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Looking for information on this Macintosh Portable PDS card

64k16bitmac

Active member
I think it’s a network card but not sure. Any info would be super helpful
 

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joshc

Well-known member
That's the "Portable Publisher", a video card allowing you to connect the Portable to an external display. Seems to have been made/distributed by Generation X Technologies.

So there should be a cable that connects to the header on your board so that monitors can be plugged in, presumably with a DB15 port.

The giveaway that it's a video card is the RAM on there, and the three different oscillators.

Here's an ad for it from MacUser June 1990:

1678966935101.png
 

64k16bitmac

Active member
That was quick thanks for the Info. It does have a DB15 connector on the back of the case.
 

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SuperSVGA

Well-known member
Hope your hard drive works or there's a driver available, IIRC those cards required a control panel to load code to the FPGA.
 

stepleton

Well-known member
I have a competitor device in a Portable, called the "VideoMacPac". @apm cloned it several years ago. It definitely initialised the CPLD in the way @SuperSVGA describes: you need the control panel to download a binary blob into the device. This card looks very similar, although there's a chance that its chip could have been permanently programmed. Removing the sticker would tell us if it's a device that has that kind of capability. My bet is: probably not.
 

aplmak

Well-known member
I've got one of those too and I was going to say yes it's for an external monitor. I've never tried mine. I am not sure if I even have a driver for it. I might.. I will have to look. It's actually in a box that seems to contain the whole kit. I'm crossing my fingers there is a floppy in there. If someone does need it let me know and I'll take a peek and upload it if I have it.
 

micheledipaola

Well-known member
I am reviving my Portable these days, and I am super intrigued by this thread. I guess these cards are kinda rare, aren't they? Also, what about the video-out plug on the back of the Portable? did anyone ever figure out how to use it? It seems quite strange to me that someone would build external-video cards and nobody ever found a way to take advantage of that onboard video out?
 

SuperSVGA

Well-known member
I am reviving my Portable these days, and I am super intrigued by this thread. I guess these cards are kinda rare, aren't they? Also, what about the video-out plug on the back of the Portable? did anyone ever figure out how to use it? It seems quite strange to me that someone would build external-video cards and nobody ever found a way to take advantage of that onboard video out?
The protocol is already known, but I don't know if anyone has ever gotten around to doing anything with it. It's nothing complex, someone just needs to throw something together for it.
 

aplmak

Well-known member
Hey ok so I found my display kit. It looks exactly the same but mine says Envision on the floppy disk. It is the driver that goes with my card. Looks exactly the same. I can get you the image file 😊
 

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joshc

Well-known member
Hey ok so I found my display kit. It looks exactly the same but mine says Envision on the floppy disk. It is the driver that goes with my card. Looks exactly the same. I can get you the image file 😊
Nice. Can you upload it to the Mac Garden too?
 
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