-the-art. The Lamar black box had a keyboard for programming. (How’s your base-16? Mine is sketchy at best.) The Lamar black box’s keyboard was one of its ways for entering a program—in hexadecimal (base-16) code! Fortunately, once debugged, the acceleration and braking programs were stored on a separate Sony cassette tape recorder and played back into the 6502 when changing from one test to the other. Alas, the black box had insufficient memory to store them. Also, reprogramming turned out to be occasionally heat-sensitive: I would do the acceleration testing, say, then turn on the car’s a/c to cool off the interior for a bit. Only then would the Sony convey its bops and beeps successfully to the black box. The 6502’s liquid crystal displays gave information on time, car speed and distance traveled. The Sony cassette tape recorder to its right swapped the 6502’s programs. Sensitive though it could be, the setup was more accurate than stopwatch-punching and it was a one-person operation. Results were printed on a strip of paper by a separate device, a modified Addo desk calculator residing on the passenger seat. (Paul’s second-gen black box had a built-in printer and enough memory to eliminate the pesky reprogramming.) Typical results from a separate printer, a modified Addo desk calculator. The Lamar 5th-wheel was decidedly easier to use than its traditional counterpart. It weighed 20 lbs. versus the clunky one’s 40 lbs. and attached with bungee cords, not potentially bumper-damaging clamps. The Lamar 5th-wheel compared favorably with its traditional counterpart. It could also be disassembled for shipping. In 1986, I documented our testing procedures in a presentation to the Society of Automotive Engineers, SAE Paper 861114, “A Magazine’s View on Automotive Testing.” The paper was accompanied by a short film completely produced by R&T, a story in itself. This was back before video cameras—and ages before smart phone imaging. R&T’s Cecil B. “Joe” DeRusz shot the flick using an Arri Arriflex 16-mm camera, the best of its kind, rented from a Hollywood outlet. We had a vague shooting script based on the technical details of the SAE Paper. But I have vivid memories of Rusz figuring out angles, the entries into frame and exits out of it. I recall we produced the film in a few days of on-again/off-again shooting. Likely over budget. There were lunches after all.
SUPERKIM meets ET-2
In a two part article in the magazine Robotis Age 1980-1981, Don McaAllister describes the interfacing an programming of the SUPERKIM for the control of the Lour Control ET-2 robot shell.
