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Hacked PDS DayStar 040 adaptor — For the SE/30
- Thread starter uniserver
- Start date
Nope, that Adapter is made specifically for DayStar PDS VidCards. However, It works nicely as a PDS passthru for the RCPII/IIsi, but have you tried running a NIC off its passthru yet? I haven't, but I'm hoping and planning that a NIC will work.
Daystar Accelerators require a IIci Cache Slot Adapter which that card isn't and can't be to be without Herculean efforts AFAIK.
The IIsi NuBus Adapter can't run off that Card as is either, that I tried. [}
] ]'>
Daystar Accelerators require a IIci Cache Slot Adapter which that card isn't and can't be to be without Herculean efforts AFAIK.
The IIsi NuBus Adapter can't run off that Card as is either, that I tried. [}
] ]'>As jt wrote the SuperMac adapter is just a pass-through for the PDS slot.
The actual adapter which makes the Turbo040 work in the SE/30 has one or two PLDs on board which massage some signals to convert them from SE/30-PDS- speak into IIci-cache-slot-speak.
Presumably, Artmix reverse engineered those PLDs in order to build his riser card.
The actual adapter which makes the Turbo040 work in the SE/30 has one or two PLDs on board which massage some signals to convert them from SE/30-PDS- speak into IIci-cache-slot-speak.
Presumably, Artmix reverse engineered those PLDs in order to build his riser card.
Indubitably, but it's hardly an impossible task. I've been suggesting a collaborative effort on a clean-room (Atrmix-untouched) approach to reverse engineering the various SuperMac IIci slot adapters for quite a while now.
Matter of fact, mcd sent me a SuperMac PowerCache Adapter for the Mac II so's I can isolate the CPU signals from the PMMU signals involved. It's a WAG on my part that such might be helpful, but we've got plenty of talent around here do hack the SuperMac logic and build a better card than the pricey one form Japan. Ours ought to have as all the pass-thru connectors in all the right places where an SE/30 or a IIsi can support them. i.e. at least one more than the Atrmix board. [}] ]'>
ISTR techknight telling me that the necessary logic has something to do with re-mapping the address space of the PDS slot to that of the IIci Cache Slot or some such.
Matter of fact, mcd sent me a SuperMac PowerCache Adapter for the Mac II so's I can isolate the CPU signals from the PMMU signals involved. It's a WAG on my part that such might be helpful, but we've got plenty of talent around here do hack the SuperMac logic and build a better card than the pricey one form Japan. Ours ought to have as all the pass-thru connectors in all the right places where an SE/30 or a IIsi can support them. i.e. at least one more than the Atrmix board. [}
] ]'>ISTR techknight telling me that the necessary logic has something to do with re-mapping the address space of the PDS slot to that of the IIci Cache Slot or some such.
Well he probably spent the time to map out all the signals between cache and PDS, Then spent more time by pulling the proprietary PLDs, and doing a logic scan, this type of attack is a good way to reverse engineer PAL/GAL devices.
But of course, this is only an educated guess. and educated may be a bit much. lol.
But of course, this is only an educated guess. and educated may be a bit much. lol.
I don't know about smarter, but he's put in the work on this particular project.
As to big bucks, I wrote a long'ish analysis of the economics of this kind of project -- over on AppleFritter I think, but it might have been here. While his prices seem high, compared to the cost of parts and the volume he may have had assembled (looks like professional assembly, not hand jobs like we do) and the risk, and money tied up in it, his pricing may actually be on the low side.
It's a problem for small projects in which the ultimate volume just isn't known. Anybody watch his auctions on Ebay? Any idea how many of those adapters he sells in a year? Twelve? Fifty-two? One hundred?
