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WGS 9150, are they rare?
- Thread starter Quadraman
- Start date
I have two or three of the PowerMac 9150s. I would need to check my inventory book to be sure. Yes, I've started keeping a list. Too many times I go through a box and think, "Wow, I forgot I bought that!" So now I have an actual list. But I digress.
I guess they could be 9100s. Was there a 9100 or only 9150s? Anyway, they're the big bruiser 91xx machines with either 80 or 120 MHz PPC601 CPUs on the motherboard and four NuBus slots.
I found one at the local Goodwill computer store, just sitting there on the floor like it was nothing special for some price under $50. Needless to say that went home with me immediately. I think I actually paid to ship another one. I'm not sure if I have a third, or if I'm confused because I have one or two loose motherboards.
According to PeterH on the LEMLists, there were a huge number of these available at some surplus mecca shop out in California several years ago.
I guess they could be 9100s. Was there a 9100 or only 9150s? Anyway, they're the big bruiser 91xx machines with either 80 or 120 MHz PPC601 CPUs on the motherboard and four NuBus slots.
I found one at the local Goodwill computer store, just sitting there on the floor like it was nothing special for some price under $50. Needless to say that went home with me immediately. I think I actually paid to ship another one. I'm not sure if I have a third, or if I'm confused because I have one or two loose motherboards.
According to PeterH on the LEMLists, there were a huge number of these available at some surplus mecca shop out in California several years ago.
waynestewart
Well-known member
I've got one, though it is packed away at the moment.
bigD
Well-known member
I have an 80MHz version. It was crashing at random intervals, but I applied some new thermal paste to its 601 and now runs like a champ. I also put a PDS AV card in it, which really increases the speed of the video, as well as lets me watch TV. 
This is my only PPC 601 box at the moment, and I love that IBM put some thought into what the processor looks like:
This is my only PPC 601 box at the moment, and I love that IBM put some thought into what the processor looks like:
Here we go. According to my notes, I have a PM9100/120 S/N XB51800V4US, a WGS9150/120 and a WGS9150/80 S/N XC44405V36R in the attic. I kind of wonder if the first two listings aren't the same machine, since I failed to list the serial number for the WGS9150/120 and LCGuy says there never was a 9100, only 9150s. Still, there might be three up there...
I also have a a 9150/80 motherboard on hand and my notes say that the 9150/80 has a burn spot in the middle, but it seems to work okay.
One of these days I'll get all this stuff sorted out and offer up the excess for sale.
I also have a a 9150/80 motherboard on hand and my notes say that the 9150/80 has a burn spot in the middle, but it seems to work okay.
One of these days I'll get all this stuff sorted out and offer up the excess for sale.
Quadraman
Well-known member
Don't forget, just because they aren't listed on the fansites doesn't mean they don't exist. I saw a WGS 8550/200 recently and had to check LEM to make sure it was legit. There's a brief mention of the 8550 at the top of the 8500 entry, but no mention of a 200mhz CPU in the text. It only shows a 120 or 180mhz model. The 200mhz card isn't listed until you go to the 8600 page. There were also machines that weren't sold in all markets that there may not be a lot of information available on. I also recently saw a PM 8200 on ebay Germany which is the 7200 motherboard mounted in the godawful 8100/8500 case and those weren't sold in North America and maybe not in some other markets, either.
Someone in another thread was asking about changing the 9150/80 from 2X the bus speed ( 2 X 40MHz = 80 MHz) to 3X and running the bus more slowly.I have an 80MHz version.
The PPC601 seems to need a clock buffer chip which can multiply the system clock signal by 3 for it. I may be wrong about the following, because it's from memory, but if you look at the lower left corner of bigD's photo above, then move one chip to the right (no, not the oscillator, the next one to the right), you'll see a set of unused pads around a smaller chip. If I'm not mistaken, that smaller chip is the clock buffer for the machine and the unused pads are where the ICS9178 would go if this were a clock tripling machine, instead of a clock doubling machine. All the speed bumped PM8100s (100, 110) had the ICS9178 as well.
Adding an ICS9178 is also how one converts the Turbo601/66 into a Turbo601/100 (well more like 90 to 96).
That was me, ojfd, I wanted to downclock several PM8100/100 and 110
So, You're the one behind the Turbo601/66 chipping project mentioned on Schreier's page? If so, is it enough to just pull respective clock ratio pins on ICS9178 low or high to get the desired effect?
Cheers,
ojfd
Btw, I'm interested in a couple of 9150 MB's as well, in case anyone reading this want to offload his. 80 or 120 doesn't matter. And I need them for REAL work, not just fun. I need PPC and more than 3 Nubus slots
I made it up into the attic a few weeks ago, and there are, indeed, three 91xxs in there. One of them seems to have some broken bits to the casing as the side panel doesn't want to stay on properly. Admittedly, it's a bit awkward to assemble/disassemble that kind of them in the attic but the bits that fell off are a clue.
Anyway, one of these days I'll mess with them. I'm just falling further and further behind on projects and thinking of new ones to add to the list...
Part of the problem is that i have some real-time hobbies like gardening and fish keeping and when weeding needs doing, or water changes, you really can't put them at a lower priority than other projects. It must be done when it needs doing. The eight-year-old boy runs in real time too.
Anyway, one of these days I'll mess with them. I'm just falling further and further behind on projects and thinking of new ones to add to the list...
Part of the problem is that i have some real-time hobbies like gardening and fish keeping and when weeding needs doing, or water changes, you really can't put them at a lower priority than other projects. It must be done when it needs doing. The eight-year-old boy runs in real time too.
Unknown_K
Well-known member
If you must have PPC and more then 3 Nubus slots a 950 with a Daystar upgrade is the easier to get (then you get 4 free Nubus slots). I did this for my AVID systems. A 9150 would be better if you needed tons of RAM since it uses more common 72 pin SIMMs.
TRAQ: How are the conditions in your attic? Humidity and heat/cool cycles are hell on plastics.
TRAQ: How are the conditions in your attic? Humidity and heat/cool cycles are hell on plastics.
Not great.
It rarely gets below 40F around here, but in the summer we'll see thirty or forty consecutive days of 100+F weather, so it gets very hot in the attic.
That's another reason why I'd like to reach a point where I've got things organized and tested, and can identified which members I am willing to cull from the herd. The fewer seasons spent in the attic, the better. Of course, they may just end up in someone else's attic...
You know, yes original 601 ppc's look awesome.. but yeah.. was remounting the heatsink on my new 9150 board today and cracked the chip- why? because it doesn't actally touch the board- there's a huge gap behind the chip between it and the board... argh- I guess I'll pull a chip from a 7100 are replace it, but - word of caution - that damn glass chip prettyness comes at a price...
Yes, I did the Turbo601/66 chipping project and the article on Schrier's page. I sold the thing some years ago and bought a refurbished Power Computing Power 120 with the proceeds (and some extra cash).
The Turbo601 is like a dancing bear. It's really cool that it dances at all, but it doesn't dance all that well. I decided that the Turbo040 is as far as I'll ever take my IIci.
That said, I think that the answer to your question is yes, but I did not do a circuit analysis when I performed the modification. That was before my EE degree, and I was a fair hand with a soldering pencil, but not all that knowledgeable.
I just compared the Turbo601/100 to the Turbo601/66 and made the changes in the 66 to make it just like the 100. So I documented which resistors needed changing, but I don't know what those resistors actually did. And it's way too late to find out now.
At the time, I didn't even know that the ICS9178 was a clock buffer, nor what purpose a clock buffer serves in a computer system.
