A Daystar card in a Centris 660 av

[Bunsen]

Tried a google search - this thread is the second hit

 

[~tl]

The fact that the '040 card itself works in a regular '040 PDS would bear this out. Do you have any other '040 PDS cards you could try in it?

As I said in the post above, it sounds like one of DayStar's neat hardware tricks to allow the same card to be used in multiple machines... like how the Turbo040 works. That might also explain the FLEXlogic chips on the card. I doubt a normal '040-PDS card would work, and it would possibly bork the machine/card, so I wouldn't try it.

 

[igor_av]

It says it is a Quadra 650 with a 68040. Tried without the card in and the hard drive would not boot. It was running 7.6.1. Took the card out and put it in a real Quadra 650 and it seemed a little faster. The hd would not boot without the card installed.

Can you check the system folder on your quadra 660av to see wich extensions / control panels seem to be related to the accelerator board? Also, do you have access to the DSP-related functions (speech recognition, geoport modem, video-in)?

 

[kreats]

I think the image 040 had similar functionality to the photoshop board expansion of the thunder IV.. not sure about compatibility or what software took advantage of it. Indeed.. I'm not sure how it works with (or against) the thunder IV board or what operating systems it was compatible with.

Oh and yes, I'm interested too should you wish to sell.

 

[Maconthemove]

I do not know about geoprt modem but a modem was hooked up and connected to the net.

 

[Bunsen]

Try hooking up the video out to a TV

 

[Maconthemove]

The only thing that was out of the ordinary was a folder with some .mov files. It also had a movie player program, not QT. Me thinks he was making

movies and that is why he had the card in.

edit:After finishing this post,I went to post the books that came the computer. There is one book of interest. Quicktime for the Web by Apple Computer. There is the old bill from Amazon .com to the owner of this computer. It gives his name and where he was. The Vancover Film School.

Going to see if he is still around.

 

[beachycove]

Will do that now. Just above the pds connector there is two 50 pin connectors. What are they for?

There were daughtercards available for a range of Daystar processor upgrade cards (which is what you've got, a fast 68040 with probably 128k cache). The connectors were for these, which were, as has been said by another poster, for dsp daughterboards to speed up photoshop functions (using a narrow range of filters which were dsp-aware).

The connector had an acronym, which was, as I recall (I am away from home and references), QUIC, for Quadra Universal [interconnect?] Connector (or something to that effect).

Couldn't have been immensely popular, as the daughter boards are scarcer than hens' teeth. I've been on the lookout for years for one.

 

[Maconthemove]

What year would these daugther cards been available? I have a ton of Mac magazines and could do some research.

 

[beachycove]

Manufacture date was c. 1994.

I seem to recall also that the 660av pds and the 610 pds are one and the same. It is possible that what you have is an angle adapter originally meant for a Q610, which in that model (and not in the 660av) could also accommodate a ppc upgrade card. So look there too.

 

[Maconthemove]

So it may be possible to plug in the Daystar 601 ppc 100mhz into the angle

adapter. It may be a tight squeeze.

1994. My mags go from 1985-93. Than 1998-99. I seen a ad for the cards in a 1993 issue.

 

[beachycove]

The ppc upgrade was not supported in the 660av, essentially because all the av functions then devolve to the ppc processor rather than the dsps on the logic board. I don't know if would run stably, but playing by Apple's rules, the best you could get is a 40MHz 68040 through the card you already have, which, with the cache, made the 660av faster (in some ways - the dsps are still slower) than an 840av.

PS: circa 1994 = 1993 in my books.

 

[Maccess]

I looks like a 68040 accelerator for 68040 PDS Macs.

I've seen this before but was wondeirng if the following would work:

On a PPC 6100, there is the right angle adaptor for the DOS card which presents a Quadra PDS to the DOS card. Could this accelerator be used in a PPC 6100 with a DOS card adaptor to create a PPC/68K frankenmac.

Sort of like a 68K Mac with PPC card, only reversed.

 

[Maconthemove]

More info

Re: [q] Identify Old Daystar Upgrade

Delete at request of author

Sat, 11 Jun 2005 16:34:31 -0700

I have been following this and other discussions from afar; time to weigh in

with my FIRST POST! Better make it a good one.

I have one of these Daystar cards, and so have had reason to do a little digging

and can fill in the blanks.

It is a Daystar Quad 040 running at 40 MHz with a 128k SRAM cache, and works in

the Quadra 610, 650, 660av, 700, 800, 900 and 950 (the 610 and 660 required, so

far as I know, a Slotsaver adapter - which plugged right into the cpu socket

and so left the one pds expansion slot in the 610 and 660 free).

The card brings any of these machines up to the level of a Q840av (40 MHz). Yes,

there would have been a point in buying one of these c.1993.

But it's not (in itself) an AV card, and there are no DSPs.

Daystar, however, clearly had the av machines in its sights. Though there are no

DSPs (presumably what have been identified are just the cache chips), what

there is is a smallish QUIC (Quadra Universal Interface Connector) slot, to

which can be plugged a Daystar Charger QUIC daughter card, which does have twin

DSPs. It plugs onto the side of the card, very like the daughter card for, say,

the Radius Thunder IV card. I don't have a QUIC daughter card, so I can't speak

about it first hand, but Daystar advertised that the two cards together would

boost a non-av mac like the 700 to run around 30% faster than the 840av.

It runs beautifully under OS 7. Haven't tested it with OS 8. Does not work

happily with A/UX, though I have had it running under A/UX on my Q950. The

trick is to do the A/UX installation with the card installed, and not to put it

in later. But since it makes A/UX rather cranky, there's not much point,

really.

There is a reference (from whch some of this is taken) in _Upgrading and

Repairing Macs_, Que publishing, 1994, pp.604-5 if anyone's really keen.

--

 

[Bunsen]

It's considered good form to link to where you (or whoever *ahem*) found the info when you cut and paste someone's email.

 

[Maconthemove]

Bensen

Was going to mention you, but did not know if you wanted that. The author's info has been deleted at his request.

 

[steve0]

Does the Centris 660 av have a full 68040 chip or the watered down one?

 

[Quadraman]

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=112216

 

[igor_av]

Full 68040 @ 25 mhz.

 

[steve0]

Oh,thank you guys!