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Turning a Thought into a Prototype- Part 3

Hardware
December 6, 2025

The Einstein Speculator - Turning a Thought into a Prototype

 

Picking up from the last article, I started looking on line for more information and discovered that the brilliantly talented Tony Brewer was the original architect of the device, sadly however he was no longer involved in the support for these devices as a few years back his health had deteriorated to such a degree that he had been forced to sell all his Einstein equipment. Undeterred I continued looking and found that Tony had done something quite wonderful, knowing he would not be around on the scene any more he had released the software for the Einstein community to use.

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Armed with the software and pictures of a Speculator, I decided to post the pictures on the Einstein User Group and try and identify all the chips on the board (it was a start nothing more -  the results are above) some very helpful members came back with helpful answers and the chips were identified and posted on the User Group. It was around this time that two people of immense importance to the project came forward firstly Keith Robinson, an extremely talented Engineer who as he said “Likes to design and investigate stuff to keep his skills sharp and his mind entertained” and secondly Adam Ainsworth who owned an original Speculator and was quite happy to lend it out in order to help the advancement of the project.

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Now at this point it needs pointing out that Keith does not own an Einstein, as far as I know he never has, but he liked the sound of the project and offered to help. From that point forward Keith flooded me with information, the first issue he high lighted was that  two of the chips on the Speculator were PAL chips whose contents needed dumping. A quick conversation later and Adam posted his Speculator to Keith who promptly dived in and created the following webpage which he constantly updates and detailing everything he has done and plans to do -

https://hackaday.io/project/203985-tatung-einstein-speculator-analysis

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The next stumbling block as far as I was concerned was the recreation of the two PAL chips, but again Keith came straight back that there were more modern alternatives that he could make work and unbelievably he owned a very old machine with the capability of dumping the PAL chips, which he promptly did. For more details on all of this please visit Keith’s webpage, it really is worth reading.

 

A few days later, I received a further message from Keith, he had spotted the necessary chips being sold on Ebay and as they are hard to get hold of, he recommended I buy some, so with a view to getting the speculator built for myself and helping others achieve the same, I bought 30(15 pairs) and Keith offered to write them for me. Just a little later another message the Piezo Buzzer’s were for sale as another of the harder to get items, I again purchased 15 and finally yet another message, the rare 2k Ram chips were being sold, I again purchased enough for 15 boards. I have no idea how many will end up being used,  know at least two sets will be used on the prototypes for me and a couple of other interested parties have expressed an interest, so when its all is working I will contact them and offer to send them the parts I have for their builds (Please note I have not bought these parts in order to make a profit, I will quite happily pass them on at cost to anyone that wants to build a Speculator).

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Whilst all of the above was going on the final part of the solution was being dealt with, Adam Groome owned two Speculator sand had contacted me to let me know he had contacted a third party regarding the possibility of creating the Gerbers so that we could eventually get the bare boards made.

 

Knowing now that the board could in theory be built, I set about looking into software, there were originally three disks released full of Spectrum software that worked with the Speculator, a lot of sites had disk one but disks two and three, seemed to be hard to find, luckily Mikes Retro tech website (https://www.mikesretrotech.co.uk/- Mike is another of technical guy, who having worked on Einstein projects for a considerable amount of time - kindly uploaded details of everything he did to(it, like Keiths is well worth a visit) solved that problem and I now had the three disks. Adam then mentioned he had copies of the disks as well and added he had more disks with Spectrum games on them - adding he was planning to convert them and I immediately offered to help, and we will have to see what that yields.

 

Not wanting to leave things there I started looking into what was required to convert even more games and I am very hopeful a lot more can be done (that said it is at the end of my list to be approached when everything else is complete).

 

And this is where I’m leaving this part of the story

- Part 4 will be coming shortly so make sure to check back for the next update on progress.

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Lee Bendall

I’ve worked in the finance sector since the late 1980s, but my passion for computing began much earlier. I purchased my first home computer in 1982, and from that moment I knew technology was what I truly wanted to pursue. So, when the opportunity arose in the 1990s to transition my career into the Financial IT sector, I seized it with both hands. Throughout my later career, I had the privilege of working on leading-edge IT projects and was eventually invited to become a member of the British Computer Society, earning Chartered Information Technology Professional (CITP) status—a charter I’m proud to still hold today. Despite my professional focus, I never lost my enthusiasm for the home computing scene. Over the years, I’ve owned nearly every major machine released in the UK. It was no surprise, then, that when MAME introduced support for vintage computers (initially through MESS), I jumped right in. Now retired, my love for 1980s and 1990s computers remains as strong as ever. When the opportunity arose to purchase an Einstein TC-01, I couldn’t resist. The seller—Adam Groome—shared a deep passion for keeping the Einstein alive, and his enthusiasm quickly drew me into the community. Today, I’m involved in several Einstein-related projects, including work on the Speculator, TK-02, and Silicon Disk hardware. In addition to these, I founded the Einstein Document Preservation Project, which focuses on high-resolution rescanning, restoration, and enhancement of all Einstein documentation. I’m also engaged in a large-scale initiative to support and preserve the Einstein’s software library.