Home Page Forums MAME MAME TMS-09xx/1xxx thread (was New Dumps)

I don't have an Auto Race handy, but here's what is in Ski Slalom:

Rockwell
B6000EA
8022

Rik

Here's a set of quickly-made overlays for US Games Super Sports 4... These are just from a photo I had of the overlays, once I get the game out of storage I can make much nicer scans, but these should work for now if anyone wants to experiment with them...

http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Z_Imgs/MESS/USGamesSuperSports4Overlays.zip

Auto Race is B6000CA from 1977. Battlestar Galactica is B6001, B6100 is Football, B6101 is Baseball and B6102 is Gravity.

So I think you are correct that it is the same code! Thanks for checking.

I wonder if there are any functional differences between the CA and EA suffixes. I've got one Football that's labeled B6100EB and another that's labeled B6100-15.

I uploaded a die shot of the Battleship 1979 ASIC: http://www.seanriddle.com/bship79_metal2.jpg It's a little dirty, so I'll clean in up in nitric acid and take more pics before removing the top metal layer.

There are no identifying marks, just the part # 462. I think upper left in my pic is pin 17, numbered CCW. There are 29 pads; I think the extra pad is between 2 and 3- I bet it's connected to the substrate along with pin 14, battery +.

The most obvious feature is the 200 bit RAM in the lower left. There is a giant transistor at bottom center for the speaker output, and a smaller one at top center for the LEDs.

Pin 16 is definitely the oscillator input; if I touched it, the sounds were pitch-bent. I couldn't measure the clock rate without stopping it.

The 10 pads on the left along with 2 more on the bottom (pins 17-28) are part of the switch matrix. Each of these is pulsed high for about 2/3ms every 10.6ms and high signals are looked for on the 4 pins 7-10. 12x4=48 possible inputs, of which 46 are used.

I don't see their company logo anywhere on the die, but the 'style' of the pads/traces etc on the die, and especially of the markings at the bottom edge of the die showing the revisions for each individual layer, lead me to believe that the ASIC was fabricated by SSi (same as TSI S14001A, and Votrax SC-01/A and SC-02/SSI263). I could email/ask Ed Bernard (who worked at SSi) to see if he remembers this.

Compare the markings to http://siliconpr0n.org/map/votrax/sc-01-a/mz_mit20x/

Also compare the silkscreen font printed on the package ( https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79094972/bship1980front.jpg ) to the font on http://www.riana.com/electronics/sc01/images/sc01a.jpg

LN

Yeah, I agree that the layer ID text is a dead giveaway. Very specific text in a very specific font. Good find.

I knew I had an SSI chip here somewhere: SSI 201, the DTMF decoder I liberated from my Apple-Cat II modem when I sold it (30 years ago!) http://www.downloads.reactivemicro....AppleCat_II_Modem/Pics/AppleCat%20II.jpg

I opened the lid and took some pics: http://www.seanriddle.com/ssi_201_metal.jpg

It has the same layer ID text, as well as the "square, square, square, square, octagon" test pads that the Battleship and Simon chips have.

I think that looks good enough for vectoring.
USGamesSuperSports4Basketball.png "TIME DLAPSED"

http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Misc/USGamesSpaceCruiser.htm
Is this one also TMS1100?

Ok, Ed Bernard responded: He said that SSi was probably not involved with the ASIC if their logo is not on the die (plus he doesn't remember SSi doing it, and he was at SSi from at least 1975 through 1984), and the layer markings are probably from the chip fabrication house, rather than SSi (who I guess did mask layout only).
Also, most SSi chips have Mxxx (where xxx is some number) on the die.

So it was laid out by someone else, but actually fabricated probably at the same silicon foundry as SSi used.

LN

Interesting. The SSI 201 does have an Mxxx number. I guess the square/octagon pads could have been placed by the fab as well. The bottom of the Battleship chip was marked PHILIPPINES 462.