IIsi Dual PDS Riser

[nottomhanks]

I picked up a IIsi and found this card inside. It had a video card attached to it with a weird DA-9 connector on it. I’ll show that later.
I’m guessing that this is the Dual PDS adapter.

Can anyone confirm?

 

[Fizzbinn]

It looks like it, any vendor markings on the other side? What brand was the video card?

I have a Supermac Dual PDS adapter that looks similar, but I guess there is a chance it could be a combo Cache/accelerator slot and PDS slot adapter. I have one of those from Daystar that looks similar too.

 

[nottomhanks]

There's no Cache/Accelerator markings, so I'm guessing you could put two PDS cards in here

I'll take a picture of the back, but I don't remember any marking specifically. I'll look for a part number or something.

 

[Fizzbinn]

Dual PDS does seem more likely I think. Unfortunately the PDS and Cache/Accelerator connectors are identical. Pretty sure bad things happen if you plug one type of card in a slot meant for the other.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

VERY BAD Things Happen!!!!

Take a pic of the solder side of the board, if all lines head straight up from the bottom slot as they do from there to the PDS connector it's definitely a twin PDS Slot setup.

Having the top and bottom slots keyed in the same orientation is a dead giveaway that it's not a PowerCache Adapter. Note how the keying is reversed (flipped 180 degrees) on the Daystar Cache Card connector as opposed to the passthru.

 

[nickpunt]

never seen an unbranded one like that, what's the other side look like? Wonder who made it

 

[jajan547]

Dual PDS does seem more likely I think. Unfortunately the PDS and Cache/Accelerator connectors are identical. Pretty sure bad things happen if you plug one type of card in a slot meant for the other.

View attachment 42593

I have the Super Mac variant you have but mine has a single NUBUS Slot.

 

[Melkhior]

For people with dual-PDS adapter, could you measure the distance between the rows of pins of the two female connectors for the PDS cards ? (same pitch so all 3 rows should be the same distance from the matching row in the other connectors).
The one from @nottomhanks seems to have more spaced connector vs. the one from @Fizzbinn, but it could be how the photos were taken. Apple has a drawings for only one connector, so the position of the second one might be manufacturer-dependent.

Same question for the Daystar card and the cache-to-PDS measurement. Is that cache slot fully custom (i.e., pinouts is not documented), or is that just a IIci cache slot taking a standard IIci cache card but in a IIsi ?

 

[Fizzbinn]

I don't have easy access to my cards at the moment but It seems to me the position of the middle connector is non-standard on these cards. I actually have two versions of the Daystar PDS and cache card adapter and they are different (old pic below), the one with the cache connector shifted back and up is needed if you are going to use a PDS card that has larger rear port board, i.e. the two piece Asante PDS Ethernet adapter for the SE/30 and IIsi.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Single GAL variant of DayStar Accelerator card with its aligned (but still reversed orientation) connector is an outlier.

Offset lower connector and reversed orientation of its keying along with presence of GAL logic would make any card with those features an accelerator adapter. Any accelerator adapter will have had slot/card compatibility clearly labeled as above. Cannot imagine a mfr shipping a card without those warning labels.

Breakout board of Asante NIC for IIsi/SE/30 has a removable ThickNet daughtercard which allows for the breakout board of the Radius Color Pivot II/IIsi to be attached when it's installed in the Radius Card's PDS passthru slot. Earlier, SE/30 version of the NIC doesn't necessarily have that feature. I have both.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I have the Super Mac variant you have but mine has a single NUBUS Slot.

I'd LOVE to see detailed pics of that adapter card! The only example I've seen is a crazy/kluge NuBus/Accelerator adapter with the IIci cache conversion section being a second PCB mounted on a standard Apple type NuBus adapter. NuBus/PDS Adapter would be something I don't think I've never seen.


edit: not clear to me here. Are you saying it's a NuBus adapter with only a single slot or a twin slot type? A SuperMac version of a NuBus adapter would be most interesting as well! Radius made one for the IIsi that will work in the SE/30, but only at 8MHz for the NuBus interface. So a SuperMac variant of NuBus conversion could be a major discovery in single or twin slot.

 

[Melkhior]

@Fizzbinn When you get a chance to access the cards & if you can spare the time, a picture of the back of the card would also be of interest. It would enable to verify the pinouts of the 'cache' slots, and which signals are going to/from the PAL(s)/GAL(s) (it's likely they implement the equations from DCDMF3 p361, but double-checking is never a bad idea!).

 

[pax]

This is from the DayStar Turbo 040 manual. I have the DualPort adapter pictured in the middle (and the Turbo 040 up top). I have always wanted the NuBus/accelerator adapter pictured at the bottom, but I've never seen one.

 

[nickpunt]

Found a IIsi with this dual PDS card in it on sale now:

APPLE M0360 Vintage Machintosh llsi Desktop Computer-No Hard Drive Parts A2 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for APPLE M0360 Vintage Machintosh llsi Desktop Computer-No Hard Drive Parts A2 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

 

[jessenator]

I picked up a IIsi and found this card inside. It had a video card attached to it with a weird DA-9 connector on it. I’ll show that later.
I’m guessing that this is the Dual PDS adapter.

Can anyone confirm?

I have this exact card in a box somewhere. It's a pin-thru PDS riser and FPU socket—no frills, no special anything. PDS video cards meant for the IIsi aren't common from the NuBus Era, so 'grats on getting one of them with it. MUCH better than the vampiric on-board video.

Definitely look for the system extension (don't remember the name off hand) which plops that on-board memory (usually reserved for display VRAM) into disk cache reserving slightly faster RAM for regular use.

 

[croissantking]

Found a IIsi with this dual PDS card in it on sale now:

APPLE M0360 Vintage Machintosh llsi Desktop Computer-No Hard Drive Parts A2 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for APPLE M0360 Vintage Machintosh llsi Desktop Computer-No Hard Drive Parts A2 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

That was snapped up pretty quick. If it went for $99 as a BIN, that was a steal for someone.

Definitely look for the system extension (don't remember the name off hand) which plops that on-board memory (usually reserved for display VRAM) into disk cache reserving slightly faster RAM for regular use.

It’s called IIsi RAM Muncher. You can also just set the disk cache to 768KB or above and it will achieve the same thing.

 

[jessenator]

It’s called IIsi RAM Muncher.

That's the one!

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

This is from the DayStar Turbo 040 manual. I have the DualPort adapter pictured in the middle (and the Turbo 040 up top). I have always wanted the NuBus/accelerator adapter pictured at the bottom, but I've never seen one.

You and me both! Thanks for that pic, is there a better scan of that page floating around?



On either side of the IIci Cache Slot adapter for the accelerator you can see the nuts/bolts holding the daughtercard to the main unit. I have a few detailed pics of the double board kluge . . . somewhere . . .

 

[Byte Knight]

That was snapped up pretty quick. If it went for $99 as a BIN, that was a steal for someone.

I agree!

 

[nottomhanks]

Here’s some closeups of that IIsi Riser card. Hope this is helpful.