Help identifying bin full of NUBUS cards

Over the past 2+ years, every time I acquired a NUBUS Mac that came with cards, I’d remove the cards and place them in a bin.

What would the best way to identify these cards be? Is there software that can tell me exactly what I have? If a card is faulty in any way, could it fry something in a test Mac?

I know I have one of those rare AST x86 PC Card sets (both cards).

If the card is mostly working (i.e. the machine can see the declrom), then something like TattleTech or Slots will tell you what it claims to be. This is of varying degrees of helpfulness, but in most cases it'll tell you who made it and what it does.

I'd share photos if I wasn't sure what cards are - the power of the distributed brain

Besides, it gives us something to do

Phipli said:

I'd share photos if I wasn't sure what cards are

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This. Most cards should be easy to identify if they aren't some oddball rare unicorn.
For those cases checking the DeclROM with TattleTech or Newertech SlotInfo will do.

Thanks @cheesestraws @Phipli @Bolle

I’ll lay them out and photo them. Maybe something I have will be of use to someone else, too.

I think those AST card sets also need the special external 5.25" drive to be useful (plus 2 cables connecting the cards on the top).

Pictures here would make it easy to identify items.

Did you back up any drivers present on the host machines with functioning HDDs?

Yep, pics or plug them in and check what TattleTech says. Most cards have silkscreen / text on a ROM that would help identify it too.

Unknown_K said:

I think those AST card sets also need the special external 5.25" drive to be useful (plus 2 cables connecting the cards on the top).

Pictures here would make it easy to identify items.

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I’ll have to check again, but I recall these cards having connecting ribbon cables

Trash80toHP_Mini said:

Did you back up any drivers present on the host machines with functioning HDDs?

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Almost every single vintage Mac I purchased in 2020 to date, when I started, had a dead hard drive. The ones that weren’t dead I backed up, but there were very few driver CDEV/Extensions and apps on any of the ones that worked. Most working units were PowerMacs and a few LCs.

joshc said:

Yep, pics or plug them in and check what TattleTech says. Most cards have silkscreen / text on a ROM that would help identify it too.

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I’ll get photos up here as soon as I can.

Unknown_K said:

I think those AST card sets also need the special external 5.25" drive to be useful (plus 2 cables connecting the cards on the top).

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They use a standard PC 360K 5.25" drive, you can make your own adapter cable if your missing a drive (the pinnout is in the card's manual) or the apple PC 5.25" drive also works (which afaik is what AST recommended - the cards did not come with the drive) the manual also suggests the card may support 3.5" drives but doesn't specifically state it and I know that floppy controller on the card dose not specifically support 3.5" drives
(or if the mac has two floppy drives you can apparently share one with the "PC" but I haven't personally tried this)

The two connecting cables on the top are just standard 40pin ribbon cables, should be easy to find or make

Edit: looks like that manual I was referencing isn't actually online anywhere - I'll try and get around to scanning it one day

AST also made a NuBus RAM card. I've been on the lookout for one. Another one of those unicorn cards. I think it's the only way to get more than 128MBs on a non-Quadra 9x0. Requires clever use of RAM Disk + Virtual Memory.

I'm inclined to agree with cheesestraws but at the same time I would think that group photos of the cards may be a more better way to go, especially as there are quite some cards that I think may not seem to want to 'function' even although they technically are not broken
(such as the one card needed to drive a specific kind of printer as I recall unknown_k mentioned to me some awhile ago, I wonder if such card would even have any rom or anything or the os simply won't be able to detect it without the use of matching software extension)

chelseayr said:

I would think that group photos of the cards may be a more better way to go

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Yes, I concentrated too much on the 'software' part of the question at the cost of the actual intent, which was not entirely helpful of me.

Agreed that posting photos of them here and asking for help identifying will probably be quicker to identify many of them than actually interrogating the card.

I have brought out my bin and photographed some of the cards I’ve pulled out of random machines I’ve bought over the years. I likely have a bunch more but are more inaccessible. Please help me identify some and also provide info as to whether they are useful or good, or not. Thank you !

@MrFahrenheit I was expecting to see one less candy bar with each subsequent picture.

olePigeon said:

@MrFahrenheit I was expecting to see one less candy bar with each subsequent picture.

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Lol! I did eat 2 during the production of those photos

A starter for ten, perhaps useful:

MrFahrenheit said:

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The 8•24GC was a banger of a card when it was new Might still be the fastest card fully supported under System 6 (?). Is picky about System verrsions, I believe. Not sure, haven't got one. Nice, though.

MrFahrenheit said:

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NI GPIB/HPIB card. Used probably with LabView to communicate with test equipment like oscilloscopes. multimeters, spectrum analysers, etc. If the bit on the front (the screw-on thing that looks like a terminator) is the same as mine, it's literally just an extender so that the port sticks out of the socket far enough that you can plug stuff into it.

That's the Associated Press logo on that sticker, isn't it? What on earth were they doing with GPIB? That would be interesting to find out...

MrFahrenheit said:

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10BaseT ethernet. The DP8390 is an ethernet controller chip. I'm fairly sure that Apple also used them, so I'd try this and the two below out with the Apple ethernet drivers, they may not need third party drivers.

MrFahrenheit said:

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Another ethernet card: note, again, there's a DP8390 on it.

MrFahrenheit said:

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Another one, another DP8390 .

MrFahrenheit said:

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I am fairly sure this is also Ethernet, the filter behind the 8P8C jack is a 10BaseT part, anyway. Not sure whose Ethernet or what drivers you'd need for this one.

MrFahrenheit said:

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AST Mac286: A 286-based PC card.

MrFahrenheit said:

I have brought out my bin and photographed some of the cards I’ve pulled out of random machines I’ve bought over the years. I likely have a bunch more but are more inaccessible. Please help me identify some and also provide info as to whether they are useful or good, or not. Thank you !

View attachment 47799
Radius Two Page Display graphics card from 1988. It was designed for the Mac II.

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MrFahrenheit said:

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You have struck gold here. This is the famed Macintosh Display 8 24 GC card. It is sought after by IIfx owners.

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MrFahrenheit said:

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Bungee video from Apple Computer? I'd have to look this one up. It looks like the Macintosh Display 6 24 card. Mine doesn't have G-World RAM slots though.

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MrFahrenheit said:

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Isn't this a Toby card? 640x480 pixels at 2, 16 & 256 colours, if I remember correctly.

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MrFahrenheit said:

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Or maybe this is the Toby card. This is a Macintosh II video card.

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MrFahrenheit said:

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RasterOps ColorBoard 264 - 640x480 up to 24-bit colours.

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MrFahrenheit said:

View attachment 47809
This is a National Instruments NB-GPIB-P/TNT IEEE 488 Interface Board. The NB-GPIB-P/TNT is built with a TNT4882C chip that performs fundamental IEEE 488 Controller, Talker, and Listener functions. This IEEE 488 Interface Board supports 1.3 MB/s data transfer rates while utilizing three-wire handshake. The National Instruments NB-GPIB-P/TNT can execute the HS-488 high-speed GPIB protocol, which enables transfer rates up to 2.3 MB/s. However, these transfer rates are based on the system configuration and device capabilities. Source: https://www.apexwaves.com/modular-systems/national-instruments/nb-series/NB-GPIB-P-TNT.

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MrFahrenheit said:

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Did TechWorks make NuBus graphics cards? I know they did 3DFX clones.

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MrFahrenheit said:

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3Com EtherLink/NB NIC.

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MrFahrenheit said:

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NIC? Serial-port card? What does TattleTech say? What kind of port does it have?

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MrFahrenheit said:

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I assume it's a NIC. I've never a card like this before.What does TattleTech say?

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MrFahrenheit said:

View attachment 47814View attachment 47815View attachment 47816

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Ooooh! AST Mac286 card(s). Two computers in one Mac II or Quadra.

I was half way through identifying the cards when Cheesestraws beat me to it.

Of your cards, I think the most valuable are:

8•24 GC and the AST Mac286. They seem to be coveted amongst a select group of enthusiasts.

However, I believe the regular 8•24 is a fine card if you already have an 8•24 GC because (I think) the GC card will accelerate it. So I'd keep those two cards together.

Well the one 8•24 GC sold on ebay recently fetch only $85 …