Nice Find! One of the nicest gadgets that I have is a POST card that not only shows the
POST results but also also the IRQs, voltages and other important signals, In addition, it
also has ROM on it and you can boot the ssytem from the ROM and it has numerous diagnostic
tests. It's nNice for non-MS-DOS systems or for systems with no operating floppy drive
or other problems. Sorry don't recall who made it at the moment but I fount it in a
pile of junk cards at a hamfest for a buck or two. Look though them junk boxs! Sometimes
you find some real treasures in them!
Joe
At 10:36 PM 11/13/04 -0800, you wrote:
My inner voice kept urging me to stop by the local
used-computer place today despite my currently low cash level. Now I know why.
Besides the SCSI connection adapter I needed, I also picked up a neat piece of computing
test equipment history. It's a V-ATE POST and diagnostic test card, made by Vista
Microsystems and vintage about 1991.
I remember seeing these things (and lusting after them, but I couldn't afford $2,300+
at the time) in the Specialized Products catalog of the time, right alongside the Lynx
floppy-disk tester/exercisers, RS232 breakout boxes, and other such goodies. I never in my
wildest dreams thought I'd ever own one.
This particular board will work in any AT-type system with an ISA slot. Besides doing the
usual POST code readout and diagnostic functions, it will also function as an AT-bus
specific logic analyzer.
God only knows what I'm going to use it for right now, but I just couldn't leave
it there to be picked up by some brainless boob who has no idea of the history of the
thing, much less how to use it!
<sigh> And I thought I was done collecting computer hardware some years ago. At
least I'm not bringing home VAXstations now... ;-)
Keep the peace(es).
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy,
Blue Feather Technologies --
http://www.bluefeathertech.com
kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech do/t c=o=m
"If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped with surreal
ports?"