I am wondering how feasible it would be to write a CPU/machine emulator for the HP 16c that would execute the ROM from an actual 16C.
I know there are emulators available that emulate the functions of this device, but I'd like to work on a emulator for the hardware that would run the actual ROM image from the 16C.
I see a few problems here:
1. Need to extract a ROM image from a 16C.
2. Need to write an emulator for the CPU (Saturn?), display, keypad, etc.
3. Getting enough documentation to do #2.
I've written an emulator before, mainly one for a 80386 when I worked for Cyrix years ago. So I feel this is possible.
But I'm wondering about obtaining ROM images from a 16C. Are there service manuals available that document the pinout of the ROM such that a ROM could be extracted from a 16C and read-out? It seems like the 12C is similar in hardware design, so perhaps this could be tested on a donor 12C (cheaper to obtain) before trying it on a 16C ROM.
If anyone has info that would help me out, I'd appreciate it.
Also, any thoughts on the feasibility of this project?
Thanks,
--Anil