Mystery pre prod Novy Quik20? accelerator - missing chips, indentification

[Byrd]

Hi all,

A while back I purchased this 68000 accelerator (advertised as an Amiga accelerator), shoved it in a box and bought it out the other day trying to work out what it was.  From research, the closest match from the 1992 book "Build your own Macintosh and save a bundle" is to that of a Novy Quik30 (I believe also badged as a Total Systems Mercury), but with the following differences:

- 68020 12Mhz and 68881 FPU, 1MB RAM installed (set to 1MB, another jumper for 4MB assume max)

- Everything socketed, bodge wires aplenty - especially underside, on top some random wires snipped

- Missing various PALs, Motorola chips (according to the stock image) @Bolle any thoughts on what I need, possibly to cannibalise from similar vintage Mac part?

- No SCSI connector, making me assume it was designed for a Mac Plus over a 128K/512K - I can't find much info on the Novy Quik boards without SCSI

All up, it seems rather rough and suggests some sort of pre-production/test board.  Yes the crystal is wrong - I just had it there and put it in.  Seems though, I could potentially clock this to 16/25/33Mhz - straight swap in 68030?

I'd love to see it functional again with the right PALs, a Mac Plus being my first love.

Thank you

JB

 

[Crutch]

Yeah that’s a Quik30, I have (or had) the same one without SCSI, I think I sold it but have this photo of it installed in case it’s helpful at all.  It may still be hiding in a closet somewhere, removed from my motherboard.

 

[johnklos]

Seems though, I could potentially clock this to 16/25/33Mhz - straight swap in 68030?

While the '020 should clock to 16 MHz, you can't swap in an '030 - they're not pin compatible. A company made a small board that adapts an '030 to an '020 socket (I had one), but I can't find examples on the Internet.

 

[Byrd]

@Crutch - thanks for that pic, Novy Quik20 it is - that's a great help.  Looks like I'm missing 2 x SN74F257N, 1 x LM393P, but 3 - 4 missing Lattice GAL or PAL chips I can't determine covered by stickers.  The snipped wires on mine appear to be for setting wait states according to your board - two are snipped.

@johnklos - ah, that's why this will never be an 030'; still I suppose 12Mhz 68020 and FPU would have been a reasonable boost at the time.

 

[Crutch]

(And don’t I feel silly for posting too late at night ... yes yours is clearly an 020 and mine is an 030, I do realize that  )

By the way, nice find on this, I prefer 68000 or 020 accelerators for the really old Macs for maximum compatibility.  It’s much easer (but still not easy) to find 030s it seems.  I used to have a Radius 16 in a Plus that I later sold, it was really nice.

 

[Byrd]

Going off Crutch's Quik30 image and a few other remnants found online, I can approximate all bar one of the missing ICs as follows - see edited pic below.

The biggest mystery is the DIP14 package as marked - no idea what it is - as the Quik30 has a DIP20 package labelled as "CX06-02B" or "CX06-04B".  Does anyone have any thoughts on what the DIP14 package could be, or has a Quik30 they could look at their board please.  I assume there might be an older, equivalent package in DIP14 format for the Quik20.

Thanks all!  Even if I source and replace the missing chips there might be some other duds on there, but I'd love to see this running in a Mac Plus.  It certainly looks and feels like a kit, you soldered most of it and put the marked ICs in yourself.

JB

 

[Phipli]

Some of the similar Total Systems Mercury 030 boards shown in old adverts don't have a crystal installed, so don't assume that your crystal is missing. They have a jumper for setting the clock source. The attached does have a crystal, interestingly a 20mhz when the boatd only seems to be advertised as 16. The clock-free ad I saw had the jumper at "out" (it says "in" out of sight).

Are the two pin headers on this thing for RAM and video expansions?

 

[techknight]

I have that exact novy. if you need pictures or part numbers, I can dig through my old photos to see if I took pics of it. otherwise, I could dig it out? 

 

[Byrd]

@Phipli: The Total Systems Memory certainly appears to have been released around the same time and appears quite similar, if larger

@techknight Yes thanks mate, any pics or confirmation of the ICs I have missing would be splendid.  I've spent some time searching and can find most, but not all part numbers.   I can then attempt to rebuild the accelerator and try it in a Plus 

 

[techknight]

I think mine is the 030, I will have to double check. If this matters at all? 

 

[Byrd]

I think mine is the 030, I will have to double check. If this matters at all? 

Appears the 020 and 030 cards have the same ICs, except the different in a DIP20/DIP14 package is as marked above ?? - it'll be DIP20 on yours, I can work with that

 

[techknight]

ok let me grab it and see. 

 

[techknight]

Found some reference photos I took when I first got it, and Unfortunately, they are all AMPALs. So a PAL. 

Here is a couple pics: 







Not sure if this helps at all, Let me know if you need anything additional. 

So unless our resident evil genius @Bolle has any methods to dump the logic from AMPAL16V8 chips, were kinda full stop right here... 

 

[Realitystorm]

I have 2 Novy 30s for the plus, both installed with the power supply mod, you might have this one: https://archive.org/details/MacUser8803March1988/page/n125/mode/2up

 

[Byrd]

@techknight Thanks so much for posting your Novy30 - can you please reel off what's marked on these two ICs below?  Can't quite make them out but appears they are the same.

The DIP20 socket on mine has a PAL16R4BCN, and you'd assume same in both however my missing IC is DIP14 ... n00b alert to find equivalent do I look up the datasheet and try to find a DIP14 variant?

@Realitystorm Thank you, Novy MAC20X it is - amusingly "documentation is unclear and incomplete"  [:O]   I'll try to find a higher resolution version of the magazine which would reveal more.  It appears all sockets are populated, including the crystal.

 

[techknight]

I believe its an AMPAL16V8, but ill double check soon as I can dig it out off the shelf. 

 

[techknight]

@Byrd Here ya go:

 

 

[Phipli]

So these various boards, where they have an optional crystal and a jumper to select internal or external clock... can you put in any speed crystal within the limits of the logic and CPU grade (I realise that you probably can't put a 50mhz chip in a 16mhz board because the timings in the PALs and other logic are likely to be out - but please correct me on this ). For example, if I had a 16mhz board, could I put an 16.9344mhz into it, or a 22.5972mhz, if I had a 25mhz CPU. Or, do they need to be multiples of another speed on the system, or the PALs can only cope with very specific speeds... etc. etc.

 

[Byrd]

With these early accelerators you probably don't want to go out of spec too much at all, for all the reasons you've noted.  This one has a 68020 12Mhz which must have a 16Mhz crystal, and some sort of "slow" "fast" jumper that might help out on a mild overclock.  Of course if I ever get this one working I'll pick up a cheap 68020 25Mhz with requisite crystal and give it a crack.  There are some interesting workarounds in modern 68000 accelerators in Amigas that might help our cause in future.

@techknight Thank you, I've sourced exact matches from mostly the same seller dealing in vintage NOS ICs for all but the ?? DIP14 package that is a variant of a PALCE16V8H-15PC (Quik30) or PAL16R4BCN (my MACX20), no idea what it is.