[FRAM71] Pre-Production Batch

[Hans Brueggemann]

As mentioned by Bob during his FRAM71 presenation in Nashville, FRAM71_V511 is finally out. You can find the firmware update file and the updated user's manual in post #1 of this thread. V511 will be the last update for quite a while, as i'm now concentrating on V600, which basically does away with 16KB-modules in favor of supporting programmable bank-switching between TOP and BOTTOM FRAM. unfortunately (as far as i can see by now) this will require a huge change in the configuration paradigm. Hence, i'm not quite sure as to whether users are willing to follow that change, so 511 is the way to go for all who are happy with their FRAM71s as it is today, while V600 and onward will be for all those who are a little bit more adventurous in stretching the limits of FRAM71!

Some comments on Bob's presentation may be in order:
- FRAM71 has and will continue to have experimental(!) UART support as described in the manual. however, the achievable data-rates (be it in plain BASIC or FORTH) top out at an underwhelming 30 (thirty) Bytes/sec. so, doing any useful things with that UART does require a driver, aka assembly-coded support. i'm still looking for a volunteer...
- Ancient versions of the firmware contained REDEYE IR-printing support that worked extremely well in conjunction with the HP82240A/B printers. however, REDEYE was abandoned sometime around the decision to support programmable bank-switching of F_Blocks, and therefore, it's highly unlikely that future firmware versions will revive REDEYE.
- 25 to go to make the next batch happen!

Hans
My sincere thanks go to Bob and Dave for their unbelievable enthusiasm and support!