Spectravideo SVI318/328 Game Cartridge

30-pin female edge connector on the SVI-318/328 carrying +5V, 14 address lines, 8 data lines, and four active-low chip-select outputs.

The Spectravideo SVI-318 and SVI-328 are Z80A-based 8-bit home computers introduced in 1983 by Spectravideo International Ltd., Hong Kong. The game cartridge slot is a 30-pin female edge connector on the computer, separate from the 50-pin Super Expander bus. It carries only +5V power, ground, 14 address lines (A0–A13), 8 data lines (D0–D7), and four active-low chip-select outputs (~CCS1–~CCS4); there are no read/write or control signals, making the slot suitable for ROM cartridges only. Cartridge enables are controlled by the AY-3-8910 sound/IO chip’s Port B register, with each chip-select mapping to a 16 KB address block within the Z80’s 64 KB space.

30 PIN FEMALE EDGE at the computer.

Spectravideo SVI318/328 Game Cartridge connector diagram

PinName
1+5v
2+5v
3A7
4A12
5A6
6A13
7A5
8A8
9A4
10A9
11A3
12A11
13A10
14A2
15A0
16A1
17D0
18D7
19D1
20D6
21D2
22D5
23D3
24D4
25CCS3
26CCS4
27CCS1
28CCS2
29GND
30GND

Notes

  • The connector is a 30-pin female edge connector on the computer; cartridges insert from the top.
  • Address lines A14 and A15 are absent; the slot provides only 14 bits of addressing (A0–A13).
  • No RD, WR, MREQ, or IORQ signals are present — the slot is memory-mapped ROM only; write operations to the cartridge space are not possible.
  • Power supply is +5V only; no ±12V rails are present on this connector (those appear only on the expansion bus).
  • The address and data lines are routed in an interleaved order on the physical connector (e.g. A7, A12, A6, A13 … rather than sequential).

Signals

  • +5v — +5 VDC supply (pins 1–2)
  • A0–A13 — 14-bit address bus from the Z80A CPU; A14 and A15 are not present on this connector
  • D0–D7 — bidirectional 8-bit data bus
  • ~CCS1 — active-low chip select; addresses 0000H–3FFFH (16 KB)
  • ~CCS2 — active-low chip select; addresses 4000H–7FFFH (16 KB)
  • ~CCS3 — active-low chip select; addresses 8000H–BFFFH (16 KB)
  • ~CCS4 — active-low chip select; addresses C000H–FFFFH (16 KB)
  • GND — ground (pins 29–30)

References

Category:Cartridges - Expansions Connectors