ISA 8bit EMS 2Mb expansion card
This is a reimplementation of the lo-tech.co.uk 2Mb ISA EMS board with the following changes:
I take NO responsibility for what happens if you decide to build and use this card. Your computer might crash, catch fire or be destroyed in other nasty ways.
Also, as this card is mostly based on the work of others, You’re encourauged to take what you deem fit from this, and use it in your projects!
Additionally, do NOT CONTACT lo-tech.co.uk FOR SUPPORT, while this board is derived from their work, it is not their product, please do not waste their time.
To configure the EMS, jumpers on J2 header are used.
Pins 1 and 2 configure the Page Frame base address, while 3 and 4 configure the IO Port base address.
EMS Page Frame Base
1 | 2 | Base |
---+---+-------+
X | X | C000h |
---+---+-------+
| X | D000h |
---+---+-------+
X | | E000h |
---+---+-------+
| | Inval |
---+---+-------+
EMS IO Port Base
3 | 4 | Base |
---+---+------------+
X | X | 260-263h |
---+---+------------+
| X | 264-267h |
---+---+------------+
X | | 268-26Bh |
---+---+------------+
| | 26C-26Fh |
---+---+------------+
You need a memory manager to use this board. I’m including the LTEMM
driver provided by lo-tech in this repository. Please refer to this page regarding the terms of use.
All ICs are in DIP package.
I have received reports of this board being unstable when used with some homebrew PC clones, reports included the Xi8088 and NuXT. I have noted similar issues on a Micro8088. On the other hand, an all-CMOS board was tested fine on multiple AT clones I have.
Replacing the following ICs with ones from the TTL family solved the issue for me: U7, U8, U9, U10, U11, U12.
Note that, for increased stability, I use an ISA terminator with these homebrew computers.