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Radius Rocket Daughterboards

jeremywork

Well-known member
I suppose this is what I was thinking of, from the back of the PhotoBooster retail box:
vintage-radius-photobooster-dsp-card_1_d1cd16c190106b6b6206e2933263f5cb.jpeg
I trust Radius' own official material, but that Stage II DSP board doesn't seem to have the longer top connector like I think it should (maybe just the lighting/resolution playing tricks...)

Hopefully this helps identify these until better pictures turn up:
Screen Shot 2022-04-27 at 3.09.50 PM.png
 

max1zzz

Well-known member
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.
Great, i'll let you know if someone sends a Stage II daughterboard my way
I could plausibly facilitate this. I have a Rocket Stage I board that I could pull from my 7100/80 to use for testing.
Thanks! I think I might already have a Stage I and SCSI daughterboard headed my way but i'll let you know if that doesn't work out :)
 

Trash80toHP_Mini

NIGHT STALKER
I wonder if drivers can be extricated from RocketWare/Share or developed from scratch to enable a SCSI2 variant to be to be configured as a Socketed/CPU transfer config for Quadras?
 

jeremywork

Well-known member
Exactly, 68030 too if possible. Perfect for hooking up a v6 Fast/Narrow SCSI II SD. ;)
Starting here would probably be good:


I've been meaning to see whether this works with my FastCache Quadra (have heard it does) and the PowerPro (have heard it doesn't.)

Maybe tonight or this week I'll get to it.

Edit: if we could make a smaller version of the Sixty Eight Thousand RAID Warrior we should basically be in business.
 
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Trash80toHP_Mini

NIGHT STALKER
Muddled morning musing:

I'm thinking that the Duo's SCSI MicroDock might be a better starting point. Haven't opened mine up to check, but not an Apple development project. OEM'd by __?__ so it might be a standard SCSI interface IC? ADB is a simple passthru, so no ASIC required or bodged on purpose by Apple. Available(?) SCSI II IC might work?
 

Johnnya101

Well-known member
If one were to make this reproduction SCSI board successfully, would it hypothetically be possible to adapt it as a IIfx PDS card? It would be one of the first IIfx PDS cards.
 

max1zzz

Well-known member
It'd be easier to clone the IIfx SCSI Bolt, which is precisely this, and for which the schematics are, IIRC, available.
Have you got a link to the schematics, a quick bit of googleing turned up neither the card or schematics....
While we're at it... what about the PLI QuickSCSI?
Hardware wise it looks fairly easy to clone however I count no less than 7 GAL's so all of those need to either be unprotected or vulnerable to the glitch attack
 

mg.man

Well-known member
I count no less than 7 GAL's so all of those need to either be unprotected or vulnerable to the glitch attack
Yeah.... I did spot that on closer inspection. I suppose there's only one (potentially destructive) way to find out? :confused:
 

max1zzz

Well-known member
Yeah.... I did spot that on closer inspection. I suppose there's only one (potentially destructive) way to find out? :confused:
I wouldn't mind desoldering the GAL's to try, but that card is is selling for just a little more than I would pay to find out!
 

mg.man

Well-known member
that card is is selling for just a little more than I would pay to find out!
well... as it happens... I have one. :) But if it's 50/50 (or worse?) the patient won't make it through the operation - I'll need to ponder some...
 

max1zzz

Well-known member
well... as it happens... I have one. :) But if it's 50/50 (or worse?) the patient won't make it through the operation - I'll need to ponder some...
The odds are pretty good, I wouldn't expect to have any issue with removing the IC's, in theory there is always a small chance of damaging the GAL's with the glitch attack but I haven't personally had this happen (Though I de remember @Bolle saying he had this happen to him)
 

Trash80toHP_Mini

NIGHT STALKER
edit: you beat me to it!

@Bolle is probably the guy to ask, though max probably knows the yes/no of the possibility of reversing that morass of GALs

Aside from the NCR SCSI chip I haven't looked up these are the only other components:
ROM - DeclROM
Bus Transceivers: 74ALS651 datasheet from Philips
74ALS541 Octal Buffer and Line Driver

Drop the NuBus MUX from the spec and we're on the way to PDS/CPU Socket compatibility.
____________________________________

. . . if it's 50/50 (or worse?) the patient won't make it through the operation - I'll need to ponder some...

If it's unlikely the same GAL bites the big one on two cards, buying the second one for a fix of the first (or both) changes the odds considerably.
 
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jeremywork

Well-known member
For the purposes of combining with an 030/040 socket adapter, the IIfx SCSI Bolt and RAID Warrior are precisely suited for this already. Both narrow SCSI II controllers on 030(IIfx) and 040 PDS connectors, and neither seemingly too complex (at least compared to the Nubus SCSI cards.)

I do have two SCSI Bolts in case this passes the feasibility threshold. If I lent one it wouldn’t *need* to survive but it’d be nice. The RAID Warrior I only have one of, but it’s probably very similar to the IIfx one and may be enough just to probe it after the IIfx model is figured out.

What schematics I do have are attached to the top post here:
https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/sixty-eight-thousand-inc-revival-thread.40798/

I’m fully aware of the danger of feature creep, but would a selectable L2 cache and 1x/1.5x/2x speed jumper setup be terribly complex to add? QuadDoubler type things are seriously thin on the ground, and IIRC there’s already a cloning project under way. Jumpers would help maximize the usefulness in the largest selection of machines.

An inline port for one of the currently-in-production SD adapters would also make it friendlier (or integration right into the card, but this may be overkill and pose a hangup if parts run low.)
 

Trash80toHP_Mini

NIGHT STALKER
Feature creepback. ;)
AFAIK, there's only one SD in town for SCSI II and that's the v6, so stick connector only.
IIfx already has 32K of L2 so that's a no go unless someone wants to noodle out L3 🤪
Anything less will likely have PDS Accelerator with Cache on board if looking at SCSI II enhancement.

KISS!

On the other hand, a metric crapload of RAM on a card for the IIfx PDS addressed as a RAM Disk under Virtual . . .
 

jeremywork

Well-known member
Feature creepback. ;)
AFAIK, there's only one SD in town for SCSI II and that's the v6, so stick connector only.
IIfx already has 32K of L2 so that's a no go unless someone wants to noodle out L3 🤪
Anything less will likely have PDS Accelerator with Cache on board if looking at SCSI II enhancement.

KISS!

On the other hand, a metric crapload of RAM on a card for the IIfx PDS addressed as a RAM Disk under Virtual . . .
The IIfx itself, yes. But if this works, wouldn't we want to enhance other 030 models?

The 128k cache for 040s would perhaps be more desirable, and a 1x/1.5x/2x config would allow 25/33/40MHz models to use the same card. I'm trying to work out how to make it fit in multiple models though... The QuadDoublers were sold in many versions just to accommodate the different board layouts.

All tangential to the SCSI device, though. I've just wished for more availability of those things.

AzulSCSI? AztecMonster? Those both seem fast enough to be narrow SCSI II. A simple 50-pin is all that's really required to be in business.
 
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