ATPL Sidewise Sideways ROM RAM expansion board

The ATPL Sidewise Sideways ROM board provides ROM and EPROM expansion capacity internally to the BBC Micro, allowing the machine to access a full complement of 15 installed ROMs. ROM bank 15 is split into two banks of 8KB of RAM which allows for a ROM image to be loaded into the ROM bank or for the extra Sideways RAM to be used under certain circumstances by expanded games that took advantage of the memory if fitted.

Fitting the board

Fitting the board can be a solderless affair however, if you're handy with a Soldering Iron, the job can be made much more professional by changing a couple of sockets and altering the power connections on the motherboard slightly.

The standard instructions for fitting the ATPL board simply cover removing the two IC's from IC73 and IC51, connecting the two flying leads to the jumper header J21, bending the two original spade connectors on the motherboard to make some room and pressing home the board into the sockets. of IC73 and IC51.

To make the job a little more professional and reliable in the long term it's worth doing the following whilst the BBC Micro is in bits.

• Remove the motherboard from the case
• Replace IC73 and IC51 sockets with the turned pin type
• Remove the two power spade connectors in the centre of the motherboard
• Attach flying leads with new spade connectors so the power connectors are displaced from their original location which would be under the ATPL board.
• Refit the motherboard in the case
• Fit the ATPL board as per the original instructions.