Most expensive Nubus card these days?

[Unknown_K]

What is the most expensive Nubus card you have seen lately (current value not the sticker price).

I think this must be it:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=320157876354

 

[LCGuy]

For such a stupid amount of money you'd better at least get the software with it. (yes, i know it says s/w not included)

 

[Unknown_K]

I think somebody wants that bad for a museum, can't think of anybody who wants to program in LISP on a 68K Mac.

 

[Quadraman]

And I thought Thunder IV's went for a lot.

Other than bragging rights, is there any reason to buy one of these LISP processors?

 

[Unknown_K]

Same with any other Nubus card, to use it. LISP was used for artificial intelligence programming so that might be of interest to somebody.

I would like one if I could find some software and manuals to use it. The starting price was about $60 which is too much for a bare card in my opinion, it seems others thaught it was a bargain.

In a perfect world I would have every Nubus card ever made.

 

[paws]

I thought that looked quite interesting...

 

[kreats]

Maybe there's even a legitimate use for it - some legacy code written for it that works nowhere else perhaps? It's probably the memory expansion that makes it valuable.

In a perfect world I would have every Nubus card ever made.

Hoarding is rarely a productive activity.

 

[pee-air]

This card is not even tested. The seller has no idea if the thing even works. It comes with no software, and the seller points out that the software is next to impossible to find. There is no warranty of any kind, and eleven people have bid this thing up to $370.

Two huge risks here:

1) The thing may not even work.

2) If it does work, you may never find the software needed to use it.

I personally wouldn't have offered more than shipping for this thing.

 

[Unknown_K]

Maybe there's even a legitimate use for it - some legacy code written for it that works nowhere else perhaps? It's probably the memory expansion that makes it valuable.

In a perfect world I would have every Nubus card ever made.

Hoarding is rarely a productive activity.

I meant 1 example of every card made , not EVERY Nubus card in existance. Most of what I have is not even desireable to most people. Recently I snagged an ATTO Silicon Express II card since nobody else bid on it (most people go for the SEIV). I wanted it because I did not have it in my collection, and 50 pin SCSI cards are a better match for an 030 machine anyway.

 

[kreats]

I know you meant one example of every.. and when there are 0 bids I can understand, but when it comes to outbidding people things get murky - especially if you are just trying to "catch them all".

If I was outbid on a card I actually needed/wanted to use by someone who only was bidding to complete their collection - I would be pissed.

 

[equant]

I personally wouldn't have offered more than shipping for this thing.

Ironic, that is what most people say about many of the computers we collect.

It's funny (this isn't targeted at pee-air, just some of the general feelings of this thread) that people on here wouldn't understand why someone would want some obscure obsolete piece of hardware.

If you're rich, have a love of LISP *and* macs, it's not a stretch to imagine you'd buy this item with all of the questions. Hell, maybe they already bought the missing software for $400 in an auction that said "Hardware may be impossible to find". In that case you'd be crazy not to buy this!

 

[trag]

Is it certain that this is even a Mac Card? NuBus was used in some obscure Unix system (Nu Machine) which was sold by TI after they acquired NuBus from MIT. It looks like the form factor for the cards is rather different from that of a Macintosh, but maybe it would fit in a Nu Machine...

Heh. Maybe competing espianage agencies are bidding on the thing.

 

[Bunsen]

NuBus implementations
NuMachine was never released, but Texas Instruments later took over the work /

NuBus was first used in the Texas Instruments Lisp Machine, the TI Explorer, a derivative of the MIT NuMachine design work. Shortly thereafter, in 1986, Texas Instruments used it in the S1500 multiprocessor UNIX system.

NuBus was later selected by Apple Computer for use in their Macintosh II project,

As to the question in the topic subject: easy. The Lexicon Nuverb is one of the finest studio reverbs ever produced, packaged as a Nubus card and given a powerful Mac GUI front end. When you can find them (which is never) you can expect to pay $500 US and upwards. Recording studios will keep an old Mac (and a working spare) around just to keep this card going.

 

[chris]

Watch it not work...

 

[Quadraman]

Watch it not work...

Without the software, how will the new owner ever know?

 

[Unknown_K]

I know you meant one example of every.. and when there are 0 bids I can understand, but when it comes to outbidding people things get murky - especially if you are just trying to "catch them all".
If I was outbid on a card I actually needed/wanted to use by someone who only was bidding to complete their collection - I would be pissed.

I guess if you realy needed it you would have bid more for it. I get outbid all the time, but I eventualy find what I want at the price I am willing to pay. If you look long enough you will find anything you want.

 

[Unknown_K]

Watch it not work...

Without the software, how will the new owner ever know?

Trust me, anybody who is willing to spend $400 on a Nubus card has the time and money to hunt down the software and manuals.

I have pieced systems together that needed hard to find of rare software and eventually found it, it is part of the challenge and fun of the hobby.

To be honest if I was rich I would outbid anybody for the items I wanted, but that would also take quite a bit of fun out of the hunt. I mean bill gates can wake up tomorrow and cut a check for the most complete stamp collection on the planet ($$$$) and not even think twice about it, how much fun would that be compared to somebody who spent 40 years trying to complete his and all the stories he can tell?

 

[TheNeil]

LISP was used for artificial intelligence programming so that might be of interest to somebody

Having coded in LISP, the only thing it does to intelligence is reduce it

No, please no...save me from the brackets

 

[Charlieman]

Whilst looking for other information, I found some interesting if not useful NuBus notes.

Way back, when the Mac 128 was worth upgrading, one of the first accelerator and RAM upgraders was Levco. Levco was acquired by SuperMac, who were then taken over Scientific Micro Systems in March 1987. In August 1987, Levco demonstrated the Translink, a tranputer board for the SE and II. A transputer is a specialised co-processor, popularised by Inmos, which was used for graphics processing (fractals, CGI, pattern recognition).

Scientific Micro Systems span off SuperMac and Levco again as separate companies in early 1988. SuperMac retained the Mac stuff (including the old Levco accelerators for a while) and Levco did transputers. The last reference I can find to Levco is November 1988, when they presented a DMA controller card (SE and II) which could manage an expansion chassis for up to 128 Translink boards. I'm not sure whether the number 128 refers to individual processors or boards with more than one transputer. Whichever way, very powerful and very scary.

Edit five minutes later: In 1989, Levco demonstrated a prototype of Pixar's Photorealistic Renderman application running on a Translink.