PAPERS_JR 960801 (August 1996)

After we had completed the TTL_PAPERS 960801 board layout, we found that we had a little corner of the layout rectangle unused (because the 960801 layout actually has two boards: a main board and a boardlet used to support scaling). After getting price quotes on the two-layer plated-through board, we discovered that the price would be unaffected by whatever we decided to put in that corner. So we couldn't leave it blank. ;-)

One idea was to make a PAPERS keychain. Another passing whim was to make it an image of the group's business card. However, we finally figured-out something useful to do with this space: PAPERS_JR.

PAPERS_JR is essentially a CAPERS unit, but it adds two features:

• It has the now-standard-for-us LED display. Each processor controls a bi-color LED and there is a blue power LED.
• While CAPERS is not capable of supporting OS-level parallel interrupts, PAPERS_JR can work with a gang-scheduling meta-OS.

Neither of the above TTL_PAPERS-like features are implemented in the same way that they are implemented in TTL_PAPERS, rather, they are implemented in a way that allows the PAPERS_JR library to work with CAPERS hardware for all that CAPERS supports.

Of course, PAPERS_JR is both very small and very simple: just two TTL parts. The wooden case for PAPERS_JR (mahogany, in the photo ;-) is exceptionally simple to make, and looks a lot like a solid block of wood with a hole in it for cooling the 7805 voltage regulator. It makes a great stocking-stuffer. ;-)

The only thing set in stone is our name.