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Sonnet Crescendo Identity Request

patatas

Well-known member
Anybody know what is this card? I believe it must be a Sonnet Crescendo L2 but cannot find any data based on the card ID I see. They do not match up with the Sonnet P/N list

Image 31 October 2020 1_22_31 AM.jpg

Image 31 October 2020 1_22_19 AM.jpg
 

jessenator

Well-known member
I started a thread about the different versions, but between the PCB population inconsistencies and labels (even when they're present on a card), it really comes down to what secondary label was affixed to the cardboard...unfortunately.

That said, your board's date of 1998, and the introduction of the L2 G3 on early 1999, I'd say it would be a safe bet that it's one of these (taken from a WaybackMachine capture from February 1999)
Screenshot_20211003-141256.jpg
At one point the on-card labels briefly differentiated between cards only supported on 54/64xx/55/65xx Macs and the 4400. This is further compounded by the lack of early-version support for clones based on those architectures, respectively... hence my comment about only really knowing based on what label came with the box (not the slip cover, but a printed label on the cardboard).

The very last revision of the cards, I believe, we're compatible with all Macs and clones that used that specific L2 cache slot, even, bafflingly, the Power Computing PowerBase, which has a daughter card CPU... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

At any rate, unless someone with a more thorough sheaf of evidence pipes up, I would think it safe to test on one of the Macs listed in that image/first round of compatible models.

Drivers are available on MacGarden, but it should boot without one, even if you don't get a fully featured experience.

Let us know which it is if you try.
 

jessenator

Well-known member
I did just now double check. I snagged this, for comparison to another, from a long gone eBay listing. The shape of it matches yours, but has component differentiations:

And this was the documentation it supposedly came with:

But again, inconsistencies!! There's the lack of the important differentiator (4400/et al. or not)
That's not too say yours is the same, but it's ...a thing.
 

jessenator

Well-known member
Something else you might try, if you're feeling industrious, is to carefully remove the heatsink and see what clock rating is on the silicon.

I might be mistaken, but I think the cache memory is also under the heatsink, and might further sort out which version you have. Might be good to replace the thermal paste anyway.
 
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