Anyone know what this NuBUS card might be?

[mg.man]

In a moment of weekend madness... I've won an auction for a Mac II with a couple of interesting NuBUS cards. Two I can identify, but the third has me stumped. It'll be a while before I have hands on it - it's on the other side of the planet from me - but here's a (blurry) pic from the listing :



There's no connector at the back, and the large chip (DSP?) seems to have lost its heatsink. There does appear to be quite a but of RAM(?) onboard at the far right end.

Anyone have any clues?

 

[jeremywork]

YARC NuSprint - I snagged this other one recently and haven’t done enough research yet. I think the chip is an Am29000.

送料込み 起動不可 レア 珍品 希少 Macintosh II... - Yahoo!オークション

送料込み 起動不可 レア 珍品 希少 Macintosh IIfx 詳細不明 ご覧頂きありがとうございます。 今回、断捨離という訳ではありませんが、結構衝動買いをしてしまうところもあり、身辺整理も兼ねてこれまでの収集品を出品することにしました。 宜しければ入札お願いいたします。 商品説明 起動不可 レア 珍品 希少 Macintosh IIfx 詳細不明 もう25～30年くらい前オールドマックの収集が趣味で多数集め

page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp

P.s. I was interested to see if that 8.24GC has ROM 341-0812 installed (C ROM.) I have 341-0266 (B ROM) so all the features are unlocked, but I’m curious to see if any noticeable bugs were fixed.

 

[mg.man]

YARC NuSprint

Interesting, thanks! I could just about make out a logo, but thought it was YRC... I guess it's a lower case a = YaRC? Not much out there about them, but did find this post :

Show off your old and retro computer parts

linustechtips.com

I snagged this other one...

Ha ha... if it's rhe one I think it is (yahoo.jp blocks EU access, so can't open the link ) I was looking at that one too.

I was interested to see if that 8.24GC has ROM 341-0812 installed

I'll try to remember to follow up here once it eventually arrives....

 

[lobust]

Now that is really interesting! I had no idea such a nubus card existed.

The sparse info available on the internet seems to only mention Presenter* and Infini-D as compatible renderers, were there others.

*IIRC the full title of this product was VIDI Presenter Professional? I distinctly recall downloaded a pirate copy off of a hotline server back in my youth when I was getting interested in 3D. It doesn't seem to be available on the Garden or the Repository now...

 

[mg.man]

Here's another :



At first I thought SCSI-related (it also has a 50 pin external (rear) connector)... but all those trim-pots make me wonder if it's something for instrumentation monitoring / interfacing? Any clues?

 

[jeremywork]

Looks like https://www.artisantg.com/TestMeasu...MIO-16L-9-Analog-Digital-and-Timing-I-O-Board

 

[mg.man]

Looks like...

It does indeed! Thanks... but not something I would ever have a need for!

 

[jeremywork]

It does indeed! Thanks... but not something I would ever have a need for!

And if a need should arise you know of an option

 

[mg.man]

And if a need should arise you know of an option

Only if I were to bag the IIci it's in... which I'm not likely to. Thx for saving me on that one!
If anyone is interested, here's the link - https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/o1066264892

 

[Phipli]

Yeah, that one is a National Instruments card Arduino on a Nubus card. Shout if you need any help getting it running. I have been collecting similar cards.

 

[mg.man]

I'll try to remember to follow up here once it eventually arrives....

OK, so, the IIfx it was in f I n a l l y arrived. Haven't done anything more than open the IIfx and pull the card for a photo - and here it is :

It looks like the original heatsink was (thermal?)glued on - gone now. There was some compound on the chip, but no heatsink. Not sure what I'm going to do with it, but will be checking whether or not those RAM chips will work on one of my other vid cards.

 

[mg.man]

@jeremywork

I was interested to see if that 8.24GC has ROM 341-0812 installed (C ROM.)

Not sure if you already saw my earlier post... but the IIfx arrived. I've not done anything more than inspect it == dirty, rust on the shield, but no batts/no bombs. And... this :

...which appears to have what you seek:

 

[Phipli]

@jeremywork

Not sure if you already saw my earlier post... but the IIfx arrived. I've not done anything more than inspect it == dirty, rust on the shield, but no batts/no bombs. And... this :
View attachment 52718
...which appears to have what you seek:
View attachment 52719

I am envious, of both the fx and the GC.

I'll go back to playing with the cx... :'(

 

[jeremywork]

@jeremywork

Not sure if you already saw my earlier post... but the IIfx arrived. I've not done anything more than inspect it == dirty, rust on the shield, but no batts/no bombs. And... this :

...which appears to have what you seek:

Very neat! Do you have a programmer which can dump the contents? TL866 II should work.

I still need to build proper photospreads of the YARC cards that came in mine, but shipping also removed one of the heatsinks (and it took nearly all the silkscreen with it- never seen something like that happen...)

 

[mg.man]

Do you have a programmer which can dump the contents?

I do.. just need to find the time - which seems pretty ellusive lately! Stay tuned.

the YARC cards that came in mine, but shipping also removed one of the heatsinks and it took nearly all the silkscreen with it

Wow... all those cards were in yours? Is the PSU still working? I didn't find a dislodged heatsink in mine, but as you can see, some of the silkscreen is also missing - not all, so perhaps the glue job was not as complete? I also see yours has a 29050 (only the "50" remains on mine - so that solves that question. Curiously, yours with the missing heatsink (a V2) has "ENGINEERING SAMPLE" on the AM29050 - mine (a V3) doesn't appear to have had that silkscreen... I wonder what's under the heatsink on your V3? Lastly, I see your V3 (including the top one?) is also missing the 27256. I was worried mine would be 'brain dead' since that was missing... What are your plans for these curios?

 

[jeremywork]

I do.. just need to find the time - which seems pretty ellusive lately! Stay tuned.

Wow... all those cards were in yours? Is the PSU still working? I didn't find a dislodged heatsink in mine, but as you can see, some of the silkscreen is also missing - not all, so perhaps the glue job was not as complete? I also see yours has a 29050 (only the "50" remains on mine - so that solves that question. Curiously, yours with the missing heatsink (a V2) has "ENGINEERING SAMPLE" on the AM29050 - mine (a V3) doesn't appear to have had that silkscreen... I wonder what's under the heatsink on your V3? Lastly, I see your V3 (including the top one?) is also missing the 27256. I was worried mine would be 'brain dead' since that was missing... What are your plans for these curios?

Sweet, thanks in advance!

I still need to get to the IIfx - it very visibly needs caps replaced on the board before I'd want to try the PSU. As I photograph/test the Yarc cards I'll try to remove the other heatsinks to see what happens. I feel kind of weird interting TIM between a chip and its own silkscreen, so maybe I'll attach a new sink and keep this one as-is.

Regarding the missing 27256s, I was speculating that this is what "Yarc can put your custom interface here" evolved into; maybe it is part of a custom interface requested by the customer, or maybe it's more of a generic 'design your own custom interface and stick it on a 27256 if you so desire.' Perhaps the giant 4x24 pin array can be used to add inputs/outputs to such an interface.

Plans? I'm not good with plans. If it's within the realm of possibility, I'd love to set up a software environment to see what these can do, even if it has zero practical value today. This is kind of true of everything I have, though

 

[mg.man]

I feel kind of weird interting TIM between a chip and its own silkscreen, so maybe I'll attach a new sink and keep this one as-is.

Yeah, that 'negative' silkscreen heatsink is kinda cool...

Found a moment to read the ROM from my GC - attached. At first I thought it didn't work - all "00"s up to A000. I haven't fired my card up yet, and may not be able to for a while, so let me know if it works for you.

 

[jeremywork]

Yeah, that 'negative' silkscreen heatsink is kinda cool...

Found a moment to read the ROM from my GC - attached. At first I thought it didn't work - all "00"s up to A000. I haven't fired my card up yet, and may not be able to for a while, so let me know if it works for you.

Thank you very much!

My card happily runs from this ROM
(the ROM I had, 341-0266, seems to occupy only the first half of the memory; it's attached below.)
341-0266 is listed as rev B in Apple's docs, but 341-0812 is not mentioned explicitly:

Display Card 8■24 & 8■24 GC: Identifying Rev & Upgrade ROM

web.archive.org

The differences are not what I had guessed: TL;DR this is probably not the final Rev (C?) ROM, more likely the Rev A ROM. 16-bit color is missing, and everything else is essentially the same (also corroborated by the copyright dates on the stickers.)

Two points from the LEM page could be merged/amended based on these results:

• Rev. B adds support for 832 x 624 resolution and 16-bit color
• The Rev. B ROM (ROM part number 341-0266 or 341-0812) is required for Macintosh 16″ Color Display 832 x 624 support.

•16-bit color is available for 640x480 on 341-0266 but not on 341-0812.
•Using a DIP adapter to set 832x624 produces a working image up to 16-bit color on 341-0266 but only a powered-on black screen on 341-0812 (the system will still boot and allow a soft power-down using the keyboard.) Using a slave display confirms the master display is not recognized at all.


Things I hoped would be different/fixed but aren't:

•Netscape displays 'Back' in every button across the top bar and 'What's New?' in every bookmark on the bookmarks bar whenever acceleration is enabled.

•A trouble message prevents acceleration on slave displays whenever the GC doesn't also have a display plugged in. This can be remedied for a single start-up by shutting down, removing the GC card, reinserting it, and starting back up. Acceleration can then be used on the slave display without a display present on the GC until the following restart.

•With acceleration enabled in 7.5.3, background artifacts are frequently left when moving large windows or accessing the same menu more than once in quick succession. 7.6.1 seems more stable by contrast, though the same glitches still do occur.


Performance difference is within margin of error (SSW 7.5.3, IIfx) 40MHz / 50MHz:

•Speedometer 4.01 QuickDraw tests vs Q605: 341-0812 (341-0266)
Mono: 0.648 (0.645) / 0.732 (0.732)
Two bit 0.668 (0.661) / 0.752 (0.749)
Four Bit 0.711 (0.704) / 0.795 (0.791)
Eight Bit 0.781 (0.774) / 0.865 (0.862)
Sixteen Bit n/a (1.137) / n/a (1.203)

•Daystar PowerDemo tests: 341-0812 (341-0266)
DAYSTARS 8.92 sec (8.92 sec) / 7.40 sec (7.47 sec)
Sieve 44.8 sec ((45.0 sec) / 40.3 sec (40.5 sec)
Color Sort 10.17 sec (9.80 sec) / 8.78 sec (8.68 sec)
Disk I/O 2.8 sec (2.8 sec) / 2.4 sec (2.4 sec)
Fractal 510.5 sec (510.6 sec) / 419.5 sec (417.5 sec)
Lines 11.3 lines/sec (11.5 lines/sec) / 13.3/sec (13.5/sec)

•Personal Diagnostics vs IIci: 341-0812 (341-0266)
Black & White 4.97x (5.09x) / 5.60x (5.52x)
4-color 4.88x (4.88x) / 5.05x (5.05x)
16-color 4.21x (4.15x) / 4.28x (4.24x)
256-color 3.54x (3.59x) / 3.44x (3.55x)
Thousands n/a (2.07x) / n/a (2.08x)
Millions 3.66x (3.62x) / 3.68x (3.67x)

 

[Phipli]

The differences are not what I had guessed: TL;DR this is probably not the final Rev (C?) ROM, more likely the Rev A ROM. 16-bit color is missing, and everything else is essentially the same (also corroborated by the copyright dates on the stickers.)

16bit is a hardware change, not just ROM.

 

[Phipli]

With acceleration enabled in 7.5.3, background artifacts are frequently left when moving large windows or accessing the same menu more than once in quick succession. 7.6.1 seems more stable by contrast, though the same glitches still do occur.

Have you tried it with the first gen ATi Driver? Doesn't that apparently, completely weirdly, likely due to being based on Apple 8•24 GC example code, enable acceleration on the GC?