12 Jul
2022
12 Jul
'22
12:48 p.m.
Recently eBay seller smhelectronics261 posted a very
interesting
prototype board: https://www.ebay.com/itm/295087630609
The description is "Dec Digital PRO 350/380 Professional Microvax II
Proto 54-16707 Collectors", and the board art mentions "MICROVAX
SOFTCARD."
Well, that is a weird concept. Maybe they were gunning to make the
absolutely slowest Vax system ever, the MV1 just wasn't enough of a
challenge....
Does anyone know anything about this card? Especially
curious is the
daughtercard connector: is it just for RAM expansion or is the
daughtercard necessary for card operation?
Daughtercard almost looks like a Pro memory board, but those were 16 bit
and only 256kw in size if I recall. That's can't be enough to do
anything useful.
I'll be bidding on the board, but given how pricey
CTI boards have
gotten recently (a DECNA card from the same seller recently sold for
$422.99), I probably won't win. If the winner of the auction reads
this, could they please contact me? I'd like to collect an image of the
boot ROM from the board, if possible.
I might drop a bid on it, but that's one of those serious "what the hell
would I do with it" sort of things. I still can't believe that DEC would
try to run Microvax code on a system like the Pro with a hard drive
controller which was slower than a literal snail....
Maybe DEC had an RQDX3 or ESDI CTI controller with real DMA somewhere in
the works?