On August 16th, Prof. Gustavo E.A.P.A. Batista shared with our virtual community the first CP-500 ROM dump, making the emulation of that computer even more similar to the real machine.

The CP-500 ROM has 16kB, against 14kB of the standard TRS-80 Model III. According to Matthew Reed's first analysis, "the CP-500 ROM differs from the Model III ROM in fewer than 90 bytes, many of which are changed messages. The extra 2K appears to be a machine language monitor".

It is possible to run the CP-500 ROM with Matthew's TRS32 but, for that to work, DOS500 is also required. After placing the ROM in the proper folder and booting the OS, remove the disk from the drive and reset the emulator. You should see the messages "Cass?", "Mem. usada?", "PROLOGICA 1981 BASIC" and "READY>".

Notice that the resident Monitor won't work due to a supposed addressing conflict, but it is possible to see its prompt by entering the command "SYSTEM". Matthew mentions that he has plans to add support for TRS-80 clones in the future, including the CP-500. We are looking forward to it!

The CP-500 ROM is available for download here.