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Radius Rocket Daughterboards

Nathan_A

Well-known member
I just lost an auction for a Radius Rocket that had the SCSI board on it. The price shot up beyond what I could justify spending since I already have a Radius Rocket w/o such a board.

Does anyone have or have pictures of these boards? As far as I know there was the DSP board and the SCSI board? Were their others? What were they even? I assume they were basically small format PDS cards? Or were they some other oddball interface?

Would the be reproducible?
 

Johnnya101

Well-known member
I've got to ask, and sorry to derail this, was this on ebay? I wouldn't mind a rocket... Nothing's coming up, so guessing it is overseas eBay or something else.
 

Johnnya101

Well-known member
Oh yeah, that would have been mine too. Then add on another $60-$100 for shipping and what not. Thanks for letting me know.
 

jeremywork

Well-known member
There were SCSI II and DSP boards for both Stage I and Stage II rockets, which aren't interchangeable.

Stage I SCSI:
Screen Shot 2022-04-26 at 6.16.00 PM.pngScreen Shot 2022-04-26 at 6.16.58 PM.png

Stage I DSP:
Screen Shot 2022-04-26 at 6.36.21 PM.pngScreen Shot 2022-04-26 at 6.36.14 PM.png

Stage II DSP:
Screen Shot 2022-04-26 at 6.21.07 PM.png (don't have a front pic)

Stage II SCSI:
(haven't seen one yet)

There's also this crazy thing, which I'd guess @defor may know more precisely about. Looks like a PCI riser to me!
 

Nathan_A

Well-known member
That PCI expansion thing is bananas! What could you even use that for? I know that industrial computers based on the 68040 eventually had PCI busses on them, but they were for running stuff like QNX, VxWorks, etc. Are there even any Mac-compatible PCI device drivers that are 68k for running on a Stage II?
 

jeremywork

Well-known member
That PCI expansion thing is bananas! What could you even use that for? I know that industrial computers based on the 68040 eventually had PCI busses on them, but they were for running stuff like QNX, VxWorks, etc. Are there even any Mac-compatible PCI device drivers that are 68k for running on a Stage II?
That's always been my conundrum with it. What would even be usable?

If I found one personally I'd try it out with my Second Wave Xpanse PN400.
I've heard people say Rockets don't work with those (no card to card support?), but those could work with Rockets ;)

@defor, if you still have three of them, I'd happily trade one for some different Rocket gear or other MacThings...
 

Nathan_A

Well-known member
Interestingly the layouts of both the Stage I SCSI and DSP boards is pretty simple looking. At least component-wise. They seem reproducible. Especially the SCSI board. There's barely anything to it. That Emulex IC is still available, so as long as that GAL can be dumped, then it seems plausible. The DSP board has a bunch more GAL chips on it and I have no idea what's under all those stickers on those other components.
 
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jeremywork

Well-known member
Interestingly the layouts of both the Stage I SCSI and DSP boards is pretty simple looking. At least component-wise. They seem reproducible. Especially the SCSI board. There's barely anything to it. That Emulex IC is still available, so as long as that GAL can be dumped, then it seems plausible. The DSP board has a bunch more GAL chips on it and I have no idea what's under all those stickers on those other components.
The Stage I DSP card is from my collection. It's not nearby at the moment but next time I get to it I can see what's under those stickers at least.
 

Nathan_A

Well-known member
The Stage I DSP card is from my collection. It's not nearby at the moment but next time I get to it I can see what's under those stickers at least.
Excellent. Do you know of anybody around here who has one of the SCSI boards? Using the search for such a thing has extended beyond my search-fu.
 

cheesestraws

Well-known member
I have a stage I SCSI board on my Rocket. Can investigate in more detail in a couple of days if you like. Remind me at the weekend, because my short term memory is nonexistent. :)
 

Nathan_A

Well-known member
I have to assume that those boards are basically '040 PDS boards?

I wonder if other I/O boards could be made, like an Ethernet one? Or, a hybrid Ethernet SCSI to move all the I/O for the Rocket to local PDS instead of over the host Nubus and the various forms of chicanery required to map and share resources between the two?
 

Johnnya101

Well-known member
I'm guessing recreating the actual Rocket would be close to impossible, since there are probably custom parts? Originals seem pretty hard to find.
 

max1zzz

Well-known member
Would be happy to lend mine to this cause so long as it wasn't a sander job ;-).
The main problem would be that I don't have a rocket to test the card in.....
Otherwise yes it should be possible to reproduce the board without damaging it, it's just a matter of carefully disassembling and scanning he card

I'm guessing recreating the actual Rocket would be close to impossible, since there are probably custom parts? Originals seem pretty hard to find.
I couldn't easily find good pictures of the Stage 1 card but the Stage 2 card defiantly uses customs, maybe replicating the hole card in a FPGA or similar might be a better approach?
 

jeremywork

Well-known member
Would be happy to lend mine to this cause so long as it wasn't a sander job ;-).
It would be marvelous to be able to purcase one someday without needing to wait for it to turn up attached to a rocket. I'd lend the Stage I DSP board for the same cause, so long as there's a reasonable degree of certainty that it would either survive, or the reproduction effort would succeed. (I have no Stage I to include with it; I've just kept it hoping one will find its way to me, or I have the opportunity to trade for one of the Stage II daughterboards since I have two of those Rockets with nothing attached.)

I couldn't easily find good pictures of the Stage 1 card but the Stage 2 card defiantly uses customs, maybe replicating the hole card in a FPGA or similar might be a better approach?
Here's a decent pic of Stage I (top) and Stage II:
s-l1600 (2).jpg

In this brochure for the Stage I, the DSP board is laid out differently (though, it's mentioned as being available Q1 1993, the brochure was printed 02/93.)
 

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  • RadiusRocket.pdf
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jeremywork

Well-known member
More pictures, including the Stage II SCSI board. (From Radius' website around 1998):
Stage II SCSI:
Screen Shot 2022-04-27 at 2.36.08 PM.png
Stage I SCSI (already above):
Screen Shot 2022-04-27 at 2.35.10 PM.png
Stage I DSP (already above):
Screen Shot 2022-04-27 at 2.34.09 PM.png
 

max1zzz

Well-known member
Here's a decent pic of Stage I (top) and Stage II
Indeed they both use customs, and a (very) quick look reveals no source of them
I'd lend the Stage I DSP board for the same cause, so long as there's a reasonable degree of certainty that it would either survive, or the reproduction effort would succeed
Looking at it the DSP would be a little more tricky as it appears to be a 6 layer board, but that dosen't make it impossible it would just need a different approach than one I normally use

I would be happy to look at replicating either if I can get my hands on a rocket for testing :)
 

jeremywork

Well-known member
I would be happy to look at replicating either if I can get my hands on a rocket for testing :)
If anyone feels like lending you a Stage II daughterboard but not a Stage II Rocket, I'd be glad to lend one of my Stage II Rockets to help you clone the daughterboard.

In the meantime I know I've seen a color marketing print showing the inside of the Stage II DSP board. It's probably low quality but I'd LOVE to see all eight pictures neatly in one post ;D
 
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