MP-L Parallel Interface

The MP-L Parallel Interface is a 5 1/4 inch x 3 1/2 inch board implemented with the 6820 peripheral interface adapter integrated circuit which is used to interface a parallel data device to the computer. The board is provided with two separate connections along the top edge of the board. One has 8 fully buffered high current data outputs along with one buffered "data ready" output line and one "data accepted" input line for complete handshake control. The other has 8 fully buffered data inputs along with one "data ready" input line and one buffered "data accepted" output line for complete handshake control. The interface is completely software programmable by the user with interrupt control as well as polarity control of the handshake lines. For the user who has specialized I/O requirements, the data buffers may be removed from the board and each of the 16 data I/O lines may be individually programmed for either input or output thru software in the user's program.

The MP-L was soon replaced by the MP-LA, which allowed each port to be configured as input or output.

Introduced by Southwest Technical Products Corporation in 1975. The MP-L kit cost $35.

Board Photo (49K JPG)

Board Photo High Resolution (143K JPG)

Assembly Instructions (88K PDF)

Schematic (147K PDF)

Michael Holley's SWTPC Collection Home Page