R6551P Advice please

[Charlie]

Hello fellow Amibayers,
i wonder if I might tap your collective thoughts for some advice. Among my little projects is the A2Pi board I keep banging on about - for those not in the know it allows a Raspberry Pi to be interfaced to an Apple II via a serial link. The result is all the upgrade any classic Apple II owner could ever want.

The 'heart' of this board is the classic R6551P serial interface chip. I think I've been a bit distracted today and had a bout of plugging R6551P's in the wrong way round and as a result have run out of IC's... oops!

Sadly it seems these IC's are becoming very expensive, no doubt as they are many years out of manufacture. I think it time I looked for an alternate interface IC... Which brings me on to my questions:
-Is anyone aware of a more common drop-in replacement for the R6551P, or something that's at least software compatible so I can design a new board around it?
-Failing that is anyone aware of any PIC/CPLD/FPGA project that reproduces the functionality of the R6551P that I could use?

Many thanks,
Charles.

 

[roy_bates]

have you had a look for 8551's?

edit: actually i had a look on ebay,i can get them for a tenner for ten 6551's new,not sure if i can post a link?

 

[Charlie]

have you had a look for 8551's?

edit: actually i had a look on ebay,i can get them for a tenner for ten 6551's new,not sure if i can post a link?

Thanks for that. If you don't mind pm'ing me that link I'd really appreciate it - that's a way better price than my rubbish searching turned up.

 

[roy_bates]

give me a sec ill send you pm with a link

 

[Charlie]

Just wanted to say a big thank you to Roy.