Can you identify this "newlife computer corp" card?

[Gary_W]

I can't seem to find any info on this apparent video card labeled "newlife computer corp". Serves me right for pulling the trigger on an auction before trying to find info. Anyway, I am hoping one of you folks have seen it before. See the pics here:













It has a cable the ends in a female 9-pin and is hand labeled "SE video K".

Thanks for your time,

Gary

 

[Solvalou]

Looks like an RS232 port or some sort of user port anyway.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Well, I can't find anything about the chip, but it says "VIDCTLR" and if it says "SE video K", I'm guessing it's a professinonal video capture, output, or editing card.

My best guess is that it had a breakout box with a video in and out, and would overlay graphics live on the input.

 

[JDW]

Your card doesn't appear to carry much value on EBAY:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-used-Newlife-Computer-Corp-Video-Controller-card-MAC-/160639677456#ht_500wt_1221

Not much on the web about NewLife Corp, but I do remember seeing their Ads in my ancient issues of MacUser magazine. All of those are back at home in California though so I cannot look up any info. I did find this:

https://www.ic.gc.ca/app/scr/cc/CorporationsCanada/fdrlCrpDtls.html?corpId=2563878

I also found the name Adam Chowaniec linked to the company Tundra, which bought out Newbridge Microsystems. From this 1990 Henry Norr article, it would appear that Newbridge had acquired NewLife Computer Corp at some point:

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-8772062/new-life-aging-compact.html

This old discussion thread (search for "newlife") mentions that Newlife Computer was based in Canada:

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.mac.digest/browse_thread/thread/279f7c2e904f34e9

Since you have access to local libraries there in the US, finding additional information based on these facts should be easy. Too bad the info is not accessible via the net though.

 

[Unknown_K]

Serial port card or some kind of CGA or Mono (early video) card is my guess.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I had a Killy Klip Newlife Accelerator (?) in my FatMac, It had additional memory SIMM Slots and a DB-9 connector for a TTL Monitor. But,to my knowledge, they never got the software figured out to run the second display before they went belly up. There was probably an undiscovered design defect on my card when it was released, considering the existence of the SE Video Card.

The TekServe tech told me the (EE) owners had said it was a "very interesting card." I hadn't become friends with them as yet, David was on the board of NYMUG serving as treasurer and I was just a noob in that organization at the time.

Newlife cards are probably not worth much on eBay because almost nobody knows anything about them, as opposed to the products of other accelerator/video card mfrs, not to mention the fact that TTL monitors are a bit hard to come by ATM. Try to find one and hook it up to your DB-9!

edit: Interesting SE Card in that auction, it appears to have the same function as the Video Portion of the card I had. I'll have a look around, I'm pretty sure I still have the manual and driver diskette for my card. IIRC it had SCSI implemented on the card as well.

The appropriate cable would seem to be an offshoot (?) of the the unrealized (?) video function of my Newlife FatMac Card. The SE version wouldn't need the SIMM Slots, as the SE has all four banks implemented on the MoBo, whereas the 128k and 512k probably (I'll look it up later) didn't. The SE didn't need the SCSI portion of my card for the similar reason.

This was back in the era of the Hackintosh and I was not yet comfortable with the notion of opening up a Mac case. I'd ordered a MoBo from Shreve Systems and soldered the standard socket to the Killy Klip resistant CPU package and took the card & FatMac to Tekserve for installation. They threw some SIMMs into the deal at no additional charge and I wound up with a 2.5 MB FatMac, IIRC.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

No joy on the Paperware/Software search as yet, but here's a link to info on some of Newlife's products in one of my scan dumps:

Accelerator Comparisons: July 1991 MacWorld

 

[zuiko21]

I believe is a graphic card... the DB9 connector definitely matches what was used by MDA, CGA and Hercules cards on the oldest PCs.

Another thing that drew my attention is the Xtal: 14.31818 MHz, which is x3 the clock frequency of the earliest PCs (8088 @ 4.77) and x4 the NTSC color subcarrier (3.58 MHz).

Close to that crystal is another strange IC, the ICS1394 -- the rest (besides the big VIDCTLR) seem to be GALs and off-the-shelf 74 series. Took me a while to find some info on it, but according to http://www.datasheetpro.com/node/19718 it's a Video Dot Clock Generator.

Anyway, it's likely to be a monochrome card -- can't see any linear components (e.g. transistors)

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

The VRAM on board is a dead giveaway.

Given the B&W limitation of the SE ROMs, the graphics output on a Newlife Video Card with a DB-9 connector would almost certainly be Hercules Graphics on a Monochrome TTL Monitor. CGA color wouldn't be any use and the pixelcount is too low.

I had a nice Page White TTL Display waiting for my Hackintosh (I've still got the book! :approve: ) that I used on my 386sx HomeBrew (w/SCSI HDD) Win 3.0 CorelDraw WorkStation. It was slated for KVM sharing with the FatMac.

Because it's a single purpose, SE PDS Video Card, there's a very good chance that the driver is on board the card's DeclROM.

As I said, find yourself a Herc compatible TTL CRT and give it a whirl! [] ]'>

 

[JDW]

I don't know why you folks are still "wondering" what this card is. Did you not visit the EBAY link I gave in my previous post, which clearly shows the cable attached and reveals it is a video card? Furthermore the test description in that auction also admits it is a video card. And as some have properly pointed out, the chips on the card itself also reveal such. No question, it is a video card. Now to do research on it, you just need to visit your local library and dig. I would be happy to do that for you but I live in Japan and cannot do such here. So take the information I provided in my previous post and go look through some old MacWorld and MacUser mags from the late 1980's to early 1990's.

I would also like to reiterate that I vividly recall seeing Ads from that company in my Mac magazines. They even had a catch phrase on their ads: "New Life for Old Macs." Interestingly, MacWorld and others in the news media latter ripped off that slogan and used it in titles of their articles in the 1990s, after Newlife Computer Corp ceased operations. You can see evidence of this when you Google "New Life for Old Macs." But from what I recall, the Newlife Computer Corp first coined that phrase, and they did so because it was part of their company name.

 

[Gary_W]

Wow, thanks for the time and info everyone! So, who wants the card? I don't have a monitor to test it with and really don't want to mess with finding one. My buyer's remorse will be your gain! lol Just pay shipping plus promise to update this post with any info you find out about it so we will all learn (I just hope I don't learn that I wish I would have kept it!).

PM me if you are interested.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

If you have an SE to test it in, do so!

Install the Newlife VidCard and run SlotInfo from the Gauge Series.

Post the SlotInfo data on the card.

IIRC, TechTool will let you know what drivers are installed . . . like the one that's probably on the Card's DeclROM.

Do a screen shot. If two desktops worth of pixels appear in the SimpleText Pict results, your card works! [] ]'>

No monitor required! [)] ]'>

I don't know why you folks are still "wondering" what this card is.

[] ]'>

 

[Gary_W]

Ok I will however it may be a winter project. Too many items on the honey-do list before I get to actually play around with the Macs.

Can someone point me to "the guage series" ?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Gamba of course! :approve:

Gauge Series 2.0.1 appears to be available, the earlier version's apparently AWOL. :-/

 

[Gary_W]

Neither link worked for me :-( I will ask the google, thanks!