| SERIOUS SOFTWARE If loading programs from cassette puts you to sleep and even disk makes your thumbs twiddle, then what you need is your software on ROM. Or maybe it's not speed you want. Perhaps seeing yards of ribbon cable with a black box attached gets you going. Whether you like plugging things in or speeding things up roms and romboards are the order of the day. Confused? Here is a list of common terminology when using multi-legged silicon creatures and their resting grounds. And a new romboard and an eprom programmer are reviewed in depth. ram This stands for random-access memory. "Read-write memory" might be a better name, but you couldn't pronounce the acronym. 64k of it is resident inside Arnold - plus in the 6128 a second bank of 64k. The computer can read or alter data held in RAM. The Amstrad's RAM is known as dynamic ram; this means that tiny electrical pulses must be sent to it every few nano-seconds if it is to retain its data. Another form, static ram, does not need this constant refreshing. Static RAM is not very much used in today's computers mainly because it's so expensive. rom Read-only memory. Data, once written, can be neither erased or rewritten. Your CPC contains a rom: a 32k ROM which acts, due to some address-fiddling by Amstrad, as two separate 16k roms. They are known as the upper and lower roms and contain Locomotive Basic and the operating system. The term sideways probably comes from memory maps drawn with roms such as Protext or Maxam bolted alongside locations &C000 to &FFFF. This is where Basic usually lives, but at a simple command any of the other roms can shift across into action like the substitute in a football team. eprom Erasable programmable read-only memory. An eprom can be "blown" or programmed using an eprom blower (see below). It can also be erased using ultraviolet light - and that's the main reason for the stickers you so regularly see covering their 'window': protection against ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Eproms can be blown and erased several times; after four erasures they may become unreliable. There are two common eprom types used on the CPC machines: 2764s and 27128s. These can hold 8k and 16k of data respectively. eeprom Electrically erasable programmable ... An eprom that can be erased with electricity rather than ultraviolet. prom You may encounter this word during your travels through computer books: simply a programmable read-only memory. Once written with data it can not be erased. romboard Amstrad envisaged that 64k of RAM and 32k of ROM would be a limitation for some users, so it was made possible to extend the CPC's memory with sideways RAM and roms (or eproms). These creatures reside on special circuit-boards called romboards, usually dangling from a ribbon cable at the back of the keyboard. During the computer's life a multitude of romboards have become available. Most offer similar features, but there are notable exceptions shining above the crowd. For instance, AA 10 reviewed the Rombo, from Rombo Productions: offering eight sockets and dip-switches to select them easily. As a shining example we review Super Romplus from Britannia Software on these two pages. eprom blower A hardware device with which you can transfer your own software to ROM. John Morrison's eprom programmer, for example (see review). eprom eraser These devices come in a variety of shapes and sizes - not to mention costs. They erase data on eproms by directing high-intensity ultraviolet light through the little windows. On value for money, the Uvipac eprom eraser from Solidisk is as good as any. Retailing at £20 it can erase up to three roms at a go it's rather like putting them in a little solarium oven and closing the door for 15 minutes. Amstrad ROM types There are three main ROM types on the Amstrad: foreground, background and extension. Up to 252 roms can be added to your system - but I am hard pushed to find 15 useful ones. Each ROM must be given a number. The internal Basic ROM normally has slot zero and by default takes over the machine. Other foreground roms can be given any number and called when you want them to take over. If another rom, a different language possibly, sits in slot zero it will bypass Basic and take over the machine on switch-on. It is even acceptable to have 64k of homogeneous foreground program by using four 16k roms - the extra three are called extension roms. Background roms can be called into action on a temporary basis to support a foreground routine. A utility such as Utopia is a good example, its offerings typically in the form of bar commands or RSXs. Background roms in the 464 must be given numbers in the range 1 to 7. The 664 and 6128 machines can have numbers from 1 to 15 - for the reason see the Britannia review. | 
