E-Machines Big Picture Card w/Mac SE Interconnect

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I've suddenly got another oddball SE VidCard to mess with on the bench. The SE Adapter board is what got me, what else did they use this thing in? It's a two row subset of the SE PDS, which doesn't mean much because there's not a whole lot going on in the center row of the SE's 68000 PDS. I'm wondering if they made 030 PDS Adapters for ithis card? Lots of research in the MacUser archive coming up.



The signal listing on the breakout cable connector was the other thing that got me. IIRC these cards supported two resolutions depending upon which of the two monitors it was driving.



The PTO is curious as well as the IC on the adapter. Having PAL logic on there is the third thing that got me. Is it the missing logical link between the 68000 and 68030 PDS implementations? :huh:

Anybody seen drivers for this puppy anywhere online?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I haven't spotted a date on the VidCard itself yet, but there are only a few reasons for that PDS adapter that I can think of offhand.

- the card may have had a Mac Plus/68000/Killy Klip type adapter adapter

- the card may have been designed for use with a 68000 Compact Mac accelerator, which might explain keeping the profile low via the double header interface.

- - - Compacts were single bit video, which means that a lot of address

- The form factor suggests the a NuBus adapter would be physically incompatible and IIRC they made a NuBus card for those monitors, which would have been grayscale.

The only Mac with a PDS interface in 1987 was the SE, but E-Machines may have been seeded an SE/30 prototype. It was released January, 1988.

I don't really care if the adapter's PAL logic translates 68000 <-> SE PDS or SE PDS t<-> 68030 PDS, either one makes it a significant find for back at the Skunkworks.

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It should be here Saturday, looking forward to buzzing it out.

 

[Compgeke]

oooo if you ever want to part with that card let me know. That card will actually connect to a passthrough on my GCC Hypercharger 020 card in my Mac SE, similar to what Radius cards did on their Accelerator upgrades. Hooks into the "64 pin header" connector on the card.

Here's a snippet from an old review that mentions that.


And the card itself:

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Might could be if I can get the Radius TPD up and running in my SE. So the PAL translates 68020 speak to 68000 speak? Not exactly what I was hoping for, but useful. I bought it for the adapter, but useful nonetheless. If you can buzz the connections from that header to the rest of the accelerator, post the results here and make me an offer. []

 

[Compgeke]

I've been meaning to buzz it out out of curiosity to know if a Radius FPD card can be made to run off the back. I've got a full FPD setup here, but no Radius accelerator card. Just the Magicbus card. One of these years I'll get around to doing just that. I dream of the day I have a Dual Superdrive w/ HDD + 68020 + FPD Mac SE. Maybe promptly blow up the power supply but we'll know when we get there.

 

[Bolle]

I was going to say that there are 64 pin connectors on CPU upgrades and that the card plugs in there.

The PAL looks like it's just an address decoder. One of the outputs goes to /EXT.DTK which tristates the /DTACK on the logicboard.

This would normally be handled by the accelerator.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I've got a full FPD setup here, but no Radius accelerator card. Just the Magicbus card.

oooooooo That was my dream setup for a good couple of years. I had the Radius 16 and wanted the FPD SO badly! Wound up with a IIx and a Panasonic TPD/Card combo (also 1-bit B&W) with plans to get the Rocket. Worked out fine, but never did get that FPD. Tried once on eBay, but the seller wouldn't let me pick it up, insisting on getting ridiculous S&H fees. Got pics of your FPD with the lights on?

Now I've got the Radius 16 in an SE again and a Radius PrecisionView 2150. So I picked up a couple of TPD cards, no joy yet, but I'll get one up and running some day. Way too many projects, way too little time and attention span. :

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Sweet, finally looked at email and the card and another MicroMac Accelerator were delivered today. I'll be walking over to the Rental Office in the AM!

 

[Compgeke]

oooooooo That was my dream setup for a good couple of years. I had the Radius 16 and wanted the FPD SO badly! Wound up with a IIx and a Panasonic TPD/Card combo (also 1-bit B&W) with plans to get the Rocket. Worked out fine, but never did get that FPD. Tried once on eBay, but the seller wouldn't let me pick it up, insisting on getting ridiculous S&H fees. Got pics of your FPD with the lights on?

I ended up getting mine for $50 from a guy out of San Francisco. Close enough shipping was only $35 on it.  Got plenty of pics, https://imgur.com/a/yIu5y . The thing is way overbuilt. The front panel is entirely cast metal with the CRT screwed into that. The rest is all secured into a metal chassis with the only plastic being the back case bucket and the stand. 

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Nice! On my way to pick up the VidCard and CC/LC ThunderCache Accelerator, I realized that the 68020 to 68000 adapter may be just what the doctor ordered. Couldn't hardly be better, it's a two layer translucent PCB so I can see both sides of every trace from either side of the board! []



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MicroMac ThunderCache + E-Machines SE Adapter = PerformerPro +- ???



edit: not as a plug-n-play solution, but in terms of firmware for a new adapter card design with the Pal socketed on adapters old and new.

 

[Paralel]

Pretty sweet to find a 68020->6800 interconnect adapter that is a translucent PCB. Figuring that out should be a piece of cake.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Yeah, I'm looking forward to Bolle's further input on this find. Dunno, never thought I'd ever really have to admit it, but I just can't keep up with you kids. [:I]

 

[pcamen]

So ... I just found one of these eMachines Big Picture cards in my stash of cards, to go along with other Mac SE goodies I've found recently (like the Novy 020 acclerator I couldn't get working). 

What resolution does this thing put out?  Anyone know?  And what about drivers?  Have those been discovered?

I'm seriously considering just selling my SE stuff to someone that cares more.  I am way too invested in SE/30 stuff anyways (I think I have 8 of them).  The SE is like the square peg in the round hole at my house.  And not to mention all those pluses I have as well. 

- SE case in fair condition (slight chip on rear corner like 1/8", a couple of stickers, and mild yellowing)

- 2 Mobos, one that works and one that needs recap

- Novy 020 card

- eMachines big picture

- Dead Miniscribe HD

So, who's it gonna be?

 

[Compgeke]

Hey, I'll take that Big Picture card. It'd be fun to try and make work on the GCC Hypercharger passthrough. Not a lot of information on the card so I bet it won't work on LCDs ,a good multisync CRT maybe.

 

[IlikeTech]

Interested in that Novy card!

How much?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Thanks so much for bringing this thread back to life. This adapter/card combo just made it into the LC PDS NIC adaptation project!  :approve:

 

[CC_333]

The 020 accelerator might be nice, except I think I already have one.

It's been so long since I've actually had time to look at things that I've pretty much forgotten what it is.

c

 

[gpbonneau]

This card was also an option for the MacMemory TurboSE.

In searching information for the TurboSE, I found a test in BYTE (March 1988) which explain that.

https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1988-03/page/n157

 

[ZaneKaminski]

The ECL circuitry on the E-Machines card caught my eye. Nice!! That kind of circuitry was once the choice of high-speed test equipment, mainframes, military radar signal processing electronics, etc. I can see two 10H141-series shift registers, a 10H016 counter, and a 10H131 flipflop, all to shift out the video bits it seems. Evidently the designers felt that the typical 74F or whatever was the fastest TTL available at the time was not quick enough, thus the choice of the faster and more power-hungry ECL chips. It's pretty unusual to see ECL in microcomputer stuff, in my opinion. Digital scopes and other high-speed test equipment up until recently has typically had a bit of ECL circuitry but I think this is the first time I've seen the 10xxx series of ECL logic chips in a microcomputer.