Quesse Total Systems PDS accelerator for SE

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Accelerator Comparisons: July 1991 MacWorld

 

[olePigeon]

That is one monster accelerator. Very, very cool.

 

[CJ_Miller]

Hey, the thread lives! Yes, it is a nice card. Within the past year I saw one go on ebay NIB, with all the extras and then some, but I was not able to get it.

From what I have read suggests these "Total Systems" and Gemini accelerators are the same.

I have got my printer apart and need to get to bed, but I will open my SE again over the next day and try to help with those questions

 

[CJ_Miller]

If that is, or is anything like, a Total Systems Gemini Accelerator for the SE, you're going to need the init/whatchamacallit OS level tweak to allow the SE to address the add'l Ram as Virtual Memory. IIRC, those cards could do something like 32 MB of RAM on the SE and, ISTR, they were available with either an '020 OR an '030 on board!

Yes, the PCB looks like it was designed to be really multi-purpose. The DIP headers underneath suggest that one could also socket it into a Plus. My init says:

GemStart 3.0 for the 20MHz Gemini

Use FPU for SANE (off)

Instruction Cache (on)

Data Cache (on)

Startup Animation (on)

Memory: Has 4MB of 32-bit RAM

Has 1MB SIMMs

Options: Has 68030 built-in MMU

ROM copied to RAM

Hey, ROM in RAM means this is a "new world" SE! :lol: It also has a button marked "fool applications", which opens a file browser. I guess this is to patch for applications which might not like the 030. I wish my Atari Falcon had this feature. I haven't bothered to add more RAM or FPU, because I have not used the SE as much as I'd like, I have no money, and it runs nicely as it is now. But I probably will upgrade it someday. My next big upgrade was supposed to be SSD hard drive, but it hasn't worked out yet.

Is the Brand Name on a sticker or etched away with the traces on the PCB? The Gemini Accelerator was a brand name for a board from an OEM and available from other mail order houses as well. It was paired with either a Lapis Card for Grayscale or Panasonic's SE Interface Card for B&W. I've still got the manual and the NuBus card for my Panasonic 19" TPD. What connector is on the Lapis Card? Panasonic's Single Bit NuBus Video Interface Card for the PanaPro M19M2 has a DB-9 connector. It's sitting in front of me, date etched on the card is 1988.

On the board is etched: TOTAL SYSTEMS - QUESSE COMPUTER CO INC - PCB #80042 - MADE IN USA - COPYRIGHT 1989 There is a sticker with: S/N 04232

It appears that I have temporarily lost the display card, doubtless in one of the many silver ESD bags around here. IIRC it says "Lapis" on the card and had a DB-9 output. I do not have any viable monitors to test it with.

edit: check for The Gauge Series in the Peripherals Links Project, that utility suite will do most everything the System Profiler can do and much more.

Thanks for the tip. Next time I am doing an install-fest for the SE, I might well try this.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I didn't remember anything about the Gemini being KillyKlip enabled. That'd make one BOSS 128k! :approve:

I've got the Manual for the PanaPro 19" TPD . . . somewhere around here . . . :

IIRC, it has all the information about the SE Interface Card and the timings for the CRT.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if it isn't, along with your Lapis Card, a CRT/Card Combo Hack/Clone of the Hercules Graphics Card which enabled both pages, or more likely several chunks of pages in the memory space of the PC to be displayed. Since every pixel was uniquely addressable by this awesome PC Graphics Hack, it was probably possible to put them anywhere on the PanaPro's 19" CRT. Being Monochrome, the CRT's Phosphor Latency could have been tweaked to allow these cards to continually map the Herculese' single page output across the "standard" TPD pixelmap and interlaced to appear more "stable" than the paged scan rate would be.

I'd put money on the Lapis Card's being a hack of the Hercules InColor Card EGA Emulation allowing for 4 bit Grayscale output to the same inexpensive PanaPro TPD!

Very cool, but mired in ye olde 5v TTL World, which might actually ba a good thing. I'll bet someone, somewhere, has done a TTL TPD -> SVGA or Mac TPD conversion in hardware at some point!

I'd bet that someone, somewhere, could retro-hack this sort of TTL TPD output hack into a 60 Hz VGA input on a modern LCD. The Hercules Hack ought to allow for an inexpensive 720p or 1080p Grayscale 3PD NuBus/PDS Card to be designed!

Color might be a possibility too! 8-o

That someone would certainly not be myself, but . . . }

 

[CJ_Miller]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if it isn't, along with your Lapis Card, a CRT/Card Combo Hack/Clone of the Hercules Graphics Card which enabled both pages, or more likely several chunks of pages in the memory space of the PC to be displayed. Since every pixel was uniquely addressable by this awesome PC Graphics Hack, it was probably possible to put them anywhere on the PanaPro's 19" CRT. Being Monochrome, the CRT's Phosphor Latency could have been tweaked to allow these cards to continually map the Herculese' single page output across the "standard" TPD pixelmap and interlaced to appear more "stable" than the paged scan rate would be.

Ahh, your hacks are as ambitious as always!

I asked around about these displays, and people mostly suggested that all of the video cards had their own freaky timing and format. If it is really Hercules EGA would be neat, though I would probably prefer a single page without the interlace. If you have the monitor timings, please do post them! Where I live I don't typically find good monitors to experiment with, and prefer not to ship old ones because of cost and fragility. I don't want color, but a hacked grayscale medical monitor would be nice.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Ahh, your hacks are as ambitious as always!

Thanks, I like your terminology, most of the old gang like eudimorphodon/gorgonops and Dr. Bob, back in the day, have kept reminding me that I'd need EE street cred to pull off most of them . . .

. . . I would . . . along with a LOT more programming chops than I have . . . but I keep hoping somebody will pick up the gauntlet and actually do one of the waaayyyyy over the top notions I've tossed out there! [] ]'>

One of the companies I Beta Tested CAD/CAM Hardware/Software for way back when, actually stole an Idea I casually mentioned for a hack that I was planning to develop when they bought me a nice dinner (and a few drinks) at one of the Sign Company Conventions and implemented its function into the next hardware rev. of their stepper driver cards!

I made them give me TWO of those packages to play with! :approve:

BTW, I'll GLADLY loan my NuBus PanaPro Interface Card/Manual to anybody who wants to play around with this one! IIRC the Driver is in the DeclROM. I'll confirm that when I find the manual again!

< swerves back on topic >

A 13" High Resolution RGB Display coupled with a Grayscale TPD/FPD was the "standard" early DTP Workstation. That was the most common solution proposed by the < sneers a bit [}] ]'> > Consultants back in the NYMUG day.

< HA! Know It All = KIA! :lol: >

How common are the old Medical WorkStation CRTs? The only ones I've seen on craigslist have been newer LCD technology. I practically drool on myself every time I see pics of one of the 2-3 LCD Stock Trader Rigs posted. [] ]'>

 

[CJ_Miller]

Thanks, I like your terminology, most of the old gang like eudimorphodon/gorgonops and Dr. Bob, back in the day, have kept reminding me that I'd need EE street cred to pull off most of them . . .. . . I would . . . along with a LOT more programming chops than I have . . . but I keep hoping somebody will pick up the gauntlet and actually do one of the waaayyyyy over the top notions I've tossed out there! [] ]'>

And I often wish I had taken the time to develop some coding chops. Anyway, even more rare than people with technical skill are those such as yourself who can see the possibilities.

One of the companies I Beta Tested CAD/CAM Hardware/Software for way back when, actually stole an Idea I casually mentioned for a hack that I was planning to develop when they bought me a nice dinner (and a few drinks) at one of the Sign Company Conventions and implemented its function into the next hardware rev. of their stepper driver cards! I made them give me TWO of those packages to play with! :approve: BTW, I'll GLADLY loan my NuBus PanaPro Interface Card/Manual to anybody who wants to play around with this one! IIRC the Driver is in the DeclROM. I'll confirm that when I find the manual again!

Sounds like it could be useful for a PCB plotter/router!

A 13" High Resolution RGB Display coupled with a Grayscale TPD/FPD was the "standard" early DTP Workstation. That was the most common solution proposed by the < sneers a bit [}] ]'> > Consultants back in the NYMUG day.< HA! Know It All = KIA! :lol: >

How common are the old Medical WorkStation CRTs? The only ones I've seen on craigslist have been newer LCD technology. I practically drool on myself every time I see pics of one of the 2-3 LCD Stock Trader Rigs posted. [] ]'>

Sounds good. I have recently bought my first oscilloscope (Tek 2215 - mostly for audio), and some service manuals for old monitors so I can read up on how they are supposed to work.

How common are Medical monitors? No idea. I have seen CRTs and LCDs, just whatever was there when I was looking. True there do seem to be more LCDs. A couple years ago I found somebody in PA with two cheap four-foot Trinitrons, but they required pickup and I had no way to do it...

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

. . . two cheap four-foot Trinitrons

OHMYGODOMIGODOHMYGOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 8-o

=8-b . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

If ANYONE, EVER, spots ANYTHING even remotely like this anywhere near south-central PA . . . get in touch w/Tom Owad, 'fritter's honcho!

Not to mention posting it here for another comrade to snatch up! :approve:

< comes out of shock just enough to head to the shower for work . . . with a very wet nightshirt :I >