What is "Yarc, NuBus, AMD AM29050-40GC"

[mf-2hd]

Hi,

does anybody know what this is and what´s it for?

Found it own eBay:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/RISC-processing-card-Yarc-NuBus-AMD-AM29050-40GC-Apple-Macintosh-II-/172638536983?hash=item28320f0517:g:yT0AAOSwIWVY-30G

Thanks

 

[Themk]

It is a coprocessor card using AMD's AM29050 RISC processor.

Should be fun!

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

72 pin SIMMs? What year did they hit the streets? Doesn't seem to jibe with the dates on the Proc? What are those four ICs with the fan blowing straight at them? Looks like the standard VRAM package, but there's no video connector? Are they for cache? I wonder if double ported VRAM might be better for RISC cache than regular SRAM?

 

[Themk]

72-pin SIMMs showed up in the early 90s, some late PS/2 systems had them. The year of 1992-3 seems to jive with the 72-pin SIMMs, as well as the other components. Fan probably is keeping CPU cool, though there is no heatsink on CPU, 40GC runs at 40MHz, and the 80MHz crystal seems to confirm that. I could see using VRAM as cache memory, but SRAM seems to make more sense.

 

[NJRoadfan]

A co-processor for what exactly? The same CPU was found in Xante Postscript printers in 1992, using standard 72-pin SIMMs to handle Postscript duties (a very common application for the AMD 29000 series). According to InfoWorld, its just a general purpose RISC CPU accelerator card.

https://books.google.com/books?id=lzsEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA37&ots=YNfm8A4P_v&dq=YARC%20Macintosh&pg=PA37#v=onepage&q=YARC%20Macintosh&f=false

They did Postscript RIPs too!

http://www.creativemac.com/HTM/News/10_00/yarcepsonrip.htm

https://web-beta.archive.org/web/19970414164343/www.yarc.com

 

[ArmorAlley]

Back in 1990, that card would have set you back 4K. A IIcx or IIci were priced in 5-8K region, so that gives an idea how powerful this card must have been in comparison to the base machine.

 

[Unknown_K]

Guess we talked about this before:

https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/topic/5218-yarc-zuma-se-nubus-card/

YARC Turbo MacRageous RISC card

 

[Themk]

Seems like a cool card to own! Since you are already in Germany, you should try to get it, it would make a great addition to any NuBus equipped Macintosh.

 

[olePigeon]

Would be funny if someone had written a "Classic"environment to run OS 9 on a NuBus 68k machine with a YARC card installed.  

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Would likely have been easier(?) to use the PPC based Turbo MacRageous RISC card. Forgot PPC was kinda RISCy.

 

[Gorgonops]

Would be funny if someone had written a "Classic"environment to run OS 9 on a NuBus 68k machine with a YARC card installed.  

Uhm, what? The AMD 29000 series isn't remotely compatible with PowerPC. I mean, sure, they're both CPUs that fit some definition of "RISC", but that's where the similarity both starts and ends.

Honestly I can't really imagine this card being a good purchase for a casual collector for anything other than novelty value. As noted, it only really works with certain applications to accelerate specific heavy rendering tasks, and while it may have been a worthwhile buy when it was sold I have no doubt at all that a regular PowerPC Mac just a couple years newer would run rings around it. (A 40mhz 29050 would be *roughly* comparable to an early Pentium-grade CPU in raw floating-point performance.) The guy that runs this site might have some fun with it; he collects accelerator cards using oddball CPUs like INMOS Transputers, Intel i860s, etc, and actually tries to program them.

 

[Unknown_K]

It reminds me of the early DSP cards that cost a mint when 68k was king and were 100% useless once Apple switched to PPC (a much faster chip).

I think it would be cool to add to my collection if it was cheap enough, and if you can find the apps it was used with.

 

[olePigeon]

Uhm, what? The AMD 29000 series isn't remotely compatible with PowerPC. I mean, sure, they're both CPUs that fit some definition of "RISC", but that's where the similarity both starts and ends.

I'm clearly getting different products mixed up.

 

[Themk]

It ended at 47 Euros. That doesn't seem like a ridiculous price for it (though not 'cheap' either). I think it would be fun to own.

 

[Bolle]

The first one he sold was around 90€ I think.

I saw two of them go and I know he had three of those. So there might be another one coming up soon if he did not sell it yet outside of ebay.

 

[Themk]

Hopefully they all go to people that will enjoy them. I would enjoy one, but I don't have any NuBus macs, which is funny considering I have machines from all three major eras of the 68k macs. (68000, Mac II 020/030, 68040)

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

If it doesn't have a NuBus Slot it's not part of that middle group. IIsi/PDS/NuBus Adapter is the only exception to that rule.

SE/30 is in its own, all but dead-ended class, it's either an 030 accelerated Superset of the SE with Slot Manager that puts three cards on its PDS or it's an emasculated, RoadAppled IIcx with an interesting substitute for NuBus that happily runs on a 60% improved clock. LCs are its crippled, genetically deficient descendants that are in their own horribly PDS impaired class that hearkens back to the limitations of the SE PDS.

YMMV

 

[Themk]

I guess I will say I don't have a member of the middle class. But I do have an '030 powered mac.

I was saying something about the middle group because I felt as if the SE/30 was a IIx, but with little expansion possibilities. Lol, I still enjoy 030 power on the road.

(Had a IIsi, but sold it to my friend as I didn't feel I needed it)

 

[GeekDot]

Uhm, what? The AMD 29000 series isn't remotely compatible with PowerPC. I mean, sure, they're both CPUs that fit some definition of "RISC", but that's where the similarity both starts and ends.

Honestly I can't really imagine this card being a good purchase for a casual collector for anything other than novelty value. As noted, it only really works with certain applications to accelerate specific heavy rendering tasks, and while it may have been a worthwhile buy when it was sold I have no doubt at all that a regular PowerPC Mac just a couple years newer would run rings around it. (A 40mhz 29050 would be *roughly* comparable to an early Pentium-grade CPU in raw floating-point performance.) The guy that runs this site might have some fun with it; he collects accelerator cards using oddball CPUs like INMOS Transputers, Intel i860s, etc, and actually tries to program them.

Indeed As this auction is already history and Nubus/System 7-9 are more a less a nightmare when it comes to bare-metal reverse engineering, I'd like to use your nice comment as a shameless plug to make you guys even more aware about my obsession^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h special interest: If you have any exotic accelerator -be it Mac or PC- you like to get rid of... ping me, pretty please! I'll give it a good home, with lot's of friends, food and a walk for the park every now and then...

Cheers, Axel

P.S: It's a shame that the seller seemed to know where the YARC came from (IIfx) and was used for ('scientific sector') but did not rescue at least the software - most of the time with those expensive/exotic accelerators the software is untraceable vanished rendering the nice hardware into a paper weight.