let's take apart this old chart recorder!
umm, that's a lot of analog! mostly ceramic DIP packages, too.
the LED bargraphs are driven by two FPGAs and a whole pile of latches.
there's... even more boards underneath.
next layer: even more FPGAs. some ROMs too.
the processor board has an Intel 186 on it! just what I suspected.
feast your ocular orbs on this very old Intel flash memory chip, complete with 80s logo.
the bottom board controls the thermal printer. lots of GALs, FIFOs, and SRAM.
this is the fattest little delay line i've ever seen
looks like the onboard EPROM is just a bootloader. the real software is in the two flash memory chips that are soldered down. 🤔
check out the memory card in this thing. it is not PCMCIA, it's something called Melcard and it has a cute little shutter covering the edge connector.
gonna try to dump the flash memory. too bad it's soldered down--wait
oh, there's german in the flash! 256kB of text and code.
all right, can any of you think of a reason *not* to part this thing out? the rubber roller is turning into goo and staining the paper.
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