Mac Portable, Anyone know what this strange card is?

[haplain]

Already loaded them onto my M5126.

Cool!

Hap, you have all the cool stuff!

They'd be nothing more than cool paperweights if it wasn't for your help Charles! Your the man. You were also right about the fact it was probably for an engineer... The port on the back for the interface out is seriously flawless. Looks like something Apple would have done. I'd guess they chucked that bad boy up in a CNC and that's how they made the opening. It's definitely no dremel job.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Played some with the search terms and found something that might fit with the VRAM and unconventional connector on board that interface card for the setup. For a pricey projection unit for the luggable, the oddball connector choice makes a lot of sense.

Does the card draw Power & ground connections from the external connector? That would fit in with the draconian Power budgeting of the Portable. When the projection panel wasn't plugged in the Video Card would be comatose in its powered down state, drawing no power from the Luggable.

 

[uniserver]

so it will run one of these ?



http://www.ebay.com/itm/Proxima-Corporation-A480SC-MultiMode-Compact-Business-Office-Data-Display-Panel-/380647337929?_trksid=p3284.m263&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BFICS%252BUFI%26otn%3D21%26pmod%3D151105566872%26ps%3D54

i think this is kind cool

 

[uniserver]

this ad has better pictures

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Proxima-Multimode-II-A482SC-LCD-Projection-Panel-/390140239720?pt=US_Projector_Parts_Accessories&hash=item5ad62b9f68

 

[uniserver]

its like PRE DATA projector BYO-data i guess most places already had the projector

 

[dougg3]

here is the data sheet on the main chiphttp://www.labmaster.com/surplus/parts/html/941557-pl/xc2000.pdf

It's an FPGA, so there could be just about any logic on there. Most FPGAs need a bitstream loaded in order to work. I don't see a flash chip on there, so the FPGA probably needs to be loaded by a driver on the computer. In other words, you're definitely gonna need the software for it

The 57.2832 MHz crystal sounds a lot like what would be used to generate the dot clock for the monitor...

 

[Paralel]

The mystery is solved!

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I wouldn't be too sure of that, but the possibility is there. The search terms aren't an exact match and the verbiage in that article is equivocal. No mention is made of an interface card for the Portable or of any two level pricing if that's what's needed for the Luggable. It could be that the mention of the Portable was a mistake in that first section. The portable is clearly indicated later on in the article.

The name on the interface card doesn't jibe with the projector info, that's the kicker. The rest might just be coincidence.

 

[uniserver]

looks like those are pretty cheap the one they only want 8 bucks for.

 

[Charlieman]

Says its based on the Lapis DisplayServe, which appears to have been a NuBus video card. None of them used that type of video port though. Hopefully the driver/software is on the machine and can be retrieved!

According to my notes, the first video card produced by Lapis was the SE DisplayServer. It was a dual mode card (digital/TTL EGA AND analog VGA/SVGA) initially but Lapis developed it for other analog monitors, probably dropping digital/TTL support at some point. Mac Plus versions (clip-on) were also produced.

When the Mac Classic arrived, Lapis produced an analog graphics card with RAM expansion. This model was also sold by Computer Care.

The Portable board being discussed seems to be an intermediary member of the family. Hopefully, drivers will be found on the more numerous support disks for other DisplayServers.

The DisplayServer II cards (NuBus) were also unconventional. A 9 pin D connector was provided for TTL monitors and/or an HD-15 connector for all analog monitors (an adapter was required for the Apple D15 connector). The DisplayServer II-DPD-TV was designed to work with NTSC TVs.

Edited to correct "When the Mac Classic arrived" for Mac Plus