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Help for a nubus Radius PrecisionColor Pro 24X ROM/firmware upgrade

mg.man

Well-known member
Oh, BTW, I checked the circuit and they're compatible with 512 byte chips.
Interesting. Found a guy on eBay selling a pair of UV erasable '512s for a little over a fiver, so ordered some. What about EEPROMs? Aren't there pin-compatible ones of those that might work?
 

Phipli

Well-known member
Question - in the pic with the red pcb, don't you need to use the top-most pins on RN6? Those are the only ones that are not connected. :unsure:
The picture is showing how it is wired at the moment, not suggesting a modification.

The other jumper position connects the pin to the ASIC through the resistor pack - thats what you're looking at. It is either to allow bigger ROMs than they used, just in case, or possibly for supplying Vpp... although the latter is improbable. All cards just have the other jumper position selected, even hard wired. That position is a direct connection to Vcc as a pull up, and is why the extra address line on a 512byte ROM wouldn't be floating. Although you would need to write the ROM to the top half of the oversized ROM if you were planning to use it like that.

I saw the cute windowed ROMs. Went for this instead. Datasheet says erasable.
 

mg.man

Well-known member
They are 27c256 chips. Brand varies, if you pick a random 27c256, then click ID, it will tell you the chip ID and you can Google the ID to find the manufacturer and product if you're interested.
OK, so... here's the 2.0 dump. CAUTION : I have a feeling this card was not working properly (which is why I have it loose). So be warned if you try this dump and it doesn't work. I will try the card again this coming w/e and report back.

In addition, looking at the HEX, I was expecting to see a clear text "(C) Radius..." or similar, but nothing. I did look at the 24Xp dump @Phipli provided, and that too doesn't show any sign of anything "(C) Radius". I guess YMMV applies here atm.
 

Attachments

  • PrecClr24X_2.0.bin
    32 KB · Views: 6

mg.man

Well-known member
Here is a collection of PrecisionColor ROMs - some from the internet, the 8XJ and 24XK are from my cards.

If anyone has more v2.0 ROMs, it would be great to compare the differences!

I suspect some of the big block of difference between @Bolle's v2 ROM and mine is the splash image?
PrecisionColor 24XP ROM 2.0 - this is from a working card. :)
 

Attachments

  • PrecClr24XP_2.0.bin
    32 KB · Views: 8

Phipli

Well-known member
PrecisionColor 24XP ROM 2.0 - this is from a working card. :)
Thanks mg.man - I'll put together a table of the specs at some point. Great that we've managed to go from almost nothing on file to a good selection. It would be amazing if we could get a full portfolio of v2.0 ROMs so anyone who wanted to could get PPC acceleration working.
 

pizzigri

Well-known member
Question, how does the Apple Display Card 24AC (3mb with 110MHz ramdac) compare vs the other 68k Nubus cards out there? I know the holy grail is the Village Tronic Picasso 340, that is only for PPC though, but what about this card and the same one not rebranded from Radius?
Does it have value? Not selling mine anytime soon obviously.
 

Phipli

Well-known member
Question, how does the Apple Display Card 24AC (3mb with 110MHz ramdac) compare vs the other 68k Nubus cards out there? I know the holy grail is the Village Tronic Picasso 340, that is only for PPC though, but what about this card and the same one not rebranded from Radius?
Does it have value? Not selling mine anytime soon obviously.
The Radius cards are pretty good. I suspect SuperMac cards are the best 68k cards.

This table slomacuser posted might be interesting to you :

 

Phipli

Well-known member
Question, how does the Apple Display Card 24AC (3mb with 110MHz ramdac) compare vs the other 68k Nubus cards out there? I know the holy grail is the Village Tronic Picasso 340, that is only for PPC though, but what about this card and the same one not rebranded from Radius?
Does it have value? Not selling mine anytime soon obviously.
One thing to remember is that performance isn't the same in 68k and PPC. I have a card that actually scores worse in PPC than 68k in the same computer. I suspect the driver / ROM is 68k code running in emulation.
 

MJ313

Well-known member
PrecisionColor 24XP ROM 2.0 - this is from a working card. :)

You saved my card! Thanks much! It's been a brick and this just brought it back from the dead (w the 2.0 rom as well)!

Thanks Phipli, as well, for your efforts on this front- I've got a couple of 2.0 roms but suspect most of them have been posted. I'll check.
 

MJ313

Well-known member
I'll be over the moon if you have a 24xk!

Here is the non-Pro XK v2.0 rom which interestingly works fine in a 8-24X, but caps at 1024x768
 

Attachments

  • Radius PrecisionColor nonPro 24XK v2.0.bin
    32 KB · Views: 6
  • nonPro KX 2.0 rom.png
    nonPro KX 2.0 rom.png
    4.5 MB · Views: 9

Phipli

Well-known member
Here is the non-Pro XK v2.0 rom which interestingly works fine in a 8-24X, but caps at 1024x768
I read that Pro and non Pro were just the 7" and 12" cards respectively, although weirdly I see everyone else's 7" cards have non-pro ROMs except mine. Regarding 1152x870, be aware my Pro 24xk doesn't do 1152x870 either, so I don't think that is a difference. Yes, as with many things, LEM is wrong about the resolutions the 24xk supports.

It's likely because the 80MHz RAMDAC doesn't support clock speeds high enough for that higher resolution.
 

MJ313

Well-known member
FWIW I had tried the 12" XP Rom in my 7" XP card and it remained bricked. My XP card has a different layout then mgman's blue one.
 

Attachments

  • XP.png
    XP.png
    8.7 MB · Views: 8

mg.man

Well-known member
No problem my end. Will be good to have a repo. Do check my 24X dump first. The 24XP has been confirmed working.
 

Phipli

Well-known member
No problem my end. Will be good to have a repo. Do check my 24X dump first. The 24XP has been confirmed working.
The 24X will probably work on my XK - they are almost the same, just the X has a faster RAMDAC.
 
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