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Odd SE/30 card?
- Thread starter beachycove
- Start date
Novy Systems made a variety of compact Mac accelerators. That one seems to have a video card with it too. I'm guessing that it is an SE accelerator with a passthrough for black and white video on an external monitor. Novy ImagePro. perhaps?
My notes about Novy Systems below:
Novy Systems were a popular manufacturer of accelerator cards, notable for the quality of their support software. The company was founded in late 1985, and the first product of note shipped in late 1987. Their last new products shipped in late 1993.
Compact Mac Accelerators
Novy launched the Mac 20 accelerator board for the SE, Plus and 512Ke in September 1987. It features an external oscillator that allows the owner to upgrade to a faster 68020 processor. 12, 16 and 24MHz versions are known to have shipped. The SE version uses the PDS slot while the Plus/512Ke version uses a Killy clip. Like competing products, a 68881 FPU is optional and the Mac 20 MX version has four SIMM slots to provide faster RAM access (max 4MB RAM). A control panel is required to provide software compatibility and a sound driver patch.
The same board was sold by Total Systems Integration as the TSI 020.
A 68030 accelerator was pre-announced shortly afterwards. It eventually shipped as the Mac 30 MX and Mac 30 MX-SE, running at 16MHz or 25MHz.
In 1990, the accelerator was reworked with new FPU, RAM and SCSI options and was renamed Novy Quik30. The next generation added support for external monitors and was called ImagePro. The 68030 ran as quickly as 33MHz. You will need very fast RAM SIMMs for an ImagePro to work reliably.
The relationship with Total Systems Integration continued, with Novy cards rebranded as Gemini 020 and Gemini 030. The Quik30 family cards were rebranded as the Railgun from MacProducts and as Digital DayStar cards. It is always worth experimenting with drivers from all companies to find the best solution.
Mac LC and LCII Accelerators
The ImagePro II is a combined 50MHz 68030 accelerator and 24 bit colour video card for the LC and LCII. The software patches the ROM to allow 64MB of system RAM, virtual memory and 4MB VRAM. Technically, it is a remarkable exercise.
Novy Systems were a popular manufacturer of accelerator cards, notable for the quality of their support software. The company was founded in late 1985, and the first product of note shipped in late 1987. Their last new products shipped in late 1993.
Compact Mac Accelerators
Novy launched the Mac 20 accelerator board for the SE, Plus and 512Ke in September 1987. It features an external oscillator that allows the owner to upgrade to a faster 68020 processor. 12, 16 and 24MHz versions are known to have shipped. The SE version uses the PDS slot while the Plus/512Ke version uses a Killy clip. Like competing products, a 68881 FPU is optional and the Mac 20 MX version has four SIMM slots to provide faster RAM access (max 4MB RAM). A control panel is required to provide software compatibility and a sound driver patch.
The same board was sold by Total Systems Integration as the TSI 020.
A 68030 accelerator was pre-announced shortly afterwards. It eventually shipped as the Mac 30 MX and Mac 30 MX-SE, running at 16MHz or 25MHz.
In 1990, the accelerator was reworked with new FPU, RAM and SCSI options and was renamed Novy Quik30. The next generation added support for external monitors and was called ImagePro. The 68030 ran as quickly as 33MHz. You will need very fast RAM SIMMs for an ImagePro to work reliably.
The relationship with Total Systems Integration continued, with Novy cards rebranded as Gemini 020 and Gemini 030. The Quik30 family cards were rebranded as the Railgun from MacProducts and as Digital DayStar cards. It is always worth experimenting with drivers from all companies to find the best solution.
Mac LC and LCII Accelerators
The ImagePro II is a combined 50MHz 68030 accelerator and 24 bit colour video card for the LC and LCII. The software patches the ROM to allow 64MB of system RAM, virtual memory and 4MB VRAM. Technically, it is a remarkable exercise.
I know this is old, and it looks like Charlieman no longer comes to this site, but I've been in contact through linked in with some of Novy System's engineers trying to track down old documentation on their accelerators. Not a lot of luck, but I did find out that a working prototype of the Novy ImagePro II was made before the company went bankrupt, and still exists, and was working when put in storage. I've suggested that the owner put it on ebay. I was thinking of putting in an offer, but I'm not sure what a fair offer would be. I've also asked them to see if the hard drive works on the LC it was in, as that would likely have the only copy of the enablers in existence right now.
Attachments
Make a backup of the disk before anything else, just in case it dies after an hour or something :s
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