1 Introduction
2 ------------
3
4 The AcornElectronMainboard distribution provides schematic and circuit layout
5 files for use with KiCad describing the mainboard of the Acorn Electron
6 microcomputer. This microcomputer was designed and produced by Acorn Computers
7 of Cambridge, United Kingdom starting from initial work in around 1982, with
8 commercial availability from 1983 onwards.
9
10 The following principal resources are provided:
11
12 AcornElectronMainboard.kicad_pcb The circuit board layout (currently empty)
13
14 AcornElectronMainboard.pro The KiCad project file
15
16 AcornElectronMainboard.sch The circuit schematic providing the
17 relationships between components
18
19 Other schematic files are provided, these describing certain areas of
20 functionality including the cassette circuit, clock signal generation,
21 expansion connector, dynamic RAM access, sound output, RF/UHF output, and
22 common video signal processing.
23
24 AcornElectron.lib Acorn Electron component library
25 containing definitions for the 6502A CPU,
26 edge connector, ULA and RF modulator (used
27 by the schematic editor)
28
29 A range of related files are provided, these being either .dcm (documentation
30 library) files or .lib (component library) files for other specialised
31 components that are not readily available in KiCad. Various transistor
32 libraries are based on existing KiCad libraries:
33
34 BC213 and BC309 are based on BC307
35 BC239 is based on BC237
36
37 Overview
38 --------
39
40 Starting with the availability of a schematic, the initial objective of this
41 distribution is to provide a convenient reference for the Acorn Electron
42 mainboard, its components, and the connections between these components. With
43 such information recorded and suitably encoded, the possibility may emerge of
44 designing circuit boards that replicate some or all of the described circuit,
45 potentially with modifications and enhancements.
46
47 Note that the keyboard is not described in this distribution. A separate
48 AcornElectronKeyboard distribution is to be made available for such purposes.
49
50 Contact, Copyright and Licence Information
51 ------------------------------------------
52
53 The author can be contacted at the following e-mail address:
54
55 paul@boddie.org.uk
56
57 Copyright and licence information can be found in the docs directory - see
58 docs/COPYING.txt and docs/gpl-3.0.txt for more information.