Keyboard Component

The Keyboard Component was a peripheral that combined with the Master Component to create a fairly capable computer. Mattel Electronics made a limited release of the Keyboard Component and subsequently offered to repurchase them when it decided not to release them to the wider market. As a result, there are very few Keyboards in the wild.

The Keyboard provided the following major components:

6502	The Central Processing Unit (CPU) contained in the Keyboard
TMS9927 CRT Controller	A text-only 40x24 display controller that gen-locks to the Master Component's STIC
CRT RAM	A text frame buffer for the TMS9927 CRT Controller
Shared RAM	16K x 10-bit wide RAM, visible both to the Keyboard's CPU and the Master Component's CP1610.
Tape Drive	A block addressable, fully-CPU controlled tape drive, offering 2 digital and 2 analog tracks
6502 Cartridge Port	A second cartridge port for 6502-specific software, such as Keyboard BASIC

This page is a stub, but I wanted to get at least something here. I will upload Keyboard Component related photos and docs later. --Mr Z 18:45, 29 June 2006 (EDT)