Daystar XCI Bus -- Ever Released

[trag]

While researching the RAM PowerCard, I found this:

DayStar add-in boards outrun NuBus
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- Frustrated by the NuBus speed limit? DayStar Digital has found a way to break it.

Similar in some respects to the Direct Bus in Apple's SE and SE/30, DayStar's Extended CPU Interface, or XCI, lets add-in boards for the Mac II/IIx communicate with the Mac's CPU over an independent hookup.

"We're trying to move the Mac in the direction of the NeXT machine," said Andrew Lewis, president of the Flowery Branch, Ga., company. Lewis said XCI came as a direct result of seeing the distributed processing power built into Steve's Jobs' computer.

The XCI consists of an L-shaped board, with three direct slots and one for the Mac II/IIx's processor. The board plugs into the processor socket on the motherboard. As many as three specially designed XCI-compatible add-in boards, installed in the three NuBus slots closest to the CPU, can be plugged into the XCI backplane.

From the Mac's Control Panel, the user can choose to run the boards either over NuBus or over DayStar's interface, Lewis said.

XCI slots also are built into DayStar's $1,295 Extender II, a board that plugs into a Mac II's 68020 processor socket and gives the machine the processing power of a Mac IIx.

Bypassing NuBus lets XCI add-in boards run at the same 16-MHz clock speed as the Mac CPU, instead of the 10-MHz clock speed of the NuBus.

In March, DayStar plans to ship three XCI-compatible boards:

* Video XCI, a pair of eight-bit color video boards for 13- or 19-inch monitors. Lewis said the boards will be especially useful for graphics-intensive applications like animation or when scrolling complex images.

* HD XCI, a hard disk cache card that allows the Mac's processor to make faster transfer to and from SCSI drives.

* RAM XCI, a 16-Mbyte RAM card that works under the Mac OS as a high-speed RAM disk working at five to 10 times the speed of a mechanical drive, and under A/UX offers memory access more than six times faster than standard NuBus RAM boards, according to Lewis.

A version of the Video XCI for Apple's 13-inch RGB monitor will retail for $895, but no price has been set for the other XCI products.

Specifications for the XCI format are available to other developers for a one-time licensing fee of $100.

Do you think this ever made it out of the lab?

 

[Bunsen]

I doubt it - but a PDS(like) RAM disk does sound rather nice |)

 

[Unknown_K]

What do you think of this card edge connector?

http://picasaweb.google.com/teozenios/MagazineScans#5440107913938144770

I think the normal internal 50 pin connector is above the chips close to the external connector. I was thinking the large pin connector on the other side was to connect to other Daystar cards bypassing the Nubus bus.

 

[trag]

I can't tell from the picture. It could be. I think I saw in one of those articles that a SCSI card would be supported on the Daystar special bus.

Ah, if I had been wealthy in Daystar's heydey instead of a student clinging to a shoestring.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I can't tell from the picture. It could be. I think I saw in one of those articles that a SCSI card would be supported on the Daystar special bus.

Looks like three rows of approx.36 pins, so it's likely a EuroDIN Connector for a Daughtercard, or maybe that's how their interconnect system worked, but you'd expect to see a female on one side and a male connector on the other. =8-/

Dunno, could be for a ribbon cable/flex circuit daisy chain connection . . . :?:

Ah, if I had been wealthy in Daystar's heydey instead of a student clinging to a shoestring.

I feel your pain, comrade, I was a new father, running a business on a shoestring back in the day. My two largest purchases ever were for a Radius Rocket 33 and 32 MB of PC SIMMs to fill it . . .

. . . when memory prices were at their peak, no less! :

Then again, If I'd had money, I wouldn't know beans about pushing the Old Iron and Peripherals for all they're worth . . . or have a bunch of Documentation from Apple Press, ads/specs and magazine articles stored away for all the stuff I lusted after, but could never afford as research materials! [] ]'>

It's a good thing everybody gave me cameras, lenses and Japanese Pull Saws as presents, cuz nobody could have afforded the computer toys I wanted! [] ]'>

 

[Quadraman]

Why not go to the Daystar website and ask them your question directly?

 

[LCGuy]

Well if I'm correct, the Daystar Technology of today is a very different company to the Daystar Digital of the 80's and 90's. I'd be surprised if anyone currently at Daystar Technology has even heard of any of this stuff.

 

[trag]

Yeah, the guy running Daystar Technology (Brian, I think?) is a swell guy. He's kept some excellent hardware on the market and brought some new stuff out that I never expected to see, but the institutional memory doesn't go that far back.

I would like to see a history of the upgrade companies and the people who worked at them. I doubt anyone will ever write one, but I've often wondered if engineers from Daystar Digital ended up at NewerTech and if there was any cross over between NewerTech and XLR8.