Resurecting 6100 ... HPV and cache memory upgrades?

[FacnyFreddy]

My last retro project is bringing back to life a 2nd hand 6100/60

The initial goal is to get an HPV board (from a 7100) installed and upgrade it to 2MB (comes with 1MB)
- Where can I get compatible memory sticks for this board?
- Where can I get ahold of a "T" mounting plate to fit it to my pizza box?

I'm also trying to hunt down a 256K (or larger) cache stick as the one that was in it was removed, from what I recall.

I suspect I have to recap ... no leaks at this point, but, I am making plans for it

 

[LaPorta]

I have an extra 256k 6100 cache if you dont find one otherwise. Just have to find it...

 

[Franklinstein]

VRAM SIMMs for the HPV card are pretty much the same as those of previous models Macs, depending on which type you find: the 7100's card had 1MB soldered and used 4x 256k (though I think you can get away with just two) sticks while the 8100's had 2MB and used 4x 512k sticks. You can use 512k sticks in the 7100's card but it will only use half of it so it's kind of a waste unless that's all you can find.

As for the right-angle PDS adapter, you just have to look around. Try the Trading Post. Somebody may have one but there really aren't any dedicated sources for them. They're quite a bit easier to find than the NuBus adapter though so be glad you're not trying to find one of those to use a NuBus video card instead. Honestly the PDS video card is faster than most if not all NuBus video cards so there's little point in going for one of those over the PDS card unless you have a piece of software that very specifically calls for a Radius or SuperMac video card. This may seem a little odd seeing as how the NuBus cards often do have very good video chips vs. the fairly basic ones the HPV uses, but the HPV runs on a 30~40MHz interface (depending on system bus speed) with a direct line to the CPU while the NuBus cards are stuck on a 20MHz (maximum; 10MHz is more common) bus and have to go through the NuBus controller before they can get data to the CPU.
Also it's possible to use a CPU upgrade and an HPV card whereas a CPU upgrade precludes the use of the NuBus card.

 

[Nathan_A]

I have a spare HPV board from a 7100 around here somewhere that you're welcome to.

 

[joshc]

If you're in the UK/Europe, I also have a spare (recapped) HPV board you could have. Probably not worth shipping any further than that.

The right angle PDS adapter has been cloned, see here: https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/project-powermac-6100-hpv-riser-hpv-vram.35663/

VRAM SIMMs can be bought from @Siliconinsider

 

[FacnyFreddy]

I need to dig out my soldering iron, electrical solder, and flux... its been a few years since I have had to use them.

 

[MrFahrenheit]

I just ran into this project now. How I didn’t see it before is beyond me.

I had wanted to put a G3 logic board into a Mac IIsi case. All was good except the personality card needs to be horizontal. The G3 personality card and slot use this same connector as the socket and edge connector on your L bracket (the 182 pin PERCH).

I ended up getting one of the green PCB Apple L brackets pictured on this post, and it appears to be a straight through connector, but the G3 will not power up if the personality card is mounted in this L connector in the personality slot.

Is the PCB that you reverse engineered and made a complete straight-through or are there traces that swap to different pins?

Any idea why the L bracket would fail to work in this use case?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Was doing something similar with the G3DT/U2 recasing. My first plan was to use a pair of cable type single card PCI risers, one trimmed to fit in order to flop the card over to the left. Are you using a RA multislot adapter with PCI cards for your IIsi hack? Thinking a pair of LA Risers might leave you with cubic for a pair of PCI cards atop the personality card?

 

[MrFahrenheit]

Was doing something similar with the G3DT/U2 recasing. My first plan was to use a pair of cable type single card PCI risers, one trimmed to fit in order to flop the card over to the left. Are you using a RA multislot adapter with PCI cards for your IIsi hack? Thinking a pair of LA Risers might leave you with cubic for a pair of PCI cards atop the personality card?

I was mostly interested in just using the G3DT board and the required personality card. The machine boots unreliably without a personality card so it appears to be required even to just boot up.

I placed the HPV “L” bracket into the PERCH personality slot and then the whisper card horizontally in the L bracket’s slot. No other cards.

The machine fails to power up with this configuration. Which makes zero sense because to me the L bracket should be a direct pin for pin passive converter. There is no logic or capacitors or anything on it.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

LEDs?

 

[MrFahrenheit]

LEDs?

Not sure what you mean. Are you asking whether LEDs lit on power up? I can’t recall but it’s the logic board outside the box.

The symptom with it plugged into the PERCH was pressing power very briefly twitched the fan on my PSU and nothing else happened.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

One adapter board looked like it had some kind of LED tomfoolery going on. Was thinking that might be problematic for one of the PERCH signals?

 

[MrFahrenheit]

One adapter board looked like it had some kind of LED tomfoolery going on. Was thinking that might be problematic for one of the PERCH signals?

Not sure what you mean. This is the L adapter board.

 

[Franklinstein]

They probably changed pin assignment between the 60x PDS and the Gossamer's PERCH slot: what was once ground or NC is now a data line, etc. Unless you can find a pinout sheet for both and pore over them to ensure they're 100% identical, I'd say it's probably not going to work.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Yep, that's the standard Apple RA Adapter PDS adapter. You've buzzed it pin for pin, but have you checked to see if any of the power/ground lines are coupled on the adapter. That would for sure cause you problems.

 

[FacnyFreddy]

Well, I got my 6100 up and "running". Waiting on a bluescsi drive to arrive.

I just need to get the adapter board made and come up with a way to bend some aluminum sheet to help stabilize the hpv card/adapter.

My 2mb HPV comes to live right away. JOY!