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Connect the 8 data lines of port B on the Nascom 2 to. the coresponding 8 data lines of port B on the Nascom 1. Connect the ground line of the N2 to pin 9 (ground) of the N1. Connect the B READY line from the N2 to the B STRB on the N1 and the B READY line on the N1 to the B STRB line on the N2. Do not connect the power lines together! You may choose to wire a switch so you can see the N1 or N2 display on the monitor screen, but you don’t really need the N1 display. If you wire such a switch, wire the earth lines together.

One further point on hardware is that for some strange reason the memory board links togther the IEI and IEO. This doesn’t matter on the N1, but the N2 brings these lines out correctly to NASBUS, and the PIO won’t interrupt unless IEI is high. Simply look at the edge of the memory board, next to line 19, and you will see that it is connected to the next line. Break this join by scraping away with a screwdriver. (Ed. Don’t do that, the memory board is correct, it is the mini Vero bus on the N2 which is wrong. Break track 19 on the Vero board. See note under the article about PIOs.)

As you will have realised, the key to the Nascom One-Two is in the software. We will just cover feature (a) the cassette input via Nascom 1. This is extremely useful for converting your tapes from N1 to N2 format.

Since giving you the program listings would make it much too easy, here is a description of the little programs which you need to put into each computer. (The listings will be put in the library in due course.)

Cassete input transfer program for Nascom 1

This program initializes the PIO and then goes into a loop which does nothing at all. However, each time there is an interrupt the interrupt routine waits until there is a character from the cassette input, and then outputs it to the PIO and returns. The full list of actions is:

Disable the CPU interrupts with a DI instruction.
Disable PIO (03H to control port).
Ensure PIO is happy by pushing address of next instruction on to the stack, and then using a RETI.
Load I register.
Set interrupt mode 2, with IM2.
Output the interrupt vector (low order half address of the interrupt address table).
Output 0FH to PIO to set it to output mode.
Set the interrupt control word by outputting 87H to the PIO.
Enable the CPU Interrupts with an EI instruction.
Go into a tight loop (actual code 18 FEH).

That is the end of the initialization program, which is executed.

Then you need an interrupt address table. The high order part of the address of this table has been stored in the I register, and the low order part has been sent to the PIO as the interrupt vector (this must be an ‘even’ number, ie. last bit = 0). The interrupt address table actually contains just one address, which is the address of the