-
Updated 2023-07-12: Hello, Guest! Welcome back, and be sure to check out this follow-up post about our outage a week or so ago.
What is this (LC "prototype" upgrade)?
- Thread starter zackl
- Start date
uniserver
Well-known member
I am pretty sure the FPU is soldered from underneath, if you look closer you see pins through the holes.
or… maybe not… lol
here is LEM's list of LC Video cards,
I noticed nothing from e-Machines.
http://lowendmac.com/video/lc/
Envisio Quick16
Focus L*TV LC
Focus L*TV Pro LC
Focus L*TV Pro/E LC
Radius Color Pivot LC
RasterOps ColorVue 8LC
RasterOps ColorVue LC
RasterOps ColorVue GSLC
maybe it was a card they did, and never made it to market.
or… maybe not… lol
here is LEM's list of LC Video cards,
I noticed nothing from e-Machines.
http://lowendmac.com/video/lc/
Envisio Quick16
Focus L*TV LC
Focus L*TV Pro LC
Focus L*TV Pro/E LC
Radius Color Pivot LC
RasterOps ColorVue 8LC
RasterOps ColorVue LC
RasterOps ColorVue GSLC
maybe it was a card they did, and never made it to market.
Trash80toHP_Mini
NIGHT STALKER
Definitely a VidCard, it clearly has VRAM on board.
No CoPro, no pins/solder cones in evidence. I downloaded it and looked at it under high magnification. Dunno what those dots are, but the unimplemented thru holes look just like the metric crapload of other unimplemented, wave soldered over thru holes for a whole bunch of other unimplemented components.
LEM's list it noticeably incomplete, but it's understandable in this case. This card probably only supports one of E-Machines proprietary (fixed resolution) CRTs. At a guess, I'd google for it in reverse, by looking for info and specific MAC compatibilities. I'd start with their 16" Display (?) as that's about what that amount of VRAM might to be able to support at 16bit.
That's a relatively well founded guess, not a freakin' WAG this time time around. [
)] ]'>
No CoPro, no pins/solder cones in evidence. I downloaded it and looked at it under high magnification. Dunno what those dots are, but the unimplemented thru holes look just like the metric crapload of other unimplemented, wave soldered over thru holes for a whole bunch of other unimplemented components.
LEM's list it noticeably incomplete, but it's understandable in this case. This card probably only supports one of E-Machines proprietary (fixed resolution) CRTs. At a guess, I'd google for it in reverse, by looking for info and specific MAC compatibilities. I'd start with their 16" Display (?) as that's about what that amount of VRAM might to be able to support at 16bit.
That's a relatively well founded guess, not a freakin' WAG this time time around. [
)] ]'>
I seem to recall once seeing photos of some other LC video card from E-Machines that used the same (or a similar, at least) Xilinx FPGA for glue logic; I think that card had a different video chip, (something from Weitek, maybe?), but other than that pretty much the same thing with another beard and mustache. It's definitely not some magical "FPGA interface", if that's what the eBay lister really thinks.
TheMacGuy
Well-known member
This was on eBay recently with an LC wasn't it? I remember the card as it was un-usual. I'm going to go with uniserver that the FPU is on the bottom, but we have no way of telling for certain. If it isn't, then there is probably a place to put it. I wonder if the reason its out of the computer is because something is wrong with it. Normally things like this are found inside the machine.
Trash80toHP_Mini
NIGHT STALKER
Dunno, doubt it, download the pic and look at it under high magnification, no pins showing for a soldered CoPro in evidence there, just some apparently flat dots.
Reasons why I don't think there's a CoPro under there aside from possible clearance issues.
1) A Copro's about the LAST thing you'd solder onto a prototype of any kind, if that's even what this is.
2) A CoPro Socket for a VidCard makes sense, that's a feature added at almost no cost
3) CoPros were EXPENSIVE back in the day.
____ The only PDS Expansion Card I can think of with a standard equipment soldered CoPro was the IIsi NuBus Adapter
____ which was a very high dollar adapter for another higher dollarNuBus card. Made sense to have it standard.
4) that card hasn't got the rest of the components implemented yet and all those soldered over pads look much the same.
VidCards are for driving displays, the added cost of a CoPro would adversely affect sales. Adding a socket provision for adding one is a nice feature to advertise instead of a millstone around the Video Card's connector.
Give it a look and see, I can't think of a single reason to have an actual Floating Point Processor as standard equipment on a shipping video card, much less on a low production numbered test unit or a prototype.
YMMV [] ]'>
Reasons why I don't think there's a CoPro under there aside from possible clearance issues.
1) A Copro's about the LAST thing you'd solder onto a prototype of any kind, if that's even what this is.
2) A CoPro Socket for a VidCard makes sense, that's a feature added at almost no cost
3) CoPros were EXPENSIVE back in the day.
____ The only PDS Expansion Card I can think of with a standard equipment soldered CoPro was the IIsi NuBus Adapter
____ which was a very high dollar adapter for another higher dollarNuBus card. Made sense to have it standard.
4) that card hasn't got the rest of the components implemented yet and all those soldered over pads look much the same.
VidCards are for driving displays, the added cost of a CoPro would adversely affect sales. Adding a socket provision for adding one is a nice feature to advertise instead of a millstone around the Video Card's connector.
Give it a look and see, I can't think of a single reason to have an actual Floating Point Processor as standard equipment on a shipping video card, much less on a low production numbered test unit or a prototype.
YMMV [
] ]'>
